A growing share of Americans are putting one of life’s most basic expenses — the weekly grocery run — on installment plans. According to a recent LendingTree report based on a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers, 29% of buy now, pay later users said they have used the short-term loans to buy groceries, up from 25% a year earlier and more than double the 14% recorded two years ago. Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief consumer finance analyst, said the trend is a clear signal of household strain.

Buy now, pay later lets shoppers split a purchase into smaller, usually interest-free installments paid over a few weeks. Once used mostly for clothing and electronics, it has spread into everyday spending, and groceries have climbed to the third-most-common category behind apparel and tech. The shift is sharpest among younger and, surprisingly, some higher-earning shoppers. Among Gen Z BNPL users, 38% have financed groceries; among users earning $100,000 or more a year, 33% have done the same.

The deeper worry is dependence. More than half of BNPL users — 54% — said they would not be able to make ends meet without the loans, a figure that rises to 62% among parents with children under 18. And the loans are increasingly going unpaid on time: 47% of users said they made a late payment in the past year, up from 41% in 2025 and 34% in 2024. Many users stack multiple loans at once, with 63% holding more than one simultaneously.

The grocery-financing surge sits inside a broader picture of household pressure. Separate LendingTree data found that 52% of Americans say they are spending more on food than a year ago, roughly six in ten have worried about affording groceries in the past month, and nearly 90% have changed how they shop — trading down to store brands or cutting splurge items.

For the businesses involved, the implications cut both ways. BNPL providers like Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay and PayPal are seeing transaction growth, but rising late payments raise questions about credit risk in a product that has faced lighter regulation than credit cards. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has flagged that BNPL users tend to carry riskier credit profiles, and FICO has begun folding BNPL data into credit scores. For grocers and the broader consumer economy, the data is a warning sign: when families need a loan to cover dinner, discretionary spending elsewhere tends to be the first thing to go.

JBizNews Desk
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