DALLAS — From food to gas to rent and much more, Texans and Americans continue to see the rising cost of various items.

Major retailers are noticing the impact on customers as well.

Last month, the Dallas Morning News reported that Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillion told a room of executives at the Economic Club of Chicago that he was seeing “stress behaviors” among budget-conscious consumers and projects lower than expected profits for this current fiscal year.

Meanwhile, a Houston-based grocery store is finding customer success with its prices in this economy. 

H-E-B’s Joe V’s Smart Shop opened its first North Texas location last summer, with more locations planned in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the future.

One shopper at the grand opening of the store’s second Dallas location last month was Pamela Tutton, a deal savvy shopper seeking affordable groceries for her large family.

“Price is so important, especially for the ones who are low income, don’t get enough money,” said Tutton. “Prices are very important to us to manage week to week or either month to month.” 

The mom of six — one is now deceased — a grandmother of 14 and a great-grandmother of two is on a fixed income.

So, when she makes a food purchase, she says she must make her dollars and food stretch because of rising costs.

“But with us, it hurts us. Because we’ll do without something just to make for sure our families are eating,” Tutton said.

Grabbing a bite to eat at a supermarket or restaurant is costing Americans more this year.

In his Chicago speech, McMillion said shoppers at his Walmart stores were being more selective and prioritizing value purchases.

“Hearing it from Walmart is surprising and scary at the same time. I mean, a lot of organizations are changing their forecasts for sales,” said Patrick Soleymani, an associate dean of outreach and strategic engagement at George Mason University’s Donald G. Costello College of Business. “But Walmart, you know, is one that we usually don’t hear that sort of um commentary from.”

Soleymani says some reasons behind consumer spending behaviors are the lack of wage growth and the potential for increasing inflation.

“That’s a recipe for some issues for consumer spending,” said Soleymani.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released its food price outlook last week, which showed that in 2025, overall food prices are anticipated to rise slightly faster than the historical average rate of growth.

Joe V’s Smart Shop’s COO Justin Tippett said at last month’s grand opening that his focus is on providing shoppers with affordable groceries.

“You know, we focus on customers that uh value price significantly, so we like to say price-conscious shoppers,” Tippett said.

The H-E-B-owned store has expanded from its 10 Houston locations, now up to 12, with the two North Texas locations.

A third North Texas location is scheduled to open this winter.

“You can tell it’s definitely getting tougher on customers and that’s why we try to focus on how we protect our prices cause customers need it now more than ever,” Tippett said.

Customers like Tutton, who expected that she would have to go over her budget in order to feed her family, but got a welcome surprise.

“So I saved $30 cause I was coming in here to spend $60,” Tutton said.

Just like with Joe V’s future expansion, Soleymani says stores like Dollar Tree and Dollar General may expand some of their offerings to capture an anxious market that’s seeing costs increase and wages not keeping up.