Recovering Economy

Reading an article on MSNBC about trendier items at Walmart, and I came across this paragraph (emphasis mine):

Unlike Wal-Mart, whose core customer still hasn't benefited from a recovering economy, Target is less vulnerable to consumers' financial constraints; it attracts a more upscale customer while keeping its budget shoppers.

Now, I've been working on a budget. A real budget, and I've been analyzing everything that I spend in a fashion that I've rarely done before. I compare it to costs, and to how much of a raise I got this year (less than cost of living, despite a good review). Gasoline is now 10% of my monthly salary. Milk is more than twice as expensive as nutritionless soda. Fresh foods are wickedly pricey when compared to frozen crap that I refuse to eat. When discussing how I am now making more and yet getting/having less, I asked, "How can this be?". My answer was, "Perhaps the economy's crap".

Are we really recovering?