'Running out of money': Kraft, McDonald's, Whirlpool CEOs all issue same dire warning about US consumers. Get ready now

American consumers have kept the economy afloat for years, even as
inflation, high borrowing costs and rising grocery bills squeezed
household budgets. But some of the country’s biggest corporate leaders
are now warning that shoppers may finally be hitting a breaking point. 

Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:HKC) CEO Steve Cahillane recently offered one of the
bluntest assessments yet. 

“They’re literally running out of money at the end of the month,”
Cahillane said in a recent interview (1). “We’re seeing negative cash
flows in the lower-income brackets where they’re dipping into savings.” 

The company behind brands like Heinz, Kraft and Philadelphia is now
cutting prices (2) on some products that had grown too expensive,
increasing promotions and rolling out smaller package sizes at lower
price points. 

Cahillane said that the industry has endured years of “volume
degradation” because consumers had to absorb “too much price.” Another
inflation shock, he warned, is the last thing households need. 

“We could see more significant inflation and nobody wants to see that,”
he said. 

Cahillane’s warning did not come in isolation.

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) CEO Chris Kempczinski has also flagged (3)
pressure on consumers, pointing to “heightened anxiety.” CFO Ian Borden
noted that higher gas prices are hitting lower-income households
especially hard — and said he expects that pressure to continue. 

Then there’s Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) CEO Marc Bitzer, who recently told (4)
analysts that the war in Iran “amplified consumer concerns about the
cost of living.” 

Whirlpool’s North America chief Juan Carlos Puente added that “consumer
sentiment collapsing to record lows” due to the Iran war prevented
demand from recovering after winter storms, leading to “recession-level
industry contractions,” with discretionary demand down roughly 15%. 

Even the fitness industry is feeling the impact. Planet Fitness
(NASDAQ:PLNT) shares just suffered their biggest drop on record after
management slashed its revenue outlook and canceled planned price
increases. 

“The consumer and economic backdrop have shifted,” CEO Colleen Keating
said bluntly (5). 

When executives across food, restaurants, appliances and fitness are all
pointing to the same problem, it suggests something serious: While
headline inflation has cooled from its pandemic-era highs, the
cost-of-living crisis is still hitting consumers where it hurts. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (6), food prices in the U.S.
have increased 33.3% since the beginning of 2020, while housing costs
are up 32.5% (7). Energy prices, meanwhile, have surged 48% (8) over
that period. 

While the war in Iran appears to be the immediate concern for many
executives, inflation itself is not new. It has been steadily eroding
Americans’ purchasing power for decades. 

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (9), $100 in 2026
had the same purchasing power as just $11.74 did in 1970. 

https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/articles/running-money-kraft-mcdonald-w
hirlpool-113500450.html