BUSINESS REFLECTION: After the Bell: Why our pets are getting posher

What we spend on our pets has gone past R10-billion, and astonishingly, this economy is growing by 15%. But the reasons are obvious – and retail chains paying serious attention.

I wonder, when you get home tonight, who will be there to greet you. And who will greet you in the warmest way.

If you’ve been married for a long time, the chances are that a “Oh, hi Love” is the most you’ll get. If there are teenagers around, they will either say “the Wi-Fi’s down” or not really notice you at all.

But there are probably one or two members of the family you can rely on.

They don’t look like you. They’re not biologically related to you. But they love you the most.

They have four legs, a wet nose and a tail that is far too active. And they, at least, will probably give you the attention you deserve.

It is amazing to think how important pets can be to people. And how differently we grow up with them and without them.

Around the world being owned by a pet is a largely middle-class phenomenon. And about half of the humans currently living have a pet of some kind.

Here, Stats SA says under 24% of households report having pets. That means about three-quarters of homes don’t. And while it’s not a perfect overlap, it comes close to representing our economy in some ways.

But that doesn’t mean three-quarters of people don’t have a relationship with an animal of some kind. Many will have a dog that lives in the neighbourhood and may even sometimes sleep in their yard.

They’ll feed it from time to time, or try to keep it around as a guard dog.

Others will have grown up with a dog that has no fixed abode in the area, that would share their lunch and just be around.

Very few will have a family like mine, where humans are outnumbered by animals.

Two of those animals are excited to see me when I get home, three don’t notice.

Which probably explains why there are about seven million dogs kept as pets but only two million cats.

The amount of money that we spend on our pets has now gone past R10-billion. A report from Trade Intelligence spells out where exactly we are spending this money.

But that’s not what staggered me. What really surprised me is that this economy is growing by 15%.

You read that right. A sector worth more than R10-billion is growing at 15%.

That makes it possibly the fastest-growing consumer sector. With the obvious exception of online gambling.

It’s obvious why we are spending so much on our animals. Since Covid the tendency to treat our pets as another member of our family, as a “person”, has grown.

It hasn’t just happened here. It’s happen