"I have bought pet New Year's Eve dinner for two consecutive years. I have tried many brands, and sometimes I also buy them in local custom stores."
"I have bought other pet treats, but I haven't bought the New Year's Eve dinner. But looking at the samples from the pet bakery, I feel very rich, but I don't know how it tastes."
"I bought it from a pet fresh food store. I tried to make it myself before, but it was a little troublesome. It is better to buy ready-made."
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Not only people celebrate Chinese New Year, but pets too.
In recent years, in addition to preparing clothing and couplets for pets, pet owners have also begun to buy New Year's Eve gift boxes for pets.
"In fact, this can be said to be a new signal of the rapid development of pet culture." Zhang Yongbing, secretary general of the Sichuan Pet Association, said, "People are more willing to treat pets as family members." However, is the quality of pet New Year's Eve guaranteed?
Is the price reasonable?
How do consumers evaluate it?
On February 9, Red Star News reporters contacted relevant stores, consumers and industry professionals.
Merchants: various types, uneven prices, and some can be customized
After entering "pet New Year's Eve" on Taobao, the reporter contacted the top three stores in terms of sales.
It is understood that "Mr. Tails", whose monthly sales reached 800 copies, is the first time to launch a pet New Year's Eve meal this year.
"New Year's Eve dinners are sold in packages, and there are four packages to choose from," the store's customer service said.
The store's pet New Year's Eve gift boxes are mainly dumplings, glutinous rice balls, rice balls, balls, freeze-dried fish, etc.
Depending on the package, the price ranges from 49.9 to 108 yuan.
The reporter noticed that only the D package can be purchased at present, and the other three packages are out of stock.
"We will put it on the shelves about a month before the Chinese New Year. The packages sell well, and they are basically sold out before the Spring Festival." The customer service said that the highest sales volume is Package A, with more than 1,000 copies.
The pet New Year's Eve meal launched by Captain YUMMY's pet store is glutinous rice balls and dumplings.
"It's not in the form of a package, these two are sold separately, and the price is both 35 yuan. It is out of stock now."
The customer service added, "Considering the shipping time, we usually start selling about 20 days in advance. We may sell some new products next year." Another store, the flagship store of Happiness Private Kitchen, also specializes in dumplings and dumplings, with prices ranging from 25 to 32 between yuan.
In addition to the online store, what is the price of pet New Year's Eve dinner in some offline custom stores?
The reporter contacted the British Pet Museum in Beijing and the Doudoujia Pet Kitchen in Xiamen.
It is understood that the pet New Year's Eve dinners in these two stores are basically sold in the form of packages.
"We have six types of New Year's Eve dinners, all of which can be sold individually. However, the package format is more cost-effective for consumers, and the unified price is 198 yuan." Ms. Chen, the owner of Doudoujia Pet Kitchen, said.
The reporter found that the package price of the custom shop is generally more than 120 yuan.
Why is there a big price gap with the online store?
Ms. Chen believes that this involves the cost of ingredients and craftsmanship.
"Different from the mass production of some online stores, our family only makes 50 copies a year." Ms. Chen said that using high-quality raw materials and calculating the formula, the products produced in this way will be healthier and hygienic.
In addition, a pet nutritionist at the British Pet Museum believes that "original" is also a plus.
"We launched Yuanbao dumplings and lucky bags, which have higher requirements for craftsmanship. Everyone likes our creativity and can buy a happy one."
Consumers: Some buy online, others tend to DIY
On Weibo, Xiaohongshu and other platforms, the reporter contacted 6 netizens who had shared content related to "Pet New Year's Eve".
A netizen said, "I know there are pet birthday cakes, but I haven't heard of New Year's Eve. I usually cook a meal for my pets. I don't know if the ones sold online are of good quality." "I've heard, But there are still quite a lot of concerns, such as ingredients, meat sources, cost-effectiveness, etc." Another netizen said.
So what is the quality of the New Year's Eve dinner for consumers who have tasted it?
Ms. Pei, a pet owner in Shanghai, said, "I have tried many brands, and some of them are not very good quality. But the overall feeling is not bad. Seeing that pets can also eat a hearty New Year's Eve dinner, I feel more ritualistic. Now,” Ms. Lu from Chengdu said, “I have been buying from a local pet bakery, and their food is fresh and tastes good.”
However, there are also consumers who prefer to cook New Year's Eve dinner for their pets by themselves.
"Although it would be very troublesome to make it yourself, and it would be difficult to control the materials. But making some simple foods, such as dumplings, glutinous rice balls, and biscuits, can still be tried." said a lady from Shenyang, Tian.
In addition, from the perspective of pet lovers, the sense of participation in the production process is actually very important.
"Watching them eat their elaborate New Year's Eve dinner will make them feel more happy," said Ms. Yang from Chengdu.
Industry insiders: There are still gaps in market supervision, and it is necessary to ensure food safety and strengthen personnel management
In the past two years, the fiery pet economy has spawned higher-end industry supplies - pet mooncakes, hot pot and even New Year's Eve dinners.
According to the data of "China's Pet Consumption Trend White Paper" (2021), the market size of China's pet industry will be close to 300 billion yuan in 2020, and it will gradually develop into a whole industry chain covering pets' clothing, food, housing, transportation, birth, old age, sickness and death; it is expected that by 2023, the industry scale will reach 4,456 billion.
In response to this phenomenon, Zhang Yongbing said that this is a positive signal.
"Pets are increasingly recognized by people, which further promotes the development of the pet economy." However, from a regulatory perspective, there are still gaps in market supervision.
In Zhang Yongbing's view, when food is produced, both ingredients and processing must meet the hygiene standards for pet feed (pet food).
"From a professional point of view, since it is a pet, the food produced must meet the standards that pets can eat, otherwise it will only be novel and will cause physical harm to pets." In addition, "It is also critical to strengthen the management of industry personnel. Does the businessman Do you have relevant professional certificates such as pet nutritionist? And whether the product packaging is qualified, and whether the production date, production address, and production batch number are clearly marked? These need to be standardized one by one.”
Photo courtesy of Red Star News reporter Zheng Ran and Huang Panpan interviewees