- People bought more weed, alcohol, and fast food on Tuesday and Wednesday as they watched the results of the 2020 presidential election roll-in.
- Alcohol orders for on-demand delivery service Drizly soared 75% in Democrat states, and 33% in Republican states.
- People bought higher-end alcohol like champagne and sparkling wine, one Colorado retailer said, and Google searches related to fast food skyrocketed.
- Sales for cannabis delivery service Eaze rose 17% in California on Election Day compared to the previous Tuesday.
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As Americans stayed up late to watch the election results, they bought more pizza, alcohol, and weed, according to businesses selling these items.
Alcohol sales rose most in Democrat areas, according to on-demand alcohol delivery service Drizly, while Google searches for fast food and liquor stores rocketed across the US on Tuesday and Wednesday as the results of the presidential election trickled in.
Sales for Drizly were 68% higher on Tuesday than on the previous four Tuesdays, it told Business Insider. This included a rise of 133% in Washington, D.C. and 110% in New York City, alongside surges in other cities like Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Interestingly, Drizly orders in Democrat states soared 75% compared to the last four Tuesdays, while in Republican states they were up by only 33%.
In swing states, Election Day sales were up 54.84%.
Wine was Drizly's biggest seller on Election Day, making up 42% of all sales — including a significant jump in red wine sales. This was followed by liquor at 41%, led by a rise in bourbon and rye whiskey sales.
Beer made up 15% of Drizly's Election Day orders.
Wine sales were markedly higher in Democrat states, while swing states favored liquor, data from Drizly showed.
A liquor store in Colorado told The Gazette its Election Day trade felt more like a Friday or Saturday night than a Tuesday night. Customers bought more "higher-end" alcohol like champagne and sparkling wine, it added.
Weed sales also spiked as people looked for a way to stay calm during a tense election period.
Sales for cannabis delivery service Eaze rose 17% in California on Election Day compared to the previous Tuesday.
Pre-rolled joints and vaporizers were the company's best sellers, which it credited to a demand for "products that would provide faster onset effects."
"We attribute that to an especially stressful Election Day," a spokesperson told The Los Angeles Times.
On Twitter, Americans posted that they turned to Ben & Jerry's and saw queues at coffee and liquor stores as the election results slowly trickled in.
—Lauren Young (@LaurenYoung) November 3, 2020
Google searches for fast food rocketed
On Tuesday afternoon, "Chinese food near me" was the third-top trending search on Google US, ranking higher than "who won the election today" and "election coverage."
Google's top "near me" searches on Tuesday afternoon were for pizza, Chinese food, liquor stores, sushi, and Mexican food, Google Trends reported.
—GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) November 4, 2020
"Fries near me" and "liquor store near me" were at US all-time highs, it added, as were searches for "coffee" and "alcoholic drink."
Election Day alcohol sales in some states were banned until 2014
Being able to buy alcohol on Election Day is a recent phenomenon in some states. Alcohol sales during polling hours were banned in Kentucky until 2013 and South Carolina until 2014.
During the Antebellum period, saloons sometimes doubled as polling stations, and politicians were desperate to win votes.
"And of course one way to do that was to keep the voters liquored up and basically seduce them or bribe them with drinks, free drinks, and it could actually skew the results of the election," Jim Holmberg of the Filson Historical Society of Louisville told WFPL.
Kentucky's ban stemmed from a Prohibition-era attempt to stop this.
But Republican state Senator John Schickel brought a bill to the Kentucky General Assembly in 2013, and the state overturned the ban. Businesses had expressed growing concerns that bars, restaurants, liquor stores, and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail were losing millions of dollars on Election Day every year.
South Carolina, the last state to ban alcohol sales while polls were open, overturned its policy in 2014.