Dems & WMT
[graphic at original: http://pewresearch.org/obdeck/?ObDeckID=56]
Democrats Face Ideological Split Over Wal-Mart Attacks on Company May Turn On Liberals, Turn Off Moderates
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press August 30, 2006
Several leading Democrats have launched election-year attacks on Wal-
Mart, criticizing the company for providing what they say are
inadequate wages and employee health care benefits. Yet the party’s
rank-and-file is deeply divided in opinions about Wal-Mart, with
liberal Democrats taking a much more negative view of the company
than do moderate and conservative Democrats.
Most liberal Democrats (53%) have an unfavorable opinion of Wal-Mart,
according to a national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center
in December. By contrast, 70% of conservative and moderate Democrats
- and solid majorities in other political categories - have positive
impressions of the world’s largest company.
The complaint that Wal-Mart does too little for its employees may
resonate with liberal Democrats. A majority of liberals (53%) say
that Wal-Mart is a bad place to work. But this opinion is not shared
nearly as widely among conservative and moderate Democrats; only
about a third (35%) say that Wal-Mart is a bad place to work, while
57% view it as a good place to work.
More broadly, liberal Democrats are evenly split in opinions about
Wal-Mart’s impact on the country (43% good, 44% bad). By greater than
two-to-one (64%-23%), conservative and moderate Democrats say Wal-
Mart has a good effect on the country. The ideological divisions
among Democrats in views of Wal-Mart are evident even when income
differences are taken into account.
Fewer Liberals Shop at Wal-Mart
The December survey found that Wal-Mart stores are practically
ubiquitous on the American landscape. Overall, 91% say they live
close enough to a Wal-Mart to shop there, and 84% say they have done
so in the past year.1
About three-quarters of liberal Democrats (74%) said they had shopped
at a Wal-Mart in the past year, but just 28% reported shopping there
regularly. That compares with 45% of conservative and moderate
Democrats and similar percentages in other political groups.
Most liberal Democrats (62%) say Wal-Mart is a good place to shop.
But 32% of liberals say it is a bad place to shop; that compares with
just 9% of conservative and moderate Democrats, 13% of independents,
10% of conservative Republicans, and 11% of moderate/liberal
Republicans who have a negative view of Wal-Mart as a place to shop.
About this Survey
Results for this survey are based on telephone interviews conducted
under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates
International among a nationwide sample of 1,502 adults, 18 years of
age or older, from December 7-11, 2005. For results based on the
total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error
attributable to sampling is plus or minus 3 percentage points. For
results based on form 1 (N=761) and form 2 (N=741) the sampling error
is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question
wording, ordering, and other practical difficulties in conducting
surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.