Bank of America sees shoppers trading down on pet food as prices rise

The pet food aisle has become a quiet stress test for American household budgets. Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan said the bank’s card data shows higher-end pet food being charged less often than the next cheaper brand, a sign that shoppers are trading down even as they keep spending.

That detail sits inside a broader picture of resilience under pressure. Bank of America’s June 11 Consumer Checkpoint said total card spending rose 5.1% year-over-year in May, the strongest growth in nearly four years. Spending excluding gasoline still rose 3.9% from a year earlier, and the bank said there was little sign of broad consumer weakness. Even so, it also found that some shoppers were making more trips to stores, suggesting more bargain-hunting at checkout.

Moynihan has been flagging that tension for years. In May 2024, he said card, check and ATM spending was growing about 3.5% that year, down sharply from nearly 10% growth in May 2023. He also said food shoppers were visiting multiple grocery stores to find deals, another early clue that consumers were adapting before official data captured the strain.

Pet spending offers one of the clearest windows into that behavior because ownership is so widespread. Bank of America’s May 2025 pet ownership report said nearly 94 million U.S. households owned at least one pet, and that pet food inflation had fallen to around zero in April 2025. But pet services inflation was still running at 4.6% year-over-year, or 42% higher than in 2019. The bank said pet-store spending and direct veterinary spending were running below those inflation rates, which suggested households were economizing on pet care, including by trading down on food or buying it at grocery stores. It also said pet insurance may be cushioning some vet spending.

A newer Bank of America Institute report in May 2026 pushed the same theme further. It said 95 million households owned a pet in 2025, the U.S. pet market reached $158 billion, and adoption momentum cooled over the past year, especially for dogs, as affordability became a bigger factor in bringing pets into the home. The report said younger lower-income households trimmed pet-store spending the most, while the share of households with a pet fell over the past two years, with the sharpest drop among lower-income families. Rising veterinary costs and private equity-driven clinic consolidation have added to that pressure, making pet ownership more expensive and helping explain why Moynihan’s pet-food example now looks like a wider consumer pattern rather than a one-off anecdote.