The New York Times ran a map today of "Election results in places near Whole Foods, Lululemon, Urban Outfitters and Apple." The advice of the Times was "To Beat Trump, Democrats May Need to Break Out of the ‘Whole Foods’ Bubble."
They need to go to Dollar General.
There are 15,000 Dollar Generals in 44 states -- triple the number of Walmarts.
There are only 14,000 McDonald's in the USA.
The Times reported, "Last summer, Senator Elizabeth Warren electrified huge crowds at rallies in Seattle, Austin and New York. The events had one thing in common besides her populist pitch for 'big structural change.' At each stop, her trademark selfie lines were less than a mile from a Whole Foods Market, a Lululemon Athletica and an Urban Outfitters.
"These high-end retailers and brands, popular with urban millennials and affluent suburbanites alike, are increasingly correlated with which neighborhoods are trending blue. The drawback for Democrats? Just 34% of U.S. voters — and only 29% of battleground state voters — live within five miles of at least one such upmarket retailer, and the Democrats’ brand is stagnant or in decline everywhere else."
That is pretty amusing. Warren is pitching a call for Big Structural Change to the people who most benefit from the structure. Her electorate is the picky eaters who ignore price in favor of what is trendy in foods. Lululemon? These people are buying designer sweat clothes.
This is where the Democrat votes are.
The Times pointed out the folly, noting, "69% of U.S. voters live closer to a Cracker Barrel, Tractor Supply Company, Hobby Lobby or Bass Pro Shops location than to one of those high-end brands."
Let's call it what it is: Dollar General America. They are ubiquitous. Republicans are winning there because they go where the votes are.
In 2016, Donald John Trump's pitch was we're going to kick the illegal aliens out and give you their jobs.
He clobbered Hillary, 30 states to 20.
In 2020, the Democrat pitch is we're going to erase your student debt and screw around with health care again.
James Carville believes Democrats win on economics, but he told the Times, "It’s cultural arrogance. On taxing the rich, health care, Roe v. Wade, we’re in the majority on all these issues. But in this country, culture trumps policy. The urbanists — voters think they’re too cool for school. And voters pick it up."
I don't know about that. Certainly the condescension is annoying, but issues do matter. Americans don't want to soak the rich. They want to be rich.
However, he could be right. The way to test this is to campaign in Dollar General America. Campaigning in Iowa in the winter of 2007-2008 opened Obama's eyes to the fact that people in rural America need guns because police are 20 minutes away. When I read that, I knew rifles were safe because he would never jeopardize his support in Iowa. And he didn't.
Buried in the Times piece was President Donald John Trump's advantage.
The Times said, "Perhaps no presidential candidate has flaunted wealth to the degree Mr. Trump has. But from construction sites to Howard Stern call-ins to WWE appearances, he also spent decades before becoming a politician developing a blue-collar persona. In 2016, as the G.O.P. nominee, he defied history by winning a higher share of low-income whites than high-income whites. And the deepening fault lines of elite versus anti-elite could help Mr. Trump once again this November — no matter the Democratic nominee’s ideological orientation."
Donald Trump never tried to be one of us. He did not need to. All he had to do was show his empathy, and that won it for him.
As for the Times report, it was nice and the writer went to the bother of listing "The Electorate for 100 Popular American Businesses in 2016" and calculating what percentage of voters lives within a mile, 5 miles or 10 miles of each outlet, and how they voted.
The list included Portillo’s, Marcus Theatres, and Sheetz.
But not Dollar General, which has more outlets than McDonald's. The story itself showed the very cultural bias it warned Democrats against.
Obama loves Wagyu beef. Donald Trump loves Big Macs.
ReplyDeleteMini mike likes white castle
DeleteWith lots of salt.
DeleteTarsTarkas
Nothing wrong with White Castle sliders. Given where I live, I prefer Krystal to White Castle.
DeleteEven Mini-mike can get a few things right.
Here's a good news site:
ReplyDeletehttps://justthenews.com/
John Solomon's work is solid
DeletePeople make fun of Dollar General stores being for rednecks - I do too, but just in self deprecation - but the facts are there - they supply basics at a fair price in areas that nothing else is available or convenient! I would bet that a VAST majority of Americans have walked out of a Dollar General with a dozen eggs, loaf of bread, and a gallon of milk - AND paid less than what they would spend at Whole Foods! We're common people with COMMON SENSE - that's why we love PRESIDENT TRUMP - he might be rich, but he's one of us!
ReplyDeleteExactly!
