U.S: Predicting voter trends through supermarket preferences

From the Economist:

Some years ago David Wasserman, an analyst with the Cook Political Report, spotted a way to predict the political leanings of any given county: check whether it is home to a Whole Foods supermarket, purveyor of heirloom tomatoes and gluten-free dog biscuits to the Subaru-owning classes; or to a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, a restaurant chain that offers chicken and dumplings and other comfort foods to mostly rural, often southern customers. Mr Trump won 76% of Cracker Barrel counties and 22% of Whole Foods counties, the Cook Political Report calculates. That 54 percentage-point gap is the widest ever: when George W. Bush was elected in 2000 it was 31 points. Eight years later when Barack Obama took office, it was 43.

This is super interesting. I wonder if similar preferences are revealed by supermarket choice in Australia. In the U.S, the differences between Wholefoods and Cracker Barrel - and their respective markets/ target consumers - are pretty stark. The former markets itself as a clean, organic, niche (yet pricey) alternative. On the other hand, Cracker Barrel is the supermarket of the 'old American' consumer. Therefore, voter preferences between their consumers are likely to be more distinct.

In Australia, the two dominant supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths (combined market share of 69.8%, according to recent research by Roy Morgan) have few noticeable differences. In fact, their  marketing and pricing strategies tend to mimic each other. So perhaps it would be unlikely that there is any political preference between Coles and Woolies. Aldi, on the other hand, could reveal voter preferences-  the emerging discount retailer is thus far the biggest competitor to the Coles/Woolies duopoly with a distinctly different brand.

I wonder if certain groups of Australian voters have any particular supermarket allegiances. Do One Nation voters swear by Coles/Woolies due to their distinctly 'Aussie brand'? Are Liberals secretly discount shoppers? Are Greens' preferences not revealed in the data at all, because they grow their own food?

I will research this and update. Watch this space.