French fries vs. tater tots… It sounds like a trivial question. According to CivicScience data, it’s anything but. Your answer is closely tied to how you shop, what keeps you loyal to a brand, and where you go online when you’re ready to buy something.

French fries win overall, garnering favor for 50% of U.S. adults. Conversely, 21% say they prefer tater tots and and 18% can’t decide between the two. Seven percent don’t want either, while just 4% say they have an opinion. The preference for French fries becomes more lopsided with age. Among adults 65 and older, 64% go with fries, 16% choose tater tots, 12% can’t decide, and 7% say neither. Younger adults tell a different story: among 18-29 year-olds, fries still lead at 37%, but tater tots pull 21%, and nearly a quarter say they simply can’t choose.

What French Fries vs. Tater Tot Fans Have in Common and What Sets Them Apart

From how they discover products to what earns their loyalty, French fry fans and tater tot fans paint two fairly distinct pictures.

Meal Kits: Tot fans are nearly twice as likely as fry fans to have tried a meal kit service like HelloFresh or Blue Apron (25% vs. 15%), and more open to trying one in the future. Three in four fry fans say they’ve never used one and don’t plan to. It points to a broader pattern: tot fans tend to be more adventurous in the kitchen and more willing to spend on it.

Brand Loyalty: Fry fans are quality-first shoppers. Sixty-eight percent say that’s what keeps them loyal to the brands they buy. Tot fans are more deal-driven, with 28% citing price and promotions as their top loyalty factor, compared to 22% of fry fans.

Video Shopping Behavior: Tot fans are considerably more likely to use video to guide their purchase decisions. Twenty-nine percent say they do so always or often, versus 21% of fry fans. More than half of fry fans say they rarely or never lean on video when shopping.

Social Media for Product Discovery: When researching electronics on social media, fry fans gravitate toward YouTube and TikTok. Tot fans are more likely to turn to Facebook and Instagram, a different discovery mindset, and a different media mix for brands to consider.

Answer the poll below to pick your side and find out how you stack up against others who share your potato preference:

A potato preference is rarely just about potatoes. For brands, it might be one of the more useful audience signals hiding in plain sight.

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This article’s data comes solely from CivicScience’s database, which contains nearly 700,000 poll questions and 5 billion consumer insights.