Polarized consumption

Abstract

Using two decades of household purchase records (2004-2023) and retail scanner data, we document political polarization in everyday consumption. We examine products with health or environmental claims-organic produce, cage-free eggs, plant-based milk, eco-friendly household products-across ten categories. Ideological differences are negligible through 2012 but emerge around 2013 and widen thereafter. Controlling for demographics, we find that by 2023, liberal households purchase 1.8 percentage points more mindful products by volume than conservative households-roughly 40% higher. Comparing strongly liberal to strongly conservative counties doubles this gap. We also find supply-side divergence: retailers in liberal counties carry more mindful products at lower relative prices by 2023. However, controlling for supply-side factors leaves consumption gaps unchanged. Within-zip-code comparisons between white-collar and other households yield similar patterns. For several categories, the timing of consumption shifts aligns with major public discourse events about health and environmental issues, consistent with differential responsiveness to such messaging across ideologies.