At the supermarket, the gaze of Korean American housewife Mrs. Park was fixed solely on “sale items.”

In the past, while Park did buy sale items, she often opted for preferred brand-name products even if they cost a bit more. But now, things have changed. “For a family of four with middle and high school kids, the cost of groceries feels at least 20-30% higher than just a few months ago,” she said. “With a fixed monthly income, we can’t keep up with the rising prices, so now I reach for the cheapest or largest-quantity items.”

Another Korean American housewife, Mrs. Jang, added, “I look at market ads in the newspaper and visit three or four different stores a week to buy sale items. When something’s on sale, I try to stock up as much as possible.”

Amid lingering high inflation since the COVID-19 pandemic and the global tariff war sparked by the Trump administration, consumers are increasingly burdened by soaring living costs.

Retail and distribution companies have also noticed a distinct shift in customer spending habits over the past few months. With consumers fiercely competing to buy low-cost products, retailers are scrambling to secure affordable goods. Expensive items are being ignored, while cheaper products are flying off the shelves.

According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and other media outlets, an executive from a major distributor supplying groceries across the U.S. remarked, “One of the biggest requests we’re getting from retail clients these days is to supply cheaper alternatives of similar quality rather than well-known brand-name products. This is because increasing discount events with these items is the only way to maintain store sales.”

A supermarket representative noted, “Consumers are worried that prices will rise further as tariffs expand. This has intensified stockpiling, so for popular low-cost items that are selling well, we’ve had to impose purchase limits.”

As the Trump administration’s tariff policies take full effect, major retailers like Walmart, facing price increase pressures, are stepping up their responses. With customers’ purchasing power declining, the impact of tariffs translating into higher prices could be unavoidable.

Bloomberg recently reported that Walmart asked some of its Chinese suppliers in categories like kitchenware and apparel to lower prices by up to 10% in phases, only to be rebuffed. The retailer is trying to avoid passing price increases onto consumers and losing customers by pushing the burden onto suppliers, but this strategy is proving difficult.

Target CEO Brian Cornell said in a recent interview, “We’ve established import scenarios in response to tariffs. We’ll do everything we can to protect prices, but with a 25% tariff rate, we’ll have no choice but to raise them.”

Particularly for Chinese products, which remain staples in U.S. households, prices are already rising as a 20% tariff begins to take effect. Online retailers like Amazon, as well as Target, Home Depot, and Walmart, are already reflecting “tariff prices” in their Chinese-made goods.

If tariffs on Mexico and Canada are fully implemented in the future, prices for agricultural products and automobiles imported from these countries are also expected to rise. Starting December 12, tariffs on steel and aluminum are anticipated to increase the cost of aluminum cans used for beer and soft drinks, as well as vehicles, which heavily rely on aluminum and steel.

Wall Street is particularly concerned that if consumption by the top 10% of high-income earners—who account for half of consumer spending—slows down, the economy could quickly falter.