“The world spends $40 billion a year on pet food.”

Nicholas Kristof, Journalist

Pros and Cons of Using Pet Food Delivery Services

You think about using a pet food delivery service but want to know more about it before you actually make your order? Great!

Stick with me since I will show you all the pros and cons of pet food delivery in this article so that you can better decide whether you still want to use pet food delivery or if you rather want to buy your pet food from a local store instead.

Advantages of Pet Food Delivery

1. Pet food delivery is convenient
2. You don’t have to go to a store in person
3. You can save time
4. You can save money on gas
5. Pet food delivery may offer cheaper products
6. Pet food delivery makes your life more flexible
7. Big variety of different feed to choose from
8. You can order whenever you want
9. You can use recurring orders
10. Good if you work long hours every day
11. You can lower the risk of car accidents

Pet food delivery is convenient

One advantage of pet food delivery is that it can make your life just much more convenient.

Instead of having to go to the store, you can just order from wherever you want as long as you have a working internet connection.

This gives you the opportunity to order your dog food from your workplace or also via your smartphone when you are on your way to a meeting.

In turn, you can use your time much more efficiently in general and this gives you the opportunity to achieve your goals in life faster.

You don’t have to go to a store in person

By using a pet food delivery service, you can also avoid going to the store in person.

If you are a rather introverted person and don’t like to have contact with other people that much, those food delivery services can be great for you since you can reduce human contact to a minimum.

Even though this can help you in the short run, I still would advise you to go out and to meet some people so that you don’t get socially isolated in the long run, even though it might be more convenient to just stay at home all the time.

You can save time

Another upside to using pet food delivery is that you can also save plenty of time in general.

You don’t have to drive to the pet store to get your pet’s favorite food.

Instead, you can just open your laptop, your tablet or your smartphone and order pet food within a few minutes.

Especially if the next pet food store is many miles away, this can save you many minutes or even hours that you can now spend on other things you like more than driving.

You can save money on gas

Since you will not have to drive many miles to the next pet food store, this also gives you the opportunity to save lots of money on gas.

Even though you might think that this is only a few bucks per ride, it quickly adds up to significant amounts of money in the long run and I am sure you can use this money for other nice things instead.

Hence, ordering pet food online can also make quite a lot of sense to save money on gas, especially if you are currently on a budget and need every dollar to pay your bills.

Pet food delivery may offer cheaper products

Ordering pet food online instead of buying it in a local store may also be much cheaper.

Quite often, many products will be on sale online and it will also be much easier to find those offers since you will often just have an “on sale” filter where you can find products that are especially cheap right now.

In local pet food stores, you will often miss out on those deals since they are much more untransparent with their offers and you will just not be there at the right time.

Consequently, using pet food delivery can give you the opportunity to save lots of money on pet food in the long run, especially if you are a clever person who frequently checks out what’s on sale and how you can get the best out of your money.

Pet food delivery makes your life more flexible

Another benefit of ordering pet food online is that you will just be much more flexible in general.

You can just order pet food when you have the time to do so instead of having to show up in the store in person.

For instance, if you wake up in the early morning, you may not want to dress up.

Instead, you may just want to enjoy a nice coffee to start your day while you can order pet food at the same time.

As you can see, those pet food delivery services can take away lots of work for you and just make your life easier since they take away some annoying daily tasks from you.

Big variety of different feed to choose from

You should also not underestimate the enormous selection of products you can choose from when using pet food delivery.

In fact, if you order pet food online, you may have a bigger choice of products compared to most local pet stores.

In turn, you will find better deals and chances are that your loved pets will be much happier with what you feed them in the long run.

Pet food companies will also rarely run out of stock and therefore, you can make sure that you get your favorite pet food in time while this might not be the case if you just go to your local pet food store.

You can order whenever you want

In general, the flexibility to order your pet food from wherever and whenever you want is just awesome.

You don’t even have to care about opening hours.

You can order in the early morning or in the middle of the night.

It doesn’t matter since your order will be automatically processed online and pet food stores will take care of it pretty soon when they get back to work.

This means that you can use every waking hour efficiently while other people who have to go to a pet store will waste plenty of time and will also not be able to order 24/7.

You can use recurring orders

Another convenient feature of pet food delivery services is that you can also place recurring orders.

This means that you order only one time but you will get pet food delivered in certain intervals.

