This won't end well

More Americans are now buying groceries on credit

An increasing number of shoppers are leaning on buy now, pay later services as inflation continues to erode household budgets, according to Adobe Analytics' latest retail report. 

A hefty number of them — are using it to foot the bill for groceries. 

Within the first two months of 2023, the share of online purchases using such services, which help consumers pay over time, grew 10% year over year, according to Adobe Analytics.

The number of grocery shoppers using buy now, pay later services grew 40%. Home furnishings, another popular category in which consumers have been delaying payments, grew 38% during the same period.

Unless these people plan on eating less and switching their diet from meat to insects — and they should, because they will — they will continue to need to buy groceries costing just as much if not more the next month to replace what they consumed the month before. So a $400 grocery bill in, say, November, will be increased by the amount they’re obliged to pay off for October’s purchases, and December’s will be higher still, etc., etc.

It’s no different from an amateur carpenter attempting to make 12’ plank into a 15’ one by sawing off 3’ from one end and attaching it to the other. Not only don’t you get the original 12 feet, you lose length to the cut itself.

As a long term strategy for feeding a family, this seems unwise.