Despite the Biden administration’s cheerleading that “Bidenomics” is the economic savior of the middle class — most Americans will disagree there has been an economic revival amid the worst inflation storm in a generation that has sent negative real-wage growth negative for more than two years, forcing consumers to deplete personal savings and rack up record amounts of credit-card debt in a high-interest rate environment.
We have shown many households are in rough financial shape. Dollar Tree executives confirmed weeks ago that mid/low-tier consumers are trading down from other more expensive retailers to their stores for groceries. This means Walmart has become too expensive for some consumers.
Even before we noted “Consumers Trade Down From Walmart, Dollar Tree Becomes Supermarket For The Working Poor,” we found a trend on TikTok that showed an increasing number of Americans in March were resorting to dollar stores for groceries to save money. We tilted that note “Dollar Tree Dinners”: TikToker Goes Viral After Showing People How To Cook For $35 A Week.
Last week, we were the first to point out that Google searches for “pawn shop near me” just erupted to record highs, indicating that consumers are in rough shape.
Hellbound and Down 