The stakes and the importance of pet food to manufacturers and retailers may never have been clearer than in 1997, when warehouse club giant Costco decided it wanted to sell Colgate-Palmolive Co.'s Hill's Science Diet brand in its stores. Costco made Colgate an offer that was hard to refuse: Sell us your pet food, or we'll delist all of your other products. Colgate, whose high-end pet nutrition brands had depended on the nurture and support of specialty pet food retailers, wouldn't give in, even though Costco made good on its threat.
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