- Mark Dolliver

NEW YORK If you could shop at just one department store for the rest of your life, which would you choose? Zogby Interactive posed that question to adults in a poll released last week.

Wal-Mart topped the voting, picked by 26 percent of respondents, with Target (22 percent) the runner-up. Macy's was a distant third (9 percent), followed closely by Costco (8 percent). Trailing with 5 percent apiece were Sears, JC Penney and Kohl's.

True to stereotype, those who chose Wal-Mart skewed disproportionately toward the lower end of the income scale. Thirty-five percent identified themselves as born-again Christians; 58 percent favored John McCain for president. As for Target's partisans, a higher-than-average proportion were college graduates (54 percent), and they also skewed younger than the survey sample as a whole (29 percent are age 18-29). Sixty-three percent backed Barack Obama for president.

Among other tidbits from the polling, which was fielded in November: 55 percent of those who chose Macy's own homes worth more than $250,000. Zogby calls Costco "the Wal-Mart alternative for Democrats," as 56 percent of those who picked Costco also picked Obama.

Respondents who chose Sears as their one store for life are older than average, with 47 percent falling into the 55-plus age cohort. A disproportionately high number of Sears voters (84 percent) are homeowners.