Meijer Expands Selection of Halloween Costumes for Pets

As more consumers treat their pets like family members, Meijer is expanding its in-store pet aisles with a larger assortment of everyday essentials such as food, grooming supplies and increasingly popular Halloween costumes. To make room for the expanded assortment, Meijer added another aisle to the pet section at all of its 246 stores. In 40 locations, the section was moved to the back of the store to allow for spacious displays (30% larger than other stores) of the products, including the Halloween costumes.

According to the National Retail Federation, an estimated 29 million people plan to dress their pets up for Halloween, and Meijer has its widest selection yet with 28 costumes and accessories for dogs and nine hats and collars for cats. New this year are XL costumes—a hot dog, taco, triceratops and spider—for large dog breeds.

“Halloween is a time for the entire family—even our favorite four-legged friends—to dress up for a fun night of trick-or-treating, and we wanted to make sure our assortment rose to the challenge,” said Shana Ward, director of pets merchandising for Meijer, Grand Rapids, Mich. “Pets are integral members of our customers' families, and we are working diligently to ensure our pet departments remain top of mind for those fun celebrations but also for their total pet care needs.”

As part of that total pet care need, a handful of Meijer stores also have VetIQ Petcare clinics that offer basic veterinary walk-in services, such as routine shots and treatments for minor illnesses. These clinics are at the front of the supercenter with a separate exterior entrance that keeps the pets outside of the store.