For instance, you may get pet food delivery every week or month, depending on your personal preferences.

This takes away the need to place a new order every time and you will also not have to go to a pet store every time you need pet food. Instead, you can rely on pet food delivery companies and recurring orders to save even more time.

Good if you work long hours every day

Pet food delivery services are especially popular among people who work long hours every day and simply have no time to go to the pet store.

For instance, if you work in a leading position in the corporate world, you will almost work non-stop every day.

In turn, you will barely have any leisure and I am sure that you want to spend this precious leisure on other things than going to the pet store 😉.

Hence, ordering pet food can also make quite a lot of sense for you in case you are one of those stressed people who have to spend almost all their time at work and want to enjoy their leisure with their hobbies instead of going to the pet store.

You can lower the risk of car accidents

Since you will have to use your car less often if you use food delivery services, your risk of car accidents will also be lower.

This will not only be beneficial from a monetary perspective since your car will likely last longer, but it can also protect yourself from getting involved in serious car accidents.

Consequently, you can also lower your risk of serious accidents by using pet food delivery, at least to a certain extent.

As you can see, there are definitely many advantages of using pet food delivery.

However, it is still not all upside and I will also show you all the problems that come along with it so that you get a more comprehensive picture of whether pet food delivery will be the way to go for you or not.

Disadvantages of Pet Food Delivery

1. Pet food delivery is not good for the environment
2. You can’t see the products you buy in person
3. You may get the wrong products
4. There is nobody who could consult you
5. You need an internet connection for ordering pet food online
6. The older generation may not be able to use pet food delivery
7. You may get lazy
8. You may no longer leave your home
9. Pet food delivery implies delivery costs
10. There may be nobody at home who could receive your order
11. Recurring orders may be problematic when you are on vacation
12. You may miss out on latest products for your pet
13. You may just like to go to the pet store from time to time
14. Not good for small local pet stores
15. Excessive waste production

Pet food delivery is not good for the environment

One disadvantage of pet food delivery is that it is just not good for our environment.

Every time you order pet food online, there will be a truck that will carry pet food to your door.

However, this truck will use lots of fuel and will also emit harmful greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.

This will not only lower our air quality, but it will also speed up global warming, with detrimental effects on our life on earth in general.

Hence, before ordering pet food, make sure that there is not an eco-friendlier way to get it.

For instance, if you live near a pet food store, you may just want to walk or use your bicycle instead of using pet food delivery.

You can’t see the products you buy in person

If you rely on pet food delivery services, you will also not be able to see the products you order in person.

Sure, you will often be able to see pictures of the product.

However, you will miss the look and feel and will also not be able to figure out whether it is an unhealthy product or not quite often.

You may get the wrong products

Since you will not see the pet feed you will order in person, you may also accidentally order the wrong product.

In fact, many pet foods look quite similar and also the same manufacturer may have many similar products.

Consequently, you often have to look at the description of the products in great detail to figure out the best pet food for your loved little friends and if you make mistakes in this regard, your pet food may end up in the trash instead of in the mouth of your pet.

In turn, this means that you will waste some money and that you also produce unnecessary waste.

There is nobody who could consult you

If you buy pet food in your local store, you will often have somebody to talk to.

In fact, there will often be staff around who can answer various questions related to pets and pet food and you will just have a much better feeling by buying one or the other.

In contrast, if you order online, you will just not have this luxury and you will have to rely on your own research and experience to get the best pet food for your personal preferences.

Hence, especially if you haven’t bought much pet food before, you will likely be better off by just getting it from your local store for a while.

After gaining some experience in this field, you can still switch to a pet food company and enjoy the benefits that may come along with it.

You need an internet connection for ordering pet food online

Another downside to pet food delivery is that you will need a working internet connection to use one of those services.

Sure, you may take this for granted since your internet connection might be quite good.

However, in many parts of the rest of the world, internet connections are still pretty poor.

Consequently, people who live in those regions will not be able to use pet food delivery services but rather have to rely on buying from classical pet shops instead.

The older generation may not be able to use pet food delivery

Pet food delivery may also be problematic for the older generation who is often not familiar with the internet and how it works at all.

In fact, many elderly people have problems with our latest technologies and many of them will simply not understand how to create an account and how to order pet food online in an efficient manner.

