Target to cut prices for up to 5,000 frequently-purchased items

You’ve seen them. They lurk unsuspectingly in supermarkets, in front-page headlines. They live among us, they are us: the “inflation-weary shopper.”

And finally, finally, we’re getting a small break from one retailer. Target is slashing prices on approximately 5,000 products by the end of this summer in an effort to keep those ever-elusive “inflation-weary shoppers” inside their stores.

Of the thousands of planned price cuts,1,500 popular items have already been made cheaper. In all, Target anticipates “these price reductions will collectively save consumers millions of dollars this summer.”

The price cuts include name brands, like Clorox, Huggies, and Aveeno, as well as Target’s brands. Exact changes will vary based on city, but Target said, by way of example, that a product like Clorox Scented Wipes would go from $5.79 to $4.99 in cities like Phoenix, Minneapolis, or Baltimore.

"We know consumers are feeling pressured to make the most of their budget, and Target is here to help them save more," Rick Gomez, Target’s executive vice president and chief food, essentials and beauty officer, said in a press release.

In April, retail sales data from the Commerce Department came in below expectations. Retail sales flat from March, missing the 0.4% increase expected by economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal.

Other retailers, like Ikea and Aldi, have announced price cuts in recent months. Most stores are feeling the heat in some way. Target-competitor Walmart has indicated that some higher-income consumers have started gravitating toward the budget retailer.

Walmart CFO John David Rainey told CNBC the company has “customers that are coming to us more frequently than they have before and newer customers that we haven’t traditionally had, and they’re coming into a Walmart whether it’s a virtual store online, or whether it’s one of our physical stores.”