🗳️ The Cost of Democracy

Track how retail prices have changed since the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

A lightweight, data-driven project that scrapes and analyzes product prices over time to explore the economic aftermath of U.S. democratic transitions. Built using Python, SerpAPI, and pandas.

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🔍 What This Project Does

• 🔎 Search Google Shopping for product prices
• 🕒 Store historical price data in CSV for analysis
• 📈 Run price comparisons
• 📊 Visualize product-level price changes over time
• 🔔 (Optional) Get alerts when prices shift dramatically

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⚙️ Tech Stack

• Python 3.9+
• SerpAPI – for structured Google Shopping results
• pandas – for data manipulation
• matplotlib – (optional) for visualizations
• schedule – (optional) for automating daily price logs

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/the-cost-of-democracy.git
cd the-cost-of-democracy

2. Install Dependencies and Get Your SerpAPI Key

pip install -r requirements.txt

Create a free SerpAPI account at serpapi.com and get your API key.

3. Create a .env file and add your SerpAPI key (Git will automatically ignore this file)

SERPAPI_KEY="your_api_key_here"

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🤝 Working as a Team

Git Branching Workflow

1. Create a new feature branch:

   git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name

2. Set the branch to track your remote:

   git push --set-upstream origin feature/your-feature-name

3. Before making new changes, sync with main using rebase. Ensure your working directory is clean:

   git status        # Check for uncommitted changes
   git pull --rebase origin main

4. If there are changes (in red), stage them before continuing:

   git add .
   git commit -m "syncing with main"

5. Make your changes, then commit and push:

   git add .
   git commit -m "your descriptive commit message"
   git push

6. Open a Pull Request (PR) on GitHub to merge your feature branch into main.

Once the PR is opened, we’ll schedule a quick walkthrough to review your changes.

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✅ Best Practices

• Use meaningful branch names like feature/price-alerts or fix/yoy-analysis.
• Write clear and consistent commit messages.
• Keep PRs small and focused.
• Avoid making more commits after submitting a PR unless part of review feedback.

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Made with democracy in mind.