4 minBusiness
Dollar General CEO Says $100,000 Earners Now Feel Like Bargain Hunters
Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said at a Goldman Sachs conference that even consumers earning $100,000 or more are behaving like lower-income shoppers as high gas prices and sustained inflation erode the value of six-figure salaries, pushing them toward deep discounters.
Americans earning six-figure salaries are increasingly shopping like lower-income households, according to Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos, who said sustained inflation and elevated gas prices have eroded the sense of financial security that once came with a $100,000 annual income.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Global Consumer and Retail Conference, Vasos said the company's core customers — those making less than $45,000 a year — change their behavior when gasoline reaches $4 a gallon. They buy closer to home, shop more frequently, and purchase less on each trip. The frequency rises, he explained, because customers do not know what the next week will hold and buy what they can, when they can.
What is different in the current economy, Vasos said, is that middle- and upper-middle-income shoppers are now displaying the same patterns. «Even that middle to upper middle is acting more like a lower-income shopper these days,» he said, pointing to what he described as sustained headwinds from years of inflation.
The national average price for gasoline stands at $4.476 a gallon, up from $3.189 a year earlier, according to AAA, as disruption to global oil markets continues. Diesel has climbed to $6.50 a gallon, raising the cost of moving goods by truck. Energy is not the only pressure: utility bills, new and used vehicle prices, insurance, food, and caregiving costs have all risen.
Vasos said even households earning $100,000 or more are feeling squeezed. «I would tell you, what we're hearing more and more from them is 'I don't feel like I'm higher income at $100,000 any longer,' because of all of the headwinds that I just mentioned,» he said. He added that Dollar General believes it is positioned to serve customers across income levels.
Consumers have remained resilient, Vasos said, largely because employment has held up. The latest retail sales report showed a better-than-expected 1.2% increase in August and a 1.1% gain excluding gasoline. As long as people stay employed, he predicted, Dollar General's customers will find ways to navigate higher prices. He noted that having 2,000 items priced at or below $1 remains meaningful for shoppers, especially in the current environment.
The shift is not limited to dollar stores. Walmart has previously noted that more affluent customers are shopping at its discount locations. Surveys have also captured the anxiety. A Harris Poll last year found that 64% of six-figure earners described their income not as a milestone of success but as the bare minimum for staying afloat. Among those making $200,000 or more, 64% said they had used rewards points to pay for essentials, 50% had used buy-now-pay-later plans for purchases under $100, and 46% relied on credit cards to make ends meet.
Michael Green, chief strategist and portfolio manager at Simplify Asset Management, argued in a widely circulated post last year that the real poverty line should be $140,000. Conventional measures, he said, fail to capture how much Americans are struggling with the cost of living, including households earning six figures. «If the crisis threshold — the floor below which families cannot function — is honestly updated to current spending patterns, it lands at $140,000,» Green wrote.
For retailers, the trend represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Discount chains are attracting shoppers who might once have overlooked them, while higher-income households are rethinking budgets that were considered comfortable only a few years ago. Vasos's comments suggest that the dividing line between frugal and affluent shopping behavior is blurring, and that deep discounters expect to keep serving a broader mix of customers as long as inflation and energy costs remain elevated.
