{"id":419050,"date":"2026-05-09T05:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/419050\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T05:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:23:10","slug":"rising-costs-hit-low-income-shoppers-hardest-threatening-value-focused-brands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/419050\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising costs hit low-income shoppers hardest, threatening value-focused brands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The news: The rising cost of gas, utilities, and other household expenses tied to the war in the Middle East is adding to the <a href=\"https:\/\/content-na1.emarketer.com\/low-income-consumer-spending-tariffs-wages-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" noreferrer=\"\" data-analytics=\"Article-Link-Click-https:\/\/content-na1.emarketer.com\/low-income-consumer-spending-tariffs-wages-2025\">strain on low-income consumers<\/a>. These households were already struggling with persistent inflation, along with recent cuts to SNAP and Medicaid benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Lower-income households\u2014those earning less than $40,000\u2014responded to the March spike in gas prices by using public transportation or carpooling more. Even so, their gas spending rose 12% despite buying 7% less gas, per the <a href=\"https:\/\/libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org\/2026\/05\/same-shock-different-roads-a-k-shaped-pattern-at-the-pump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" noreferrer=\"\" data-analytics=\"Article-Link-Click-https:\/\/libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org\/2026\/05\/same-shock-different-roads-a-k-shaped-pattern-at-the-pump\/\">Federal Reserve Bank of New York<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>In light of financial challenges, lower-income consumers have less to spend elsewhere. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goldmansachs.com\/insights\/articles\/the-outlook-for-the-us-consumer-amid-rising-inflation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" noreferrer=\"\" data-analytics=\"Article-Link-Click-https:\/\/www.goldmansachs.com\/insights\/articles\/the-outlook-for-the-us-consumer-amid-rising-inflation\">Goldman Sachs<\/a> estimates their pre-savings discretionary cash inflow will grow just 0.8% this year, a significant dip from the 3.2% it forecast prior to the war\u2019s start in January. That pressure is also reflected in record-low sentiment about the economy among low-income consumers in May, per <a href=\"https:\/\/data.sca.isr.umich.edu\/fetchdoc.php?docid=81064\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" noreferrer=\"\" data-analytics=\"Article-Link-Click-https:\/\/data.sca.isr.umich.edu\/fetchdoc.php?docid=81064\">University of Michigan<\/a> data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The news: The rising cost of gas, utilities, and other household expenses tied to the war in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-419050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}