Kevin O’Leary declares ‘inflation affects all of us’ as he shops for Walmart paper towel bargains

The clip showed O’Leary with a shopping list his wife had given him — batteries, butter, paper towels, laundry spray — and making sure to optimize each purchase.

On the paper towels: “I wanna save dough when it comes to paper towels. Check it out. Bounty — 12+ rolls is like 18 small rolls. I’m going plus,” he said with a grin. He also held up a pair of $29 black jeans he said he regularly wears, adding that he is “always looking for a great deal, that’s why [he was] in Walmart.”

The inflation context behind the bargain hunting

O’Leary’s point that inflation “affects all of us” is backed by the data. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ July Consumer Price Index report, overall consumer prices are up 3.4% over the past 12 months, with food prices rising 3.0% and energy up 14.7% over the same period.

Grocery and household staples have been particularly affected: the ConsumerAffairs Datasembly Shopping Cart Index found that a standard basket of 24 common grocery and household items — including paper products — cost 5.9% more in January 2026 than a year earlier.

For a household spending $1,000 a month on groceries and essentials, that’s an extra $59 per month, or more than $700 per year — before accounting for energy costs.

He’s not alone among the wealthy

Fortune reported that O’Leary’s frugal streak is a pattern among some of the world’s wealthiest people rather than an anomaly.

Warren Buffett — worth around $144 billion — still lives in the same Omaha home he bought in 1958 for $31,500. And he famously let the stock market dictate his McDonald’s breakfast order: $2.61 for two sausage patties when markets were down, $3.17 for a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit on better days, according to HBO.

IKEA’s late founder Ingvar Kamprad — who at one point had an estimated $58.7 billion — bought used clothes and drove an old Volvo.

“I don’t think I’m wearing anything that wasn’t bought at a flea market,” he said in a Swedish documentary.