The Selective Shopper's Portfolio: 6 ETFs Positioned for the Circular Economy Shift

"Consumers who are highly deliberate about what they buy (the selective shopper) and those who care about sustainability (the circular economy) share the same core behaviors and are responding sensibly to a higher-cost world. That shift is structural. Six ETFs sit closest to the money flow: They split cleanly into two camps: the resale and off-price plays (XRT, ONLN, EBIZ, PSCD) and the trade-down beneficiaries (XLP, RTH)."

"Wages are rising. Average hourly earnings reached $37.41 in April 2026, up from $36.12 a year earlier. But the consumer price index climbed from 320.8 to 333.0 over the same span, with goods inflation running 3.8% and core personal consumption expenditures at 3.2%. Real purchasing power is eroding faster than nominal pay can patch it. The behavioral response is visible in retail sales hitting a record $757.1 billion in April 2026: the spending is happening, just not where it used to."

"XRT is the rare retail fund built around equal weighting as a deliberate design choice. Off-price names like TJX, Ross, Burlington, and Ollie's sit alongside resale platforms eBay at roughly the same portfolio weight as Amazon would carry in a cap-weighted peer. That structure gives the fund outsized exposure to exactly the names benefiting from trade-down and secondhand migration. The catch shows up in performance: XRT is down over 8% year to date to near $17 a share, with broader specialty retail weighing on the basket even as the off-price subset gains sh"

American consumers are rerouting spending rather than reducing it. Consumer sentiment is at 48.2, the savings rate has fallen to 3.6% from 5.1% earlier in 2025, and energy prices are up 14.4% year over year. Households respond by buying private label at Costco, shopping off-price apparel at TJX, repairing older vehicles instead of financing new ones, and selling outgrown children’s clothes on eBay. The shift is structural and aligns with selective shopping and circular-economy behavior. Wages are rising, but real purchasing power is eroding faster due to goods inflation and core PCE inflation. Retail sales reach a record $757.1 billion in April 2026, with spending moving to different categories. Six ETFs align with these money flows, split between resale/off-price plays and trade-down beneficiaries.

Read at 24/7 Wall St.