US consumer sentiment reached a new low as customer complaints about goods and services hit record levels. Customer complaints surged 16% in the first quarter, according to the University of Michigan's American Consumer Satisfaction Index.

During this period, US corporate profits increased. Corporate profits after tax reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $3.7 trillion by the end of 2024, climbing to $3.9 trillion in the first quarter of 2026. Corporate profits as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) reached 15.8% in the fourth quarter of 2025, a post-World War II high. Employee compensation as a share of GDP has decreased to less than 10%.

Claes Fornell, founder of the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, stated in February that companies can raise prices without improving customer satisfaction when customers have no other options. "Paradoxically, and contrary to what occurs in efficient markets, customer retention has increased," Fornell wrote in May. "These are not signs of a healthy economy," he said.

Cory Doctorow, author of "Enshitification: Why everything suddenly got worse and what to do about it," commented on company behavior. "Asking why [companies] went 'bad' is like asking why a company that sells reasonably priced goods on the near side of the TSA checkpoint is charging $15 for water on the far side of the TSA checkpoint," Doctorow said. He added, "It's not because they're evil, it's because you can't go anywhere else to buy your water."

Ricardo Martin, an economist at the St Louis Fed, noted an acceleration in the digital economy. "The pandemic accelerated the transition toward the digital economy, which likely helped firms, particularly those in the retail and wholesale trade industries, produce more with fewer resources," Martin said. Service complaints in the airline industry also reached new records in 2024.