Chewy's Big Play: Dog food, vet clinics, insurance, and beyond (#304)

Chewy Inc., once seen as just an online pet supply retailer, is rapidly transforming into something much bigger: a full-service pet care empire.

In 2025, it’s clear that Chewy isn't content selling dog food and squeaky toys. They are building a vertically integrated, cradle-to-grave pet care company, with investments across veterinary clinics, pet insurance, pharmacy services, and their powerful direct-to-consumer delivery network.

Dog Food: The Gateway Drug

Chewy’s original business model of delivering kibble and pet supplies gave it two major assets: data and customer loyalty.

Millions of households trusted Chewy to deliver pet food, prescription diets, treats, and supplements right to their door, often through subscription models that made the process nearly invisible.

Now, Chewy is deepening its dog food game with private label brands (like American Journey) and exclusive partnerships with premium food companies.

Their 2025 focus is clear: drive customers to Chewy-owned brands while squeezing margins from third-party suppliers. Expect Chewy to continue pushing veterinarian-recommended foods tied tightly to their new ecosystem.

Veterinary Clinics: From Online Advice to In-Person Care

In late 2024 and early 2025, Chewy began making serious moves into brick-and-mortar veterinary clinics.

They have launched and acquired physical veterinary practices under the brand name Chewy Vet Care, starting in key metropolitan markets.

The model is straightforward but disruptive: Chewy already owns the relationship with the pet owner online. By offering both virtual consultations (via their Connect With a Vet service) and in-person appointments at Chewy-branded clinics, they aim to create a closed loop where all pet health needs, from advice to diagnostics to medications, are handled within the Chewy system.

This has serious implications. If successful, Chewy could challenge traditional independent veterinary practices in the same way big pharmacy chains undercut independent pharmacies decades ago.

Pet Insurance: Predictable Revenue, Predictable Growth

Chewy launched Chewy Insurance in 2023 through a partnership with Trupanion. In 2025, they’re doubling down, working toward direct underwriting models and deeper integration into the pet care journey.

Why? Because insurance ties a customer to a brand for years, not just months. If your dog’s vet, insurance, medications, and food are all tied to Chewy, it becomes extraordinarily inconvenient to leave. Plus, insurance payments provide steady, predictable revenue. Wall Street’s favorite flavor.

Pharmacy and Prescription Delivery: Chewy’s Silent Powerhouse

Chewy Pharmacy, launched in 2018, has grown into one of the largest online pet pharmacies in the U.S.

In 2025, Chewy is expanding its prescription offerings into compounded medications, chronic disease management plans, and even veterinarian-driven prescription diets.

With fast, often free shipping, Chewy is undermining the traditional veterinary model where clinics sold medications directly. By offering lower prices and convenient delivery, they capture another piece of the pet healthcare pie.

The Delivery Network: Chewy's Secret Weapon

Most analysts focus on Chewy's vet and pharmacy moves, but logistics is the backbone.

Chewy operates an impressive network of fulfillment centers across the U.S., leveraging predictive analytics to ensure products ship faster than ever.

In 2025, they’re piloting same-day delivery in major cities and using AI to predict customer reorder times more accurately than ever before.

If Amazon is about everything, Chewy is about everything pets — and they’re winning on speed, price, and loyalty programs like Chewy Autoship.

Rick’s Commentary

Chewy’s strategy is clear: own the customer relationship from puppyhood to old age. 

Food, vet care, insurance, prescriptions, toys, grooming supplies. Chewy wants it all tied into a single, seamless ecosystem. It’s ambitious. It’s a little scary. And it’s working.

For independent veterinarians, pet food companies, and small pharmacies, Chewy’s rise is both a warning and a wake-up call.

For pet owners, it may offer unmatched convenience, but at the cost of choice and the traditional, personalized relationships that once defined pet care.

As Chewy races toward full integration, the real question is: will customers embrace the convenience, or eventually rebel against the corporate takeover of pet care?

Has the future of pet care arrived, and is it in a bright blue Chewy box?

Private equity (PE ) firms have been accused of hollowing out veterinary practices: buying up independent clinics, slashing costs, overworking staff, and flipping businesses for quick returns, often at the expense of patient care.

Chewy, on the other hand, is building a monopoly by seduction, not acquisition.

Instead of gutting existing clinics, Chewy is creating an entirely new, closed-loop system where food, vet care, insurance, and medications are all delivered through its own branded funnel.

It’s less visible than private equity’s takeover of main street vet clinics, but potentially more powerful - and more difficult for pet owners to escape.

In both cases, the common thread is clear: profit first, relationships second.

The real difference is that Chewy doesn't just want to own veterinary services; it wants to own the entire pet-owner relationship from start to finish.

It’s ……. Dog Food!

Or ....... Is It?

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