Trump ❤️s DoorDash's commerce data
In an absence of comprehensive government figures during a record-breaking shutdown, the White House celebrates a new DoorDash analysis.
On Monday morning, DoorDash released its inaugural State of Local Commerce report, produced after analyzing millions of transactions on the platform. The results read largely positive and a little surprising: food costs are down, restaurants are staying open, and people are spending more at local businesses, the report says.
The analysis uses a mix of proprietary and objective third-party data and covers topics including the cost of common groceries and retail goods like batteries, restaurant prices, local wage growth, and even movement patterns of American families. But the report’s real strength, according to Jessica Lachs, chief analytics officer at DoorDash, is its deep dive into the local economies of 100 U.S. cities.
“One of the things that’s really unique about this report is that it is this comprehensive look at local economic activity,” Lachs told me in an interview. “And so we’re using the hundreds of millions of transactions that we have on the platform to be able to provide information at a local level.”
Hours after DoorDash released the report, the Trump White House issued a release celebrating some of the report’s broadest findings as a win for the president’s agenda. “From breakfast tables to store shelves,” the release claims, “President Trump’s agenda is lowering costs when families need it the most.”
I asked a DoorDash rep if the company agreed with the president’s assessment, and they replied, in part, “This report isn’t about politics; it’s about data. We’re focused on sharing timely, transparent insights that help people understand what’s happening in their communities.”