The real election night winners: sellers of pizza, booze and weed

Regardless of their political leanings, Americans were united on one front on election day: stress-eating, stress-drinking and stress-smoking to make it through the night.

As election results continued to roll in Wednesday, businesses selling food, alcohol and weed reported a surge in orders.

On-demand alcohol delivery service Drizly said sales were 68% higher than on the previous four Tuesdays, on average. Sales in Washington, D.C., rose 133%; in New York City, 110%; and in L.A., 35%. In blue states where Drizly operates, sales were up 75% compared with the previous four Tuesdays; in red states, they were up 33%.

Wine made up 42% of sales; liquor, 41%; and beer, 15%, the Boston company said.

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Eaze saw a 17% increase in weed deliveries in California and an 18% increase in Los Angeles on Tuesday compared with the same day a week earlier. The top-selling items were prerolled joints and vaporizers, “suggesting that consumers were looking for products that would provide faster onset effects,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford said.

“We attribute that to an especially stressful election day,” she said.

On Tuesday afternoon, Google Trends tweeted that the top “near me” searches were for pizza, Chinese food, liquor stores, sushi and Mexican food. “‘Fries near me’ and ‘liquor store near me’ are at all-time highs in search,” it said. (“How is it possible in the 11th month of 2020 to not know where the nearest liquor store is?” one commenter replied.)

Local independent pizza restaurants saw an influx of orders. Italian restaurant Antico said sales were three times greater than usual for a Tuesday as customers loaded up on pizza and ice cream.

“People were very open about being stressed and needing comfort food,” managing partner Kevin Caravelli said.

Prime Pizza, which has locations in Burbank, the Fairfax district and downtown L.A., said delivery orders between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. were triple the usual amount for a Tuesday. Total sales for the day were about 250% higher.

Pizzana broke its one-day takeout record at both its Brentwood and West Hollywood locations, chef Daniele Uditi said.

“It was nuts. It got us by surprise because we usually staff more people when we plan for a big day,” he said. “We basically ran out of half of the menu.”