On a Tense Election Night, Here’s What Philadelphians Ordered to Stress Eat
In a time of great uncertainty, our region turned to Bud Light and gummy worms.
GoPuff gave us a sneak peek at Philadelphians’ election stress eating habits. Photograph courtesy goPuff
We may not know yet who will be America’s next president, but we do know what Philadelphians snacked on throughout a long, nail-biter of an election night. GoPuff, the delivery company started by two Drexel students that turned increasingly essential during Philly’s stay-at-home order, gave us a peek at what exactly Philadelphians munched on as the New York Times prediction needle swung violently from red to blue and back again.
On Election Day, Philly goPuff orders were up by 24 percent over the previous Tuesday — with orders spiking, unsurprisingly, between 5 p.m. and midnight. Searches for “popcorn” on the platform were up by 1,340 percent and searches for “chips” were up by more than 1,000 percent, which, you know, kind of make sense: I, too, eat salty, crunchy snacks by the fist-full when I’m watching a tortuously long scary movie I can’t look away from.
In terms of what people actually ordered, beer and spiked drinks were up by 50 and 42 percent respectively. Ice cream and sweet and sour candy won the day from a snacking perspective. Trolli candy — the maker of those brightly-colored sour gummy worms — specifically saw a 199-percent jump in orders verses the previous week, while chocolate lovers turned to M&Ms (up by 60 percent) to fill their cravings.
Bud Light was apparently Philadelphia’s top beer — orders jumped by 90 percent yesterday. And when it came to ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s (a politically progressive ice cream company if we ever saw one) was the brand of choice. The flavor? Milk & Cookies, a mixture of vanilla ice cream with a chocolate cookie swirl and chocolate chip and chocolate chocolate chip cookies. Make sense: in times of great uncertainty and stress, what could possibly sound more comforting than milk and cookies?
We still have a ways to go before this election is called. As I type, counters are going through the bajillion mail-in ballots at the Pennsylvania Convention Center as the nation nervously waits to see if the projected majority of mail-in votes for Biden will hold true. Whatever you gotta do to cope in the interim — whether doing yoga, watching the ballot counting livestream, or panic snacking — we’re here for it.
