Archive for November 2025

Each month consumer insights platform Sightlines will share one quick hit you can use to make confident decisions. Also, ACA members get 50% off a Sightlines subscription. Find the discount code in the Resource Hub.

Consumer spending in the U.S. has, of late, been buoyed by the wealthiest Americans. Recent analysis of Federal Reserve data by Moody’s Analytics showed that the top 10% of earners in the U.S. (those whose households make $250,000 or more annually) accounted for 49% of total consumer spending in Q2 2025. That’s the highest level ever reported since such data collection began in 1989, and it’s well above the one-third of overall consumer spending that group represented in the early 1990s.

Well-off Americans have carried water for much of the economy, but they can’t do it forever—particularly not when it comes to alcohol. The discretionary spending power of the wealthy has for years been a driver of premiumization, but the tides may be turning. Those households, after all, only need to buy so much beer or wine or cider. Eventually, all but the most exclusive of luxury brands need “average” Americans to buy in, or need the wealthy to buy even more. But we are currently seeing the affluent slow their spending: Analysts at Jefferies and Moody’s have noted that affluent shoppers have pulled back on luxury spending and are showing an increased appetite for discounts and deals. As a result, mentions of “trading down” in conference calls by large U.S. consumer companies have ticked up in recent years, echoing spikes seen after the housing market crisis in 2008 and during the post-COVID inflationary period. Sales of private label staples are breaking records. Amazon Prime Day shoppers spent on staples, not big-ticket buys. Lower-cost retailers like Kohl’s, TJ Maxx, and Dollar Tree have seen stock prices rise this year as investors bet on shoppers continuing to hunt deals. Even Gen Z is taking advantage of early-bird specials and happy hours. Alcohol companies need to recognize that a broad trend toward premiumization is no longer a given. What will make up the slack when big spenders pull back?