Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan is one of the few people who really knows in real time how Americans are contending with rising inflation and higher gas prices.And he sees clues to how they are responding in the pet food aisle.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.“You know, higher end pet food is not being charged as much on our credit and debit cards as the next brand down,” Moynihan said during a recent interview with NBC News, citing aggregated internal bank data.
This, he added, is despite a wave of advertising by the premium pet food brands.“What you’re seeing is people are shifting, so people shift around and make room for the higher gas prices,” he said.“That’s the reality of the day-to-day consumer.”With almost 70 million customers, Bank of America’s data offers a detailed picture of how people are managing their money.
Inflation outpaced wage growth in May for the second month in a row, and consumers were paying around 40% more at the pump than they were before the U.S.launched a war against Iran.But the trend of consumers trading down is only one part of a bigger picture, Moynihan told NBC News at the bank’s New York Financial Center, the latest installment in NBC’s recently launched Business in America series.
FORSUBSCRIBERSMonthly spending on the bank’s credit and debit cards was up 5% overall in May over last year, Moynihan said.The data also showed that spending extended well beyond the bare necessities.
Consumers “are still spending on vacations and things like that, which is good for America.They still go out to eat, which is also good.
Those are job-creating activities.” Despite what the data shows, Moynihan acknowledged that the U.S.economy is facing a vibes problem.
In surveys and interviews, Americans overwhelmingly say they are pessimistic about both their own finances and the economy overall.Yet they keep spending.“We watch what they do, n...