Product & Innovation
Are people really using buy now, pay later for groceries?
Answered independently in 2 episodes. Every line below is verbatim from the transcript, timestamped to the moment it was said.
The short answer
What the archive says
01'Phantom debt' from buy now, pay later installment loans isn't visible to Wall Street or central bankers — Wells Fargo senior economist Tim Quinlan is 'spooked' because those balances aren't tracked or reported to credit bureaus. source →
02Consumer stretch is showing up in odd places - buy now, pay later is being used for groceries, and reportedly 70-80% of Coachella attendees used BNPL for tickets. source →
In their words
What was actually said
That's what we're talking about a little bit here. Bloomberg.com Americans are racking up phantom debt that Wall Street can't track is from Bloomberg.com. Consumers have embraced by now pay litter products that allow them to pay for purchases and installments.
So there, there it is. More Americans are financing groceries by now, pay later loans. It's hard for me to know if there's a reflection definitively of the exact economics of tariffs right now, or if this is just a proliferation of the buy now pay later, expanding into more things.
The episodes
2 episodes answer this
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