Discount retail has a new growth engine: high-income shoppers. Deloitte reports that 1 in 4 consumers now identify as deal driven or cost conscious, including higher-income households. Walmart says most of its recent market share gains came from households earning more than $100,000, and other discount retailers like Dollar Tree report similar numbers.
Grocery prices have climbed for four years, forcing shoppers at every income level to respond the same way: buy cheaper, buy less, wait for the deal. For discount retailers, that means new customers.
Deloitte’s 2026 Global Retail Industry Outlook points out shoppers are increasingly reconsidering what constitutes a fair price. At the same time, non-price factors like quality, service, checkout ease, loyalty and employee interactions impact their choice of stores.
Wealthier households power discount retail growth
On Walmart’s August earnings call, CEO John Furner said growth from higher-income households continues as Walmart reports revenue of $187.9 billion for its quarter ending in July, up 5.9% from a year earlier. In February, Furner told analysts that the majority of the retailer’s share gains came from households making more than $100,000. Meanwhile, households earning $50,000 or less per year find their budgets stretched, but still prioritize convenience.
At Dollar Tree, the trend is even stronger. On the chain’s May earnings call, CEO Michael Creedon said more than half of the customers trading in from other retailers skew higher income. In December 2025, Dollar Tree reported adding 3 million new households in a single quarter. About 60% of those newcomers earned more than $100,000, up from 50% earlier in the year. More higher-income households switch to Dollar Tree, Creedon said, while lower-income households depend on the chain more than ever.
Deal hunting reaches $200,000 households
Deloitte research shows 4 in 10 Americans make three or more cost-conscious consumer choices a month, from buying store brands to cooking more meals at home. Nearly a quarter of households earning more than $200,000 fit the definition.
Grocery prices rose 2.7% in the year through July and now sit more than 20% higher than five years ago. And consumers feel it. In KPMG’s summer consumer survey, 93% of Americans said their cost of living rose over the past year; 73% say it jumped by more than 10%. Bain & Company’s latest consumer pulse survey finds 80% of Americans try to cut spending. Grocery spending is on the chopping block for 28%.
“We’re a higher-income household, but with three kids I’ve definitely become more intentional about where we spend our money,” says Shelby Stover, founder of Fit as a Mama Bear. “I just can’t justify paying more for something when I can get basically the same thing for less, somewhere else.” She now shops at Walmart and Dollar Tree for snacks, cleaning supplies and household basics. Store brands make the swap easy in categories where products are near-identical, from peanut butter and rice to pasta and canned goods.
What the savings buy
Forty-seven percent of grocery shoppers opted for private label products in the past three months, while 43% leaned harder on promotions and 51% cut back on impulse purchases. Among households trimming their grocery bills, Bain found 56% trading down to lower-priced brands, 49% buying fewer items and 44% leaning harder on coupons and promotions.
Online ordering helps some shoppers stay disciplined. “I started using Walmart grocery delivery during the pandemic and never looked back,” says Andrea Updyke of Just is a Four Letter Word. “I find that shopping for groceries online helps me stick to my budget and avoid the unnecessary impulse buys that always seem to make it into my cart.”
Deloitte’s data shows the same pattern. Among value seekers, 59% switch to store brands, 53% buy cheaper ingredients and 65% cook more meals at home. Value seekers do splurge when they find a deal, whether on a steak marked down at the meat counter or a name brand on promotion.
Frugal habits outlast the inflation spike
Grocery inflation has cooled from its 2022 peak, but the ways inflation changed grocery shopping have not gone away. Deloitte describes value seeking as structural rather than temporary. Creedon told Dollar Tree investors the chain’s newer high-income customers are early in their life cycle with the company, a sign discount retailers expect them to stay.
For Stover, the calculation is simple. “It’s less about whether we can afford to spend more and more about not wanting to waste money when those little purchases add up so fast,” she says.
Emmeline Kemperyd is a recipe developer, food photographer and founder of always use butter, where she shares quick and easy comfort food for busy home cooks. She has spent more than 20 years developing recipes that make weeknight cooking simpler.
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