NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Just as every dog has its day, every business model has its SPAC. Barkbox, best known for subscription boxes filled with toys and treats for the family pooch, is going public through a so-called special-purpose acquisition company at a $1.6 billion valuation. It’s smart to pounce on the opportunity created by the petcare boom, and by blank-check companies that create an alternative to traditional initial public offerings. But another company, Chewy, already guards Barkbox’s market like an 800-pound Great Dane. Bark’s active subscriptions have increased by over 60% from last year, at over 1 million. And it expects revenue to leap 65% to around $365 million in the year ending in March. The company run by Chief Executive Manish Joneja has certainly been helped by humans bringing home pets in increased numbers during the pandemic. Consequently, spending on gifts for Rex and Tabby are up by about a fifth this year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Demand for subscription services has also been high. Aside from digital accounts for the likes of Disney+ and Netflix, meal-kit service, like Blue Apron, saw increased revenue early in the pandemic, with monthly spending on these products doubling year-over-year through mid-April, according to Nielsen, though this growth has trailed off. To complete the trifecta of helpful trends, SPACs have also boomed, with over 274 transactions so far this year by SPACInsider’s count, quadruple the number in 2019. But Bark remains an underdog. Chewy, the $39 billion pet product e-commerce behemoth saw revenue in the most recent quarter jumping by around 45% year-over-year. And its share price has risen over 240% in 2020. True, Bark sells only its own products, so has a gross margin of roughly 60% compared with around 25% for Chewy. But Chewy’s increased size and reach mean that it’ll be tough for smaller competitors once the pet boom subsides. And the experience of a company like Blue Apron, which has lost about 96% of its value since 2017 despite benefitting from pandemic-induced growth in the second quarter, should make investors skittish. True, giving toys to the family’s four-legged member once a month is an easier ask than having to cook every week, but unsubscribing from a discretionary purchase is even easier.