Jennifer Williams
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
The Businesses Adding an Extra Charge With Trump’s Name On It
Some are, if they can, trading down to even lower-cost options. And when they've already traded down, they are cutting back on how much they are spending.
WSJ What’s News
The Businesses Adding an Extra Charge With Trump’s Name On It
It's not just dollar stores. They are also shopping at chains that still cater to the budget-conscious shopper, but they're not selling items with price tags at a dollar. It would be like Academy Sports and Outdoors, which sells grills and bicycles and outdoor gear, but at a lower cost than you might find in other store shelves.
WSJ What’s News
The Businesses Adding an Extra Charge With Trump’s Name On It
It is because their core consumer, which tends to be in the middle income range, is pulling back, as is the lower income consumer. And that means they've been trading down into lower cost options as well as cutting back on how much they spend.
WSJ What’s News
The Businesses Adding an Extra Charge With Trump’s Name On It
And so the thinking is that this higher income consumer is a bit more insulated from some of the economic pressures and so can spend more, whether that's buying more or showing up more to the store. But Academy, their higher income consumer traffic increased by mid single digits in December, and that continued into January. And so while they're seeing an overall
WSJ What’s News
The Businesses Adding an Extra Charge With Trump’s Name On It
drop in same store sales by 3% for their latest quarter, they have seen that pick up from the higher income consumer. At Dollar Tree, they have seen same store sales for the latest three month period grow 2% and that's driven by 1.3% lift in average purchase ticket and a 0.7% increase in traffic.
WSJ What’s News
The Businesses Adding an Extra Charge With Trump’s Name On It
That's another example of a store that is seeing a higher income consumer increasingly shop for their range of goods.
WSJ What’s News
The Businesses Adding an Extra Charge With Trump’s Name On It
They are invested in marketing that will attract the consumer, and they are also changing what's on the shelves. So at Academy this month, they are for the first time rolling out Jordan products in 145 of their stores and online. And so their thinking is that they have historically had three categories of items in their stores, good, better, and best.
WSJ What’s News
The Businesses Adding an Extra Charge With Trump’s Name On It
And that goes up in price range as you go from good to best. They see Jordan as situated in that best category. And they're rolling that out towards the end of this month. And they are hoping that that brings in the higher income consumer.