Former President Donald Trump won Kent County, Michigan in 2016. The county swung to President Joe Biden in 2020. The region is known for manufacturing office furniture, as well as car parts.

Darious Howard is a supervisor at Corvac, which makes stuff like fenders and engine covers. I met Howard when he was off duty, headed into a dollar store in south Kent County.

Howard told me business usually drops off a bit over the summer, causing some workers to be furloughed. But this year he said about a third of Corvac’s employees were temporarily laid off — and for much longer than usual.

“Just because of the automotive industry around this time, usually it’s only like a week but now it’s been a month,” he explained.

Down the street, the Green Apple food bank is seeing a spike in demand. Executive Director Nancy Cromley said the number of families coming in for food has soared close to 30%. She’s starting to hear about layoffs and seeing new people come in who are used to thinking of themselves as middle class.

“So these are people that have — you know, they’re not living in the system, they’re not getting all kinds of other support, but they’re just finding that they don’t have enough money,” she told me.

But families can only go into the food bank once a month. Otherwise, they’re shopping at discount stores — like the one in northern Kent County where Nate Harkness is assistant manager. I find him sitting in his truck in the parking lot on break. He estimates that sales are up 120% so far this year. And his customers aren’t coming in to splurge.

“They don’t really buy a lot of candy. They’re just buying the staple things that they need — important stuff, along with your toilet articles,” he explained.

There are also more bargain hunters at the Daily Deals grocery store in Wyoming, Michigan. Kimberly Jones is director of sales and purchasing there, and said more shoppers are buying in bulk.

“So we’re more seeing customers willing to try larger sizes so that they can make their dollar stretch a bit further,” she told me.

So they’re snapping up five-pound bags of cheese or 15 pounds of bacon. They’re also buying more store brand products, which are a lot cheaper than name brands. Sales of store-branded meats are up about 25%, Jones said.

“Customers are willing to trade into different brands so they can get a value,” she said.

In the final part of our series, we talk to consumers about how or whether these economic trends will affect who they vote for this November.