The CEO of Affirm just figured out that Americans who need to finance deodorant in four installments might also be struggling with $4 gas. This required a press statement.
Buy now, pay later exists because someone looked at a $40 purchase and thought "what if we made this require a credit check?" Affirm turned impulse buys into installment plans. Their entire business model depends on people who can't afford things buying them anyway. So when gas hits $4.09 per gallon, their customer base—people financing groceries—suddenly has less money for garbage they don't need.
The CEO saw high gas prices and connected them to consumer spending. This is the kind of insight that gets you a corner office. Gas costs more. People have less money. Spending drops. Someone get this man a whiteboard.
Affirm's ideal customer finances a $60 blender over six months at 30% APR. That same customer now pays an extra $40 per week on gas. The math here is not complicated. The blender loses. The CEO noticed this and called CNBC.
Gas was last below $3 on March 2. Affirm's stock is down 90% from its IPO price. These facts may be related. Or maybe retail traders just got bored of companies that let you pay for socks in installments.
The funniest part is framing this as news. High gas prices hurt consumers who live paycheck to paycheck. Consumers who live paycheck to paycheck are Affirm's entire revenue stream. The CEO observed that his customers are broke and decided this warranted a headline.
Technical analysis says none of this matters. The chart doesn't care why people are poor. It just knows they are.
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