44% of higher-income shoppers are buying more private label

Private label isn’t just catching price-stressed shoppers anymore. It’s pulling higher-income households, and that changes what retail operators ask of their supplier base.

In its 2026 U.S. Global Shopper Study, Simon-Kucher found 44% of higher-income consumers (earning more than $5,000 per month) are increasing their private label purchases, according to Food Business News. That is 10 points higher than lower-income consumers in the same study, a data point that pushes private label from a “value substitute” into a mainstream brand architecture problem for retailers and national-brand manufacturers alike.

The number retailers are planning against: $330 billion, 24% share

Scale is no longer in doubt. Circana put U.S. private-label sales at $330 billion in 2025, representing 24% of unit share and 23% of dollar share, according to CSP Daily News. Food Business News separately cited Circana in reporting the category was 24%, or $330 billion, of total U.S. food and beverage sales in 2025.

That size matters operationally because private label is expanding, with retailers offering tiered lines such as Walmart’s Great Value and Bettergoods, according to Food Business News. Circana data cited by CSP Daily News said club stores drove nearly half of all private brand growth.

Premium tiers are where the work shows up first

Simon-Kucher’s study suggests the growth lever is not only price. Food Business News reported that 56% of higher-income consumers intentionally purchase premium private label products, with 32% citing value as the reason, and that 39% of consumers routinely buy premium private label products.

This is why retailers keep building “good-better-best” structures. Food Business News pointed to Walmart’s tiering across Great Value and Bettergoods as an example, and to Aldi’s effort to rebrand its private label by stamping the retailer name across products.

IFT.org described retailers expanding and “upscaling” private brand assortments. It also cited Mintel’s estimate that the U.S. private label food-and-drink market was $141.2 billion in 2024, with 7.7% growth expected in 2025, and Mintel’s projection that store brand food and beverage sales rise 35% from 2024 to 2029 to $190 billion. That scope is narrower than Circana’s $330 billion U.S. private-label figure cited by Food Business News.

Some sentiment is cooling, but the baseline moved

Not every dataset says the same thing about momentum. Grocery Dive, citing Dunnhumby’s Consumer Trends Tracker, reported that fewer shoppers said they choose private brands over name brands most or all of the time, with 43% saying they do so in April, the lowest level since fall 2022. Grocery Dive also reported that the importance of price competitiveness and “love” for private brands dipped by around 1 percentage point each in the latest survey wave.

That softening doesn’t erase the structural shift. Dunnhumby’s research, as described by Grocery Dive, suggests private label demand has found a “new baseline” that remains higher than pre-inflation patterns. For retailers, the near-term question becomes whether to keep expanding the assortment, or to focus on improving repeat rates and differentiation in the categories where store brands are now credible competitors.

Where competition is opening up: snacks and beverages

Category expansion is real, even if share gains are uneven. Food Business News reported Circana identified four categories where it did not expect private label to compete: chocolate candy, sports drinks, carbonated soft drinks, and salty snacks. In the same reporting, Circana’s Sally Lyons Wyatt said private label is close to a 10 share in salty snacks, while other categories are gaining smaller shares.

IFT.org also cited Circana’s view that candy, snacks, and beverages are segments with considerable growth potential for store brands, in part because private label development is still relatively low in those areas.

Where this lands in 2026 sourcing and brand plans

• Assortment teams: If 56% of higher-income shoppers intentionally purchase premium private label products (Simon-Kucher, according to Food Business News), does the current private label set have a clear premium tier in every high-velocity aisle, or only in a few spotlight categories?
• Supplier qualification: For categories like salty snacks, sports drinks, carbonated soft drinks and chocolate candy where private label is competing (Circana, according to Food Business News), confirm requirements early with partners before the next line review.
• Channel strategy: With club stores driving nearly half of private brand growth (Circana, according to CSP Daily News), evaluate pack-size engineering, casepack efficiency, and OTIF expectations as first-order design inputs, not afterthoughts.
• Financial planning: Reconcile market-size references inside the org. Circana’s $330B U.S. private-label figure (according to Food Business News) and Mintel’s $141.2B food-and-drink estimate (via IFT.org) can both be “right” but lead to different TAM assumptions and margin targets.