The Minnesota Star Tribune's No grandchildren? Minnesota baby boomers spoil 'granddogs' instead covers the trend of boomer parents treating their kid's pets as grandchildren.
This is, of course, because many baby boomer don't have grandchildren due to the declines in marriage and birth rates .
Key quote from the article:
“The world of marriage and family continues to shift, and the granddog represents the new reality,” said Mary Meehan, consumer strategist of Minneapolis-based Panoramix Global. “It becomes a compensating factor in the absence of a child. All these baby boomers who have time and emotional energy to lavish turn their attention and affection to the dog.”
We've long covered the trend towards pet humanization - and this another example.
We're often asked why pet trends are included in a blog on small business trends. There are three main reasons.
First, pet humanization is creating a lot of opportunities for small businesses.
A good example comes from this article.
The small business Sidewalk Dog is mentioned. This is a "digital media platform that offers pet news to Minnesota dog owners and directs them to public spots — coffee shops, restaurant patios, breweries and shops — where their pets are welcome."
Another example is all the businesses benefiting from selling various products and services to "granddogs" and dog nanas (see picture above).
These businesses wouldn't exist without the trend toward pet humanization.
The second reason is pet humanization is part of a broader set of important social shifts.
These include declining marriage and birth rates as well as shifts due to growing levels of economic uncertainty.
Because pet humanization is occurring in response to these shifts, understanding pet trends is useful to understanding these broader social shifts.
And the third reason is we like pet trends.
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