Canadians Supporting Local Pet Food Stores Throughout Pandemic, According to Survey by Earthpup & Bunz

Canadians Supporting Local Pet Food Stores Throughout Pandemic, According to Survey by Earthpup & Bunz

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

June 4, 2020. TORONTO. Eco-conscious dog treat company, EarthPup partnered with tech startup Bunz to survey nearly 3,000 Canadian dog owners to learn about their dog food buying habits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over 50% of the Canadian dog owners surveyed noted that they have continued to support their local brick-and-mortar pet stores. This is good news for pet product retailers who have faced challenges to their operations – from having to introduce curbside pickup to implementing social distancing measures to protect staff and customers alike.

“We are dedicated to doing whatever we can to help our retail partners,” said Lucy Cullen, Founder & CEO, EarthPup. “These are unprecedented times, but it seems as though customers are continuing to buy local. The Bunz survey echoed what we were hearing from our retailers – that customers are still coming even if their shopping experience is so different now.”

The balance of dog owners from the survey replied that they were purchasing their pet’s food from grocery stores (31%) and online retailers (15%).

Bunz, a barter-like system trading app, regularly conducts surveys of its members through its platform, and has been quick to support small business like EarthPup and help them get exposure to their large Canadian user base.

The full survey results are as follows:

Number surveyed: 2,976

Question: Where are you buying your dog food during the pandemic?

Results:

  • Local pet shop (for pickup/delivery) – 1600 responses (54%)
  • Grocery Store – 929 responses (31%)
  • Online (pet food companies, Amazon, etc.) – 447 responses (15%)

Katrina McKay, an advisor to EarthPup notes, “It’s very encouraging to see local businesses support each other as they have been – from tech to product to physical stores, it’s this sort of collaboration that will allow many companies to not only survive through the impending recession, but to grow. EarthPup is a great example of a company showing tremendous resilience by forging relationships with other businesses and of course with their customers.”

To date, EarthPup has rescued over 750 pounds of organic vegetables from going to landfill, and a portion of all proceeds go towards re-homing rescue dogs. EarthPup treats are available at independent pet food retailers, select grocery stores and online. For a full list of retailers, please see: https://www.earthpup.co

Contact: Lucy Cullen, Founder & CEO, EarthPup, lucy@earthpup.co, (647) 457-5829

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