CEOs have a new favorite word: “Chosen”

“Chosen” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but CEOs love it.

That’s how Walmart CEO Doug McMillan describes the average consumer who’s trying to cut costs but is still willing to spend money on what’s worth it.

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczynski used the word to characterize the company’s strategy to raise prices.

And the adjective came up again during Starbucks’ investor briefing, when CEO Laxman Narasimhan outlined the coffee giant’s G&A strategy.

So far in 2023, the pick has appeared in 15 quarterly earnings calls by S&P 500 companies, according to a CNBC analysis of FactSet transcripts. That’s almost double the usage last year, when there were a total of nine mentions. In 2021, only the CEOs of Molson Coors and McCormick said “picky” when talking to investors on their quarterly conference calls.

CEOs have found it a useful adjective this year, whether it’s to describe today’s unusual economy or to reassure investors that they can steer their businesses through anything.

“Choiceful” cannot be found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary or on dictionary.com. But the Oxford English Dictionary dates the word’s earliest known use to the late 1500s. The adjective typically appears 0.002 times per million words in modern written English, making it one of a group of words “which are not part of normal discourse and would were unknown to most people,” according to the OED.

These days, CEOs use it to describe a consumer whose behavior has changed in the last two years. Inflation puts pressure on their wallets, causing them to pull back on spending in some areas but not others.

Some companies have scrambled to explain why consumers aren’t buying their products or why inventory is piling up at retailers. Others, like Ralph Lauren, have benefited from picky shoppers.

“I think that’s what consumers are looking for right now because they have more choices,” Ralph Lauren CEO Patrice Louvet told investors on the retailer’s Nov. 8 conference call. “They want to invest in pieces that are timeless, that they can wear season after season.”

Changing shopping habits are putting pressure on the top and bottom lines of some companies, prompting executives to emphasize thoughtfulness in their strategies. This is where ‘selectable’ comes to the rescue again.

Take Molson Coors’ pitch for its low-key, purposeful approach to soft drinks. In recent years, the beer giant has begun moving away from ales and lagers in favor of faster-growing categories such as energy drinks.

“We’re going to be selective about where we play and we have two priority spaces,” CEO Gavin Hattersley said at the company’s Oct. 4 investor update.

Or there’s McDonald’s explaining its approach to menu pricing for tourism. Restaurants, like many other industries, have seen diners resist higher prices by visiting less frequently or choosing cheaper orders.

“I think certainly given the inflation that we’ve experienced over the last year — really more than a year — we’ve tried to be very selective and disciplined in terms of how we’ve executed those price increases,” McDonald’s Kempczynski told analysts in late October .

Consumers are still feeling the pinch from higher prices at McDonald’s and elsewhere. They are racking up record credit card debt even as inflation cools.

As 2023 draws to a close, economists are divided over whether next year will bring a recession, which could mean even more dramatic challenges for CEOs to deal with.

They might even have to find a new favorite word.