What’s in your shopping cart? Increasingly, it’s full of political statements. The cart itself, too, might speak to your political persuasion. Identity shopping, once the pursuit of only political radicals, is moving to the mainstream.
Do you drive a big SUV (right-winger!) or a hybrid (persnickety liberal!)? Organic produce or carrots grown with chemicals? Golden’s Coors beer (Republican contributors) or Fort Collins’ New Belgium (Democratic backers)?
People have taken part in boycotts for generations, and there’s nothing new about blending politics and purchasing.
But the fervid 2004 presidential election pushed politics far into the checkout line, and the movement has grown since.
Events like a Pennsylvania jury ruling earlier this month that Wal-Mart owes Pennsylvania workers $78 million for unpaid overtime and lunch breaks fuels the bonfires roaring in the hearts of some activists.
Blaine Hardesty of Arvada used to belong to Wal-Mart club store Sam’s Club, and frequently shopped at Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s and Home Depot. “When we discovered their political donations policies, we changed our habits.”
Now, among other places, Hardesty and his wife shop at Costco, which contributes to Democrats.
“I will shop at places that are neutral, such as Lowe’s over Home Depot, even though I have two Home Depot stores closer than the one Lowe’s in my area,” says Tracy Bond of Westminster. “I have a friend that even fired his dentist when he found out that the dentist was a Bush supporter. I haven’t gone quite that far.”
They have loads of company on the left.
“A lot of our audience makes decisions solely on this stuff,” says Jay Marvin, the morning host on AM 760 Progressive Talk, a left-leaning Boulder station. “Times have changed. You’ve got groups that have ramped up this pressure.”
Marvin says a big difference between now and years past is the left’s embrace of the shopping-politics nexus.
Conservatives – particularly religious conservatives – have long been expert at directing their supporters away from suspect companies and services, often based on specific issues. But until the 2004 election cycle, the left didn’t push so hard for political shopping, Marvin says.
You’re a lefty and not sure where to shop? Now you can head to buybluecolorado.org and discover that during the 2003-2004 election cycle, Wal-Mart gave 78 percent of its campaign contributions to Republicans, while Costco sent 99 percent of its political money to Democrats.
The Home Depot? It gave 82 percent of its dough to Republicans, and Outback Steakhouse favored Republicans 98 to 2.
Website launches
The right, it appears, does not have a similarly exhaustive guide to corporate political donations, although the BuyBlue site could be nearly as handy to a Republican as to a Democrat.
Christian Moreau, a Highlands Ranch real estate agent, helped launch the website – the first regional site to grow out of the main buyblue.org site that launched shortly after the 2004 election – because “everybody involved in politics is very attentive to this.”
“It’s a start,” he says. “People have to start voting with their wallet more because it affects us.”
He also hatched the Colorado Progressive Business Alliance, a group of like-minded businesses that help spread the word about companies that support Democrats and progressive issues.
Raven Brooks, who created the main BuyBlue website, says his site has grown swiftly. Earlier this month, it announced a new partnership called the Blue Fund, a mutual fund that, like others, invests only in companies that are deemed socially responsible but with a twist: The companies also must make at least 50 percent of their political donations to Democrats.
“The way we look at it is you not only have to act progressive but be progressive,” says Brooks. “So we look at how they contribute their political dollars.”
It all makes politics a tricky business for companies, says GG Johnston, president of Johnston Wells Public Relations in Denver.
“Getting in the political crosshairs can have extreme ramifications for years to come,” she says. “Consumers are more informed than ever before because of the Internet. They make decisions based on a lot more information than ever before. It’s not just retail. Companies simply have to understand that when they take a stand on an issue, they can either alienate a group or align with a group, and they need to consider that when they make a decision.”
Issues drive purchases
Arvada retiree and conservative blogger Jim Cannon, for example, never buys Levi’s apparel “because they support the gay-rights agenda,” he says. He also shops at Wal-Mart because of the company’s support of Republicans, although in the end, what really drives his shopping decisions is “what’s best for my pocketbook.”
The environment, as an issue, isn’t as charged as gay rights or abortion, but it’s not innocuous, either. That hasn’t stopped homebuilder McStain Neighborhoods from championing its pro-environment message.
