Growing number of affluent consumers shop at discount stores. Here’s why.

Not only low-income shoppers are hunting for deals these days. Better off consumers are also flocking to discount stores to save a few bucks.

Since 2021, budget retailers have seen a large influx of more affluent shoppers, according to data from GlobalData Retail. This year, nearly 28% of high-income people have shopped at discount chains Aldi, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Five Below, Family Dollar, Lidl, Ollie’s, PopShelf or Walmart, up from around 20% four years ago, the research and consulting firm found.

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A key catalyst for the shift is one that has plagued Americans up and down the income ladder in recent years, experts told CBS MoneyWatch: inflation.

Emerging from the pandemic, many middle- and even upper-income consumers had extra savings after receiving federal stimulus checks and because they chopped their spending on categories like travel and dining out, said Neil Saunders, managing director and retail analyst at GlobalData.

But since then, the financial cushion wealthier consumers once enjoyed has shrunk while the cost of living has risen, leading many to seek out more affordable stores.

“They don’t like the fact that more and more of their money is absorbed by essentials and the basics of life,” Saunders told CBS MoneyWatch. “So what has happened is they have sought out better value for money, and they’ve especially done that in grocery and household essentials.”

GlobalData defines middle-income as households with annual income of $56,501 to $169,750, while high-income households are those earning more $169,751. The market research firm taps a range of data sources — including consumer surveys, credit card spending and retailer data — to build a national picture of the retail landscape.

The migration of higher income consumers to discount retailers has “accelerated since the pandemic, and especially since the bout of inflation that started in 2021,” added Saunders, noting that a similar trend followed the 2008 financial crisis.

One of the biggest winners of this trend has been Walmart, according to Saunders. More than 17% of Americans earning six figures today shop at the Arkansas-based company, the world’s biggest retailer, up from less than 15% in 2021, GlobalData found.