Get-Out-The-Vote…err….Shop

 

A recent Nielsen Homescan analysis on the shopping habits of Obama and McCain supporters was reported in a article titled, Retail Politics: Shopping Insights For Obama & McCain Voters

The analysis shows notable differences in the shopping habits and holiday spending expectations of the American voter. The panel’s voting intent (55% Obama / 45% McCain) was similar to the actual nationwide election results (53% / 47%) and mirrored the state-by-state victories in all but three of the 48 contiguous states.

According to Nielsen Homescan, voters who favored Obama, tended to make more frequent trips across all outlets combined and in traditional retail channels.  While McCain voters may have made fewer trips, they visited the retail giant WalMart at a higher rate, and tend to outspend Democratic voters in terms of per-trip dollars.

Interestingly, despite massive electoral losses and concern about the prospect of higher taxes, the report also showed that McCain voters are slightly more optimistic about holiday spending. McCain voters also expressed more optimism about spending on entertainment inside and outside the home.

Nielson has a more in-depth presentation of these findings, with bar charts and all, here

This entry was posted by Brian Donahue on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 at 8:49 am and is filed under Discussions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.