“We’re trying to a certain extent to be evangelists for the environment,” said Eric Wittenberg, president and chief executive officer of a Louisville company. “It’s one of the things that differentiates us in the business. Assuming we do everything else right, we want people to prefer us because they get a house that leaves a smaller footprint on the earth.”
Could it lose customers who dislike environmentalism? Sure, but Wittenberg thinks the number of people put off by McStain’s pro-green public face is small and shrinking.
Deals, not politics, guide Republican blogger and computer consultant Clay Calhoun’s shopping habits. But he did stop going to Target last year when the company denied Salvation Army bell-ringers from soliciting in front of their stores.
And given Costco’s support of Democrats – and Wal-Mart’s backing of Republicans – he’s more likely to spend his money at Wal-Mart.
But it’s not uniform among Republicans, he says. “I know there are a lot of Republicans who don’t like what Wal-Mart does.”
Do some people on the left switch-hit? Progressive and pro-Wal-Mart? Probably, but not Michael Huttner, executive director of Progressnow.org, Colorado’s largest online progressive organization.
“I’ve never set foot in a Wal-Mart, nor do I plan to,” says Huttner.
Huttner doesn’t carry around a list telling him where to shop and what to buy, and doesn’t invest much time agonizing over shopping decisions. He sticks to his Wal-Mart prohibition and a few others, and he stays away from anything attached to the Philip Morris empire, including Kraft Foods, because of its support of Republican politics and its cancer-causing products.
“That’s one I purposely avoid,” he says.
Ross Kaminsky, a Nederland libertarian blogger, does a lot of shopping at Wal-Mart, a company “responsible for more Americans’ jobs than the U.S. military,” he says. “The fact that liberals hate Wal-Mart says two things: They are brainwashed by unions and have no real understanding that Wal-Mart does more for lower-income Americans than any company has in history.”
Wal-Mart? Costco?
That’s a loaded question.
Staff Writer Douglas Brown can be reached at 303-954-1395 or djbrown@denverpost.com
Code signals how you ll vote
You may spend your dough more politically than you know.
Political strategists from both sides of the aisle have worked up a retail code they say helps them understand what purchases mean in the voting booth. They detail it all in “Applebee’s America,” published by Simon & Schuster. But here’s a quiz the authors worked up to determine whether you belong to the “red tribe,” the “blue tribe” or the “tipping tribe,” meaning an independent voter who could go either way:
1. You’re at the counter of your local convenience store and have an extra dollar in change. You:
A. Save it for a rainy day
B. Buy a lottery ticket because you’re feeling lucky
2. At a picnic with friends, you open a cooler full of soft drinks and reach for the:
A. Dr. Pepper
B. Sprite or Pepsi
3. You’ve won the jackpot on a game show and have a choice between two kinds of vehicles. You select the:
A. Audi
B. Saab
4. A free subscription to one of the following two magazines is offered to you. Which one do you choose?
A. U.S. News & World Report
B. TV Guide
5. You’re headed out to buy some groceries. You are most likely to visit:
A. A superstore like Wal-Mart or large supermarket such as Kroger
B. Whole Foods or similar organic grocer
6. You’re at a cocktail party, and the only choices are gin, bourbon, scotch and vodka. Which liquor do you choose?
A. Bourbon or Scotch
B. Gin or vodka
7. If we opened your refrigerator, it is more likely that we would find which brand of bottled water:
A. Ozarka or local brand
B. Evian or Dannon
8. You’re at happy hour, and there is a special on domestic beer. Which do you choose?
A. Coors
B. Bud
9. Which special event would you be more inclined to attend?
A. Monster truck show
B. Pro-wrestling match
10. If we checked your Internet history, it would more likely show that you had visited:
A. An auction site, like eBay
B. A dating site, like Match.com
11. Nothing is on network TV you are interested in, so you click through cable, do you:
A. Try the Discovery Channel
B. Tune in to Court TV
12. Between the following sporting events, which would you more likely watch?
A. X Games or college football
B. U.S. Open tennis or Major League soccer
For every A, you receive one point. For every B, you get zero. If you scored between zero and four, the authors say you are blue; eight to 12, red; and five to seven, a tipper.
