Cuz these economists look at wealth in aggregate, but look at behavior by market segment.
Asset prices have been skyrocketing. That only really helps people who have assets, but it still brings up the average enough to make the economy look it's doing great overall even despite the consumer price inflation.
So if you see that young adults are moving back in with their parents while living in an economy that is, in aggregate, "the strongest it's ever been"... you can only explain it as a matter of preference.
I mean for what it’s worth, as my income has gone up I’ve chosen more expensive ingredients for cooking. Usually those things are more local anyway, like at my local farmers market or food co-op.
I’m not gen Z but I did similar as my earnings went up as a millennial. I’d rather make my own food with better ingredients for the sake of my health than buy “luxury” goods that are often just overpriced trash
I've got a wife and a kid and I will say that I live in butt-fuck nowhere where everything is cheaper than anywhere else, however groceries are still getting way too expensive.
“Spends more on groceries than on other categories” so they’re poor. You can just say that. It turns out your money needs to go to keeping you alive before it goes to other things, and if you don’t have much money left after that, you can’t exactly spend more than you spent on food on other things.
Imagine being a consultant and get paid to write completely pointless things like that.
An economy built on growth through consumption tends to struggle when it stops spreading out the profit of that growth to the people expected to consume.