I have a long-standing subscribe and save order on Amazon for my cats’ food that I want to shift. This is one of the classic conundrums where I can shift my shopping to one of the big retailers in the space, like Petco or Chewy.com, but are they just as bad too? Are there other options? I dug in so you don’t have to!
This one is simple to start. Move the location of where your Amazon app is on your phone. I recommend putting it into a folder so it’s more taps to get to, or move it to the least visited part of your home screen. For iPhone, if you want to go hardcore you can remove it from your screen without deleting the app itself, and if you need it you can search your app library.
After you move it, put something else in its place. You could go with another app that you like because it’s fun or uplifting so you get a little “reward” when you accidentally tap on it, like Sudoku or a travel app. Or, put something there that’s not interesting like a level app for home improvement projects. I’d recommend not putting another shopping app in its place so you don’t end up buying stuff you don’t need somewhere else. At the end of the day though, whatever works best for you is great. I picked the app “Star Walk 2” which is one of my favorites, you can use it to identify stars in the night sky through GPS.
Why do this? Your brain and body run on routine, and in order to change a behavior it’s a good idea to understand how much you’re doing that behavior. As you go through your week with your Amazon app in a different place, you will see how often and why you’re going to Amazon. Are you tapping into it because you need something? Going there because you’re bored and want to find something fun? Looking at how often and why you’re shopping at Amazon helps you understand your own relationship with them better.
Local, Direct, and Non-Shopping Choices: Of course, shop local when you can. I am lucky enough to have a few small business pet stores around where I live in Brooklyn. The older gentleman who runs my favorite place gave us a great vet recommendation when we first moved here, so definitely ask for other local recommendations too if you need them!
But I can’t shop local! Make sure you do a search first, sometimes you’ll be surprised at what you find. But if nothing’s available, I’ve got you covered ☺️
Buying Direct: If there’s particular brand of pet food or supplies you like that you order from on Amazon, search for that brand to see if they let you order directly from their site.
Free/No Purchase: If you need stuff like a dog crate, cat carrier, unused or lightly used toys there are Buy Nothing groups on Facebook and through their website you can find a local group if you download the app. I downloaded it and there’s definitely a ton of stuff on there, but if you’re in a more suburban/rural area might be better to use Facebook groups.
Shopping options: I looked at online stores with nationwide shipping that had multiple brands available vs. only selling their brand. This is mostly focused for cats and dogs, but if you are interested in more exotic pet store options leave a comment and let me know.
The big players. I would not recommend shopping at any of these places if you can avoid it, because either they are owned by private equity, have done some funky financial dealings, or have potentially endangered pets with the products they sell.
Petco: Publicly traded on Nasdaq, but the majority shareholder is CVC Management Holdings with ~61% of the stock. In 2024 they were caught destroying unsold dog beds versus donating them, and in general seems to understaff their stores.
Petsmart/Chewy.com: Chewy.com and Petsmart are both owned by BC Partners, a private equity firm. Chewy.com had a class action lawsuit filed against them in July 2024 for selling products containing lead and cancer causing materials.
PetSuppliesPlus.com: Owned by Franchise Group, Inc which in turn in owned by B. Riley Financial, an investment firm. B. Riley loaned the Chief Executive Brian Kahn of Franchise Group $200 million and Kahn is linked to a securities fraud conviction of another financial firm Prophecy Asset Management. Franchise Group filed for bankruptcy late last year, but paid their executives $5.75 million in bonuses just before filing. Cool cool cool.
1800PetMeds.com/PetCareRx.com: PetCare Rx is owned by PedMeds Express (1800PetMeds.com) which is a publicly traded company. Their largest shareholder (6%) is Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund that had to pay up to $7 billion in to settle a tax dispute with the IRS. In general, from my layman’s financial perspective it seems to be a more run of the mill corporation without having a majority (50%+) shareholder like Petco, but their Q3 earnings update from February 2025 indicate they are trying to increase their margin, meaning they will likely raise prices. From Reddit reviews it looks like there’s no major concerns or issues with ordering.
Smaller players: Unsurprisingly there’s no silver bullet to replace the convenience of the larger brands, but depending on what you need these are alternative options.
Petflow.com: Owned by Phillips Pet Food & Supplies, a family-owned company operating since 1938. (Note, just because they’re family-owned doesn’t mean they’re not assholes.) Reviews on Reddit mention being charged for products they never ordered, and looking at Trustpilot the most recent reviews from 2025 mention website issues, orders not shipping or shipping with the incorrect items, and not being able to contact customer service to get issues resolved. In the grand scheme of things, I don’t think this is the worst place to order from but I don’t know that it will be a good experience.
CareAlotPets.com: Family owned and based out of North Carolina/Southern Virginia. They offer local delivery where they have stores, offer autoship, and in general I can’t find too many complaints about them. They seem to offer a good selection of cat & dog food, accessories and supplies and also have bird, fish, and reptile supplies. They ship nationwide, but products eligible for free shipping (and not crazy high shipping costs) are limited.
JeffersPet.com (Jeffers Pet-Equine Livestock): The founder’s wife now owns the company after he died in 2006. While the types of dog and cat food they stock are limited, the brands they do stock seem to be more of the rarer brands so take a look if you use something like that. Despite limited food options, Jeffers Pet has a ton of pet supplies like bowls, leashes, toys, carriers and TONS of medication options. I’d say this is a great place to purchase from if you need anything except pet food.
BudgetPetCare.com: I couldn’t find any details on their ownership, but Trustpilot reviews suggest people like ordering from here for pet medications. Several reviews mention how their prices are the lowest, but the website looks a little sketchy. Based on reviews, they ship at least some of their products from China or Canada which can take longer to arrive and with the ongoing tariffs situation could impact their pricing.
I decided to try CareAlotPets.com since JeffersPet.com doesn’t have as many food options, and CareAlotPets.com offers autoship/subscribe & save which I prefer. I looked for my brand (Purina One Hairball formula), which they didn’t have but I found a similar brand I was willing to try. However, there is a $49 free shipping threshold which my cat food alone did not quality for, and when adding my dog’s food as well the shipping costs jumped to $82, so that’s a no from me dawg.
I then decided to try Petflow.com. I was nervous based on some of the bad reviews, but it was the only option I had that wasn’t going to cost a ton in shipping so I thought I’d try it. Was able to get my brand on autoship in the right size I needed, so will report back and let you know if I experience any issues with my order.
I hope this was helpful! Let me know in the comments and what you’d like me to tackle next or what would be useful. Follow me on TikTok for recap videos, and subscribe to see more category deep dives with behavior exercises every Friday. Thanks for reading, your support means everything!
