: Lower-income consumers will start tightening their belts by trading down to private label goods in 2022, analysts say

RBC Capital Markets analysts say they are already seeing a growing split between how lower-income and higher-income American shoppers spend on consumer goods in 2022 as inflation and gas prices take a toll.

“We are seeing early evidence of lower-income consumer weakness with trade-down in the cigarette category (which skews to lower-income households) and some early signs of trade-down in beer from mainstream domestic beer to value brands,” analysts wrote in a report that examines the personal care, beverage, tobacco and packaged…