Shopping mall foot trafficUS pet food total market sales
Americans visited malls less and bought more pet food, which is not quite the trade one would design from scratch, but is the trade that was made. The dogs are not going shopping. The humans, apparently, are not either.
Shopping mall foot traffic collapsed in 2020 as lockdowns and fear of indoor crowds kept Americans home, while pet food sales surged as pandemic pet adoption and remote-worker spending filled the kibble aisle. The correlation is the same year pulling in two different directions: indoor spaces lost customers, indoor households gained pets.
So the correlation is what happened when the mall emptied and the home filled. One destination vanished; another multiplied. The dogs voted.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “Shopping mall foot traffic” vs “US pet food total market sales” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
