"Enough of the Price Gouging" — Pet Store Clerk Talks $22 Increase on Dog Food

In an economic crisis that's feeling more and more like a full-blown depression by the day, folks have noticed prices going up on practically everything. From high rent to inflated grocery store prices, folks throughout the United States are feeling the woes in their wallets. Unfortunately, not even our pets are safe from the financial doom and gloom thanks to rising pet food prices.

On TikTok, Chelsea (@petspluschelsea) noticed a staggering price increase in dog food at her store. Check out her shocking findings on the $22 increase that she found out about at her store.

According to her TikTok bio, Chelsea works at a family-run pet shop and is used to caring for other animals and helping pet owners shop for their furry friends. As a clerk, however, she's certainly noticed how expensive it's gotten to buy basic pet needs like, you know ... food!

At the time of posting, a customer had asked her what the price of dog food was a couple of years ago. You won't believe what she found out.

According to Chelsea, her store doesn't raise prices themselves. They are only required to change prices if they notice an increase on the invoice they create at checkout. That said, she was able to break down the increases that her store had to make year by year.

Chelsea saw that in 2020, a 30-pound bag of Blue Buffalo puppy food was $48.99. A year later, the price already went up to $54.99. That's already a 12 percent increase in price. By the summer of 2022, that price had gone up to $59.99. Not long after that in the fall of the same year, dog food prices made another enormous jump to $66.99.

Now as of 2023, that price had gone up even further to a staggering $70.99. That's a 45 percent increase of $22 over the last three years, which is pretty scary to think about.

Chelsea also couldn't help but notice that in that time, the minimum wage in the United States has remained exactly the same despite the fact that prices have become laughably consumer-unfriendly. Minimum wage workers can no longer maintain a standard cost of living with such unreasonable wages, let alone try to factor a pet into their budget.

Needless to say, folks in the comments of Chelsea's video are outraged at this absurd jump. Many of them have since expressed their desire to see those less fortunate make more reasonable wages simply to keep up with inflation.

"I say we cap how much CEOs can make over their employees," one TikToker suggested.

One person even suggested that manufacturers are secretly decreasing the amount of pet food per bag to quietly encourage more spending.

"Guarantee you they reduced the bag from 25 to 22lbs too," another user wrote. "Saw that in another brand years ago."

With strikes abound and a looming economic depression over our heads, most if not all workers deserve to be making more, especially when it comes to taking care of pets.