Jim Cramer names winning stocks for a more frugal consumer

• CNBC's Jim Cramer on Wednesday said more consumers are on the hunt for bargains, picking out several high-performing retail stocks to support his thesis.
• "Let's suspend the notion that the consumer's totally strapped for cash, that's wrong," he said. "The bottom line is the consumer's finally pushing back and demanding better prices—we're no longer willing to be cowed into paying more than what something seems to be worth, which bodes very poorly for those stores that have yet to roll back their prices."

CNBC's Jim Cramer on Wednesday said most consumers are not necessarily hurting for cash, but are sick of high prices and on the hunt for bargains. He picked out several high-performing budget-focused retail stocks to support his thesis.

"Let's suspend the notion that the consumer's totally strapped for cash, that's wrong," he said. "The bottom line is the consumer's finally pushing back and demanding better prices — we're no longer willing to be cowed into paying more than what something seems to be worth, which bodes very poorly for those stores that have yet to roll back their prices."

Some on Wall Street say consumers are "overstretched, strapped, sapped," according to Cramer, but he suggested they could instead be "just fed up with paying higher prices for so many things for so long," and have become more frugal.

To Cramer, consumers are flocking to bargain outfits like Walmart and Costco, and he pointed out that the latter's low-cost signature brands are especially appealing. He suggested that people view those companies' offerings as better deals than dollar stores, adding that Amazon's low prices and convenience are luring customers from places like Walgreens and CVS. Both Walmart and Costco are up year-to-date, at 29.95% and 29.81% respectively, while Walgreens and CVS are down year-to-date at 40.02% and 23.21%.

Budget retailers are seeing great success in the apparel space recently, according to Cramer. He named TJX, Ollie's, Ross Stores and Burlington Stores, all up year-to-date at 17.83%, 29.54%, 7.48% and 23.05% respectively.

"We know apparel inflation has been sticky in the consumer price index, but these four off-price chains are cutting the price of apparel aggressively," he said.

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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust holds shares of Costco, Amazon and TJX.

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