Best of Times, Worst of Times: The growing divide in how Americans shop for Apparel & Footwear: U.S. Apparel & Specialty Retail

Research evidence excerpt

Best of Times, Worst of Times: The growing divide in how Americans shop for Apparel & Footwear: U.S. Apparel & Specialty Retail

16 July 2026

U.S. Apparel & Specialty Retail

Best of Times, Worst of Times: The growing divide in how

Americans shop for Apparel & Footwear

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” — while 2026 is far from the economic Aneesha Sherman

+1 917 344 8457 divide of Dickensian Europe, shifting economic dynamics are heavily shaping consumer

aneesha.sherman@bernsteinsg.com spending in today’s K-shaped US economy. We analyze longitudinal survey data across 3,750

US consumers and store-by-store demographic data across thousands of US retail doors to

Jessica Tian examine the growing divide within US Apparel & Footwear spending.

+1 917 344 8413

jessica.tian@bernsteinsg.com

Spending on US Apparel and Footwear is heavily skewed towards higher-income

Jed Hodulik shoppers: Higher-income consumers spend 3.4x that of low-income shoppers, the top

+1 917 344 8594 quintile drives 60% of total spend, and they shop more frequently especially online. They

jed.hodulik@bernsteinsg.com purchase from a broader assortment of brands and retailers, place greater emphasis on

trendiness and brand names, and are more likely to follow new product launches and

fashion trends. They also tend to maintain their purchasing volume of discretionary goods

during inflationary periods, while lower-income shoppers pull back and reallocate spend

to staples. As such, they are more resilient, higher frequency and higher-LTV consumers of

Apparel and Footwear.

The K-shape also has important implications for the next generation of Apparel and

Footwear spending, particularly AI and agentic shopping. In our recent deep-dive on