Quite often, those people are just better off going to their local pet store to get what they need since they make just too many errors online.

You may get lazy

Another problem with using pet food delivery services is that you may just get lazy sooner or later.

If you use pet food delivery, you will likely also use delivery services in general.

While those delivery services can make our lives much more comfortable, they also lead to a state where we barely exercise at all and a lack of exercise can be pretty bad for our health.

Thus, make sure that you exercise enough and if you don’t, make sure to avoid using pet food delivery and rather use your bicycle to get to the next pet store to get what you need for your pet and also to get some exercise at the same time.

You may no longer leave your home

Some people who use those delivery services will also get so convenient with it that they barely leave their homes anymore.

If this is the case, you may suffer from serious social isolation and this can be detrimental to your mental health since we as humans need contact with other humans in the long run to stay healthy.

Hence, make sure that you still leave your home from time to time to meet up with friends to avoid getting socially isolated in the long run.

Pet food delivery implies delivery costs

Some pet food delivery services will also charge you fees for delivery.

This means that your order may be more expensive compared to buying it from your local pet store.

Thus, in case you live nearby a pet store, you may just go for a walk and get what you need instead of using pet food delivery services that may charge you a few bucks per order.

There may be nobody at home who could receive your order

To make delivery services efficient, there has to be a person at home who can receive parcels.

However, if you are away from home all day long and also don’t have kids who could receive those parcels, your shipping may be delayed or you may not even receive your parcel at all.

Hence, if nobody is at home, make sure that you tell your delivery company to drop your parcel at your door or buy your pet food in the local store instead to avoid those delivery issues.

Recurring orders may be problematic when you are on vacation

Also when you are on vacation, using pet food delivery may be problematic.

For instance, if you have placed a recurring order for delivery once a week and you are on vacation for a few weeks, chances are that you will just get more pet food than you need.

Consequently, if you have ordered high-quality pet food that doesn’t use any preservatives, it may no longer be usable when you come back from vacation and you may have to dispose of it into the garbage can.

You may miss out on latest products for your pet

If you only order online and don’t visit your pet food store anymore, you may also miss out on latest products and innovations your local pet food store may have in place for you.

In turn, while other people will enjoy these amenities, you may still rely on outdated pet products instead.

You may just like to go to the pet store from time to time

Many people also just like to go to the pet store and spend some time in it.

In fact, it is like a hobby for many people since they are able to unplug from their stressful work for a while.

Hence, order pet food online may also not make sense for you if you are one of those people who is really able to spend some quality time in those stores.

Not good for small local pet stores

If you constantly order pet food online, this can also be detrimental for small local pet stores that are not able to operate an online platform.

In turn, those stores will make less revenue and may no longer be able to compete with online vendors in the long run.

Consequently, those shops will vanish from the market sooner or later.

Excessive waste production

Ordering pet food online also implies significant waste production.

Quite often, your orders will be packaged excessively and this means that plenty of packaging will end up in your garbage can.

This garbage will either end up in landfills or has to be burned sooner or later, with adverse consequences for our environment.

Top 10 Pet Food Delivery Pros & Cons – Summary List

Pet Food Delivery Pros	Pet Food Delivery Cons
Pet food delivery can save you time	Pet food delivery is bad for our planet
Can make your life more convenient	Pet food delivery implies lots of waste
You can save money on gas	May not work if you are not at home
You can save time on driving	Problematic when you are on vacation
Your risk of accidents may be lower	You need the internet to order pet food
Great selection of different feed	Elderly people often have problems with it
You may be able to buy pet food cheaper	Use of delivery services makes you lazy
Discounts are more obvious	Social isolation may become an issue
You can order whenever you want	Visits at the pet store can be fun
You are location-independent	You may no longer leave your home

Should You Use Pet Food Delivery Services?

Now that you know all the advantages and disadvantages of pet food delivery, it is on you to decide whether you want to order pet food online or if you rather want to support small local pet shops instead.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_food

https://www.britannica.com/topic/dog-food

About the Author

My name is Andreas and I’m really passionate about our environment and also about growing plants. In fact, I have grown several different plants over many years. I love to see my plants grow and also always try new things to improve my overall conditions at home.

In my blog posts, I want to share my experiences with you so that you can become successful in growing various different plants and improving your home as well, even though you might still be a beginner right now.