Spending divide widens in US

TOP 10% OF US HOUSEHOLDS NOW ACCOUNT FOR NEARLY HALF OF ALL SPENDING

- BEN CASSELMAN & COLBY SMITH

BY THE TIME the Pilsen Food Pantry opened on a recent morning, Ulysses Moreno had been there fortwo hours — with aline of people behind him that snaked around the corner.

“Thisisa lifeline forme, said Moreno, 39.He had lost his construction job a few days earlier, and with three teenagers at home, he wanted to make sure he could stock up. “Our food budget doesn’t stretch as far as it used to.’ A few miles away, on Chicago’s glitzy Magnificent Mile, luxury hotels are bustling. Jewelry stores and designerbou-tiques do brisk business. The restaurants are packed with diners sipping $20 cocktails while they wait for tables.

To Evelyn Figueroa, a family physician who founded and runs the Pilsen pantry, the dichotomy is striking.

“For people like me, who are homeowners, who are employed, the economy is great,” she said. “How is the economy? It depends who you're looking at.”

The divide between richand pooris hardly new, in Chicago or therest of the country. But ithas become more pronounced in recent months. Wealthier Americans, buoyed bya stock market that keeps setting records, have continued to spend freely. Lower-income households — stung by persistent inflation and navigating a labor market that is losing momentum — are pulling back.

The top 10% of US households now account for nearly half of all spending, Moody’s Analytics recently estimated,

the highest share since the late 1980s. Consumer sentiment has climbed among high earners but steadily fallen for other groups.