DeleteThe local (as in 1 half block from the house) "mall" is a Dollar Tree and a Grocery Outlet. Most of our shopping is done at one or the other: convenience and price. (Although Grocery Outlet has this "bad habit" of introducing us to something we really like, and then not carrying it anymore.)
DeleteI had reason to love Dollar General a few months ago, when my husband was in a rural hospital in a tiny town an hour from our home. At Dollar General, I was able to purchase toiletries and some simple changes of clothes in order not to have to leave him to go home for those essentials. It gave me a new appreciation for these little stores. And the Dollar General charity is Literacy... how can we not love them?
DeleteDaughter's Austin girl friends are moving out of 'hip' downtown area (other than sky high rents) they don't feel safe with commie-Austin city council allowing homeless & druggies to hang out all over the place...leaving the Lamar Whole Foods....to HEB in safer 'burbs....
ReplyDeleteSend them up to Cedar Park. We're picking up more and more of those Flagship stores to go hand in hand with our HEB's.
DeleteUnfortunately they're likely to bring their voting habits with them. And turn where they went to into where they came from.
DeleteTarsTarkas
I think it is opening their eyes to liberal policies coming to their home....and not truly caring for people addicted to drugs, alcohol and untreated mental illness - to care for them, we should force them to obtain treatment to the point they can care for themselves, or be institutionalized, as opposed to living on the streets in squalor and being a general menace.
DeleteUT Austin campus police have kept bums off campus, but they really should allow liberals-in-training to see up close & personal results of liberal policies and maybe change some minds as to what true compassion for afflicted really is.
I do love me a nice, big, clean HEB - had them in Mexico (praise the Lord!).
DeleteDG is The Greatest Store in America. Needed a replacement cord to charge the wife’s iPhone. They had it. Needed some blank white copier paper. They had it. Needed some Cold-Eez. They had it. And once I needed a cheap floppy beach hat to wear as a band member for Woodstock ‘19. “Well son of a bitch,” as Joe Mama said, they had that too. Once in a while they run the 3/$11 deal on 12 packs of Diet Cokes and I’m all over that like stank on shite. My new saying: “If you can’t find what you’re looking for at Dollar General, then fook you, go down to DC then, you fookwad.”
ReplyDeleteThere’s a law where I live that no DG can be more than 5 miles from another DG.
DeleteMy county has no traffic lights, no fast food joints, one grocery store and three Dollar General stores. They serve this Teumpian blue collar, farming community well, as mismanaged as they are (local help is not so hot).
ReplyDeleteI have th eDollar Tree in my town guess what? their cheap glass ware is made in America-for the most part. They are much like Dollar General.
ReplyDeleteWe have Wal-Mart here too a super store-noticing more stuff made in the USA there too.
BTW there is much handwringing over the Dow today. It is a correction, not 1929 ..
The American Made is great news, Douglas DC! Thanks for posting about it. I will take a closer look at Dollar Tree. My grandson recently moved to his first apartment, and I went there and bought scads of the kind of stuff you need but don't realize until you need it, like bandaids and a colander and hot pads and tongs. It was a fun shopping trip since everything was just $1 :-)
DeleteBTW Lululemon is Canadian.
ReplyDeleteDollar General is a consistent rip-off. Price/quantity is a absolute joke. Nothing could be more appropriate to compare to Trump. Only rubes think it works for them.
ReplyDelete
DeleteOk boomer
$1 for a small pack of bologna?
Delete$1 for a can of lubrcating oil that is good?
Uhhh ... ok.
Sure, I can beat some of the DG prices by 10 or 20 cents, driving to a store 6 miles away. But their stuff is a bargain for the low income apartment folks who'd need a 2 hour bus ride to get to that big box store. Those RUBES are making a sound economic decision.
DeleteSo the left's solution of course, according to newly proposed legislation in certain localities, is to ban Dollar General and other similar stores.
ReplyDeleteSWPLs don't put the Democrats over immigrants do. Without the immigrant vote every election would be 1972. The Republicans would be the dominant party in California and the country. Makes you wonder why Republicans did and do treasonously support open borders.
ReplyDeleteLook, you can't win. If this turns out to be the McGovern-like blowout some conservatives are expecting and the Republicans recapture the House all you'll get is more Bush/Paul Ryan-type policies and actions. They'll never do the one thing that could push back the death of the nation a few decades: an near moratorium on immigration, a vigorous crackdown on illegals and their employers, and an end to refugee and asylum programs. Same old game as the last few decades - when the Democrats win, they win. When the Republicans win you lose.
Nails it, as usual.
ReplyDelete