Who is a high income consumer?

[NitroZ7]

Walmart said they are getting a lift from high end consumers but what does that mean? What is considered high income? I mean you could have a married couple that makes a good income but who may be raising two kids, paying a mortgage and paying off student debt. I can see why they are heading to Walmart under those circumstances but it makes me question whether high income equals wealthy. They could very well be scraping by like everyone else so I begin to question the utility of this data an whether it paints a negative picture for the economy or a misguided picture based solely on income.

[boneil]

I'm gonna guess that they can use credit card data to see what types of consumer from a given area is shopping at Walmart. Maybe they can see a sudden increase of customers that don't normally shop at Walmart.

As an example, we normally shop at Wegmans for groceries. If money got tight, I would certainly start doing more grocery shopping at Walmart. How about clothing, I haven't bought clothes from Walmart in a long time. If my wife suddenly lost her job, I would be at Walmart buying work clothes. Maybe Walmart buys data from the credit card company, they can see that my wife normal shops at ........... for clothing but is now at Walmart shopping. That scenario would fall under what you are describing.

It's probably not the income level on a national level, but an income level on a local level, proabably store by store. My wife's income wouldn't be considered that high in New York or California, but it's certainly high in our neighborhood.

For them to say that they are getting a lift from high end consumers tells me that the upper middle class is starting to feel pain.

[NitroZ7]

I'm gonna guess that they can use credit card data to see what types of consumer from a given area is shopping at Walmart. Maybe they can see a sudden increase of customers that don't normally shop at Walmart.

As an example, we normally shop at Wegmans for groceries. If money got tight, I would certainly start doing more grocery shopping at Walmart. How about clothing, I haven't bought clothes from Walmart in a long time. If my wife suddenly lost her job, I would be at Walmart buying work clothes. Maybe Walmart buys data from the credit card company, they can see that my wife normal shops at ........... for clothing but is now at Walmart shopping. That scenario would fall under what you are describing.

It's probably not the income level on a national level, but an income level on a local level, proabably store by store. My wife's income wouldn't be considered that high in New York or California, but it's certainly high in our neighborhood.

For them to say that they are getting a lift from high end consumers tells me that the upper middle class is starting to feel pain.

When you look at this in conjunction with the Starbucks data it does paint a picture that upper middle class consumers are starting to feel the pinch. I was up in South Carolina last week and randomly ran into two different couples looking to move there because of insurance costs. I am over in TN today and got a haircut at Supercuts and the woman behind me moved there two weeks ago from Ft. Myers. The added increases in auto and home insurance are starting to bite homeowners as well causing people in certain parts of the country to cut back. Housing and insurance look to be the two very sticky inflation areas and I am not sure the Fed can really do anything about either of those.

[digthemup]

I have never thought of Wegmans being that much over Walmart when it comes to groceries, and in my area Tops has the better meats. Perhaps it may have to do since I have had Wegmans stores in my life what it seems forever, and known the family personally even sent Danny over to my friend's shop to work on his 308 GTS years ago though I have not seen him for several yrs.
Danny followed in his dad's footstep with the stores when he took over yrs ago, but I think many things changed when his daughters took over.
My wife shops at all of our local three main grocery stores, and it depends on what she is shopping for that she picks the store, even BJ if we are fueling up the vehicles.