Now suppose that the same voter goes to the supermarket with a shopping list of five products. Let us assume that each product is available in three brands, since the buyer need no longer restrict her choices to brands that might "win" an election. She will choose among these brands on the basis of price and/or quality; for simplicity, we assume that she will choose only one brand for each product. Furthermore, let us assume that she may choose up to three units of each product. With respect to each product, she can make any of 10 decisions: to buy 1-3 units from any of three brands, or to buy no units at all. Her whole "shopping ballot" can therefore be cast in any of 10 10 10 10 10 = 100,000 ways, conveying almost 17 bits of information. (log2 100,000 17.)

"SHOPPING BALLOT" Product A - units (indicate 0-3) Brand 1 Brand 2 Brand 3 Product B - units (indicate 0-3) Brand 4 Brand 5 Brand 6 Product C - units (indicate 0-3) Brand 7 Brand 8 Brand 9 Product D - units (indicate 0-3) Brand 10 Brand 11 Brand 12 Product E - units (indicate 0-3) Brand 13 Brand 14 Brand 15

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