Hamptons Store Has Winning Track Record Projecting Presidential Election Results

EAST HAMPTON, NY — Most news pundits say no one can safely predict who is going to win the Presidential election until after Labor Day; now it’s after Labor Day and East Hampton’s Valerie Smith, who owns The Monogram Store in town, has an good idea of who will win this year’s election based on her prior history.

Smith has a proven track record about who will win the Presidential Election because she’s been getting it right since George Bush beat John Kerry in the 2004 election. And it’s all based on a plastic drink cup count.

Smith’s shop sells plastic cups with each candidates’ name on it. “Up until July 17, Donald Trump was outselling Hillary Clinton,” Smith told Patch. “But on that day they were tied and ever since then she has been ahead.”

As of Wednesday September 7 — the cup count is Clinton: 3,801 vs Trump: 2,886.

Smith says she has to order the cups far in advance and didn’t even pre-order any Trump cups when the race first began. She chose Clinton, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio cups. “The Clinton and Rubio cups sold—Rubio even sold out and I had to re-order. But no one went near the Jeb Bush cups. There was a complete lack of interest in them.”

By April of this year, Smith put in an order for Trump cups, but still wasn’t sure about them. But once she had them in stock, Trump outsold Clinton, according to Smith.

Smth, who opened her shop in 1997, came up with the idea of selling the cups with the candidates’ names on them during the primaries for what ended up as the Bush vs. Kerry battle.

She chose a few primary candidates’ name, including Rudy Giuliani, but “his name came back misspelled so we couldn’t sell any of his cups,” she laughed.

“Once it was a two-person race, I started keeping track of the cup count,” Smith says.”All summer long Kerry was ahead, but in the fall George Bush surged ahead and, low and behold, he was elected president.”

She witnessed the same thing happening when Obama won his two terms.

Smith is the first to admit that her cup count isn’t based on anything scientific and calls it: “The goofiest thing, but you do have to say to yourself something is going on here.”

Not everyone who purchases a cup talks about it, but Smith says the ones who are buying and talking “are serious about their purchases. It’s not a joke, They want their candidate to win. I see it all day long.

“I also have napkins printed with Clinton’s name and a square box, Trump’s name and a square box, and ‘Neither of the Above’ and a square box, and those are selling incredibly well too,” she admits.

Neither Clinton or Trump has ever been to her store, but Smith says Chelsea Clinton came in when Clinton ran against Obama in the primaries.

The Monogram Shop sells more than plastic cups for customers who may not be interested in politics. “We have a lot to offer—good stuff, silly stuff, monogrammed stuff, kids’ stuff, a little bit of everything,” says Smith, who posts an updated cup count in her shop window every day.

Photo by Sue Weiner