After years of inflation anxiety and doomscrolling receipts, the American grocery shopper has achieved a kind of budget enlightenment. According to a
survey of more than 5,000 shoppers by cash-back app Ibotta, consumers are still wary of the economy, with 67% saying inflation hurts, but fewer feel personally squeezed.
Why? They adapted. They switched stores. They switched brands. They hunted deals like programmatic traders chasing remnant inventory.
The result is a new breed of insulated consumer who feels oddly in control while clipping digital coupons in the cereal aisle. For CPG marketers, that means the old loyalty playbook is about as useful as a paper circular in a TikTok world.