How Very 1950s

Published on Tuesday, May 29, 2007, by Tea / Edit Post

Those in the know say that men are doing more grocery shopping than ever before—between 2002 and 2004 the number climbed from 41 to 61 percent—but a Reuters article claims that men still find the experience “overwhelming.”

Many men have difficulty finding items, forego buying rather than risk purchasing a substitute for an item on the grocery list and hesitate to ask for help if they can’t find an item … ‘except maybe from the butcher, but they always say they never had problems finding anything when the cashier at the register asks.’

It’s all in a report aimed at analyzing the ways that men do their grocery shopping. With many marrying later, divorcing, or having increasingly egalitarian relationships, they are a new market to cater to, and grocery stores are looking at how they shop—with greater efficiency and less improvisation than women, if the article is to be believed. Apparently, the way to woo them is with gadgets, but don’t make things too complicated.

Men also tend to bristle at the overwhelming number of choices in grocery aisles, with the cereal aisle being one prime example … ‘One guy I thought was going to have a nervous breakdown in the cereal aisle,’ [grocery shopping consultant Mandy] Putnam said, adding that this man, in his early 30s, worked the night shift as a police officer in a dicey part of town and was otherwise used to stressful situations.

Yeah, because choosing between Corn Flakes and Froot Loops is just like being in the line of fire.

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POST A COMMENT |9 Comments

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  • Sorry, the ditto is to bwave, but I still love you, Merrin.

  • Ditto to Merrin. I can take us on educational tours of the grocery store, musing on ingredients, marketing strategies, product placement, nutrition. I think it sucks that I have to know all these things just to get through the place with something healthy and affordable.

  • I was pretty irritated by the headline of the original article. Implying that men can't understand a grocery store. If we have to drop the helpless woman stereotype, then let's drop the big dumb caveman stereotype too.
    What's worse, the original article wasn't even about men getting overwhelmed, it was about how sales were not being maximized in that demographic...maybe men don't impulse buy as...+READ

    I was pretty irritated by the headline of the original article. Implying that men can't understand a grocery store. If we have to drop the helpless woman stereotype, then let's drop the big dumb caveman stereotype too.
    What's worse, the original article wasn't even about men getting overwhelmed, it was about how sales were not being maximized in that demographic...maybe men don't impulse buy as much. Bet this would be true of clothing stores too.

    I don't want to call it a battle of the sexes, I just think the article holds no water and is VERY 1950's. The bigger issue here is that it's hard to find the basic coffee, cereal, or soap any more. we've complicated it by too many frivolous choices. keep it simple, don't muck it up with marketing tactics, and 95% of the people in the store won't be overwhelmed.-COLLAPSE

  • I'm a woman and I have a hard time finding stuff. Damn stores keep shifting everything around and have stuff laid out so you have to walk the entire store to grab 5 items. They're still set up for housewives of yesterday who had hours to spend getting turned around, and who the stores think are so stupid they'll just pick up everything the store has placed on an end aisle.

    Besides, if they made...+READ

    I'm a woman and I have a hard time finding stuff. Damn stores keep shifting everything around and have stuff laid out so you have to walk the entire store to grab 5 items. They're still set up for housewives of yesterday who had hours to spend getting turned around, and who the stores think are so stupid they'll just pick up everything the store has placed on an end aisle.

    Besides, if they made the grocery carts look like race cars it'd be a different story. The only man I know who shops pushes the cart with such speed people jump out of the way and look startled, and he moves so fast he flies by items he needs and then whines about not finding them.-COLLAPSE

  • I won't let my husband pick anything out at the store except for meat and certain flavors of things only he likes. I'm the one that will be doing the majority of the cooking, and I have a mental inventory of what's in the pantry -- when he goes wandering down aisles, he buys what he wants without realized we already have three at home.
    I suppose that's my fault -- I've taken control of the...+READ

    I won't let my husband pick anything out at the store except for meat and certain flavors of things only he likes. I'm the one that will be doing the majority of the cooking, and I have a mental inventory of what's in the pantry -- when he goes wandering down aisles, he buys what he wants without realized we already have three at home.
    I suppose that's my fault -- I've taken control of the kitchen, and he's just an eater. Occasionally I've given him a very specific list (including brands and sizes) and that works, but I like to go aisle by aisle and decide in the store what I'm making for dinner that week, depending on what's on sale, what looks good, etc. I wouldn't want someone not doing the cooking to make that decision for me.
    I think the men in the article are men sent to the store by their wives -- in my experience, men who live alone tend to have a better grasp, because it's *their* kitchen and they will be preparing all the food.-COLLAPSE

  • I hate to say it, but my guy fits this description to a T--except for the asking for help part--and he lived alone for 10 years before we moved in together. As soon as we step inside the grocery store he becomes visibly anxious, and he starts flitting all over the store like a hummingbird because he's not sure where anything is or what he's really looking for. Not sure if that's attributable to...+READ

    I hate to say it, but my guy fits this description to a T--except for the asking for help part--and he lived alone for 10 years before we moved in together. As soon as we step inside the grocery store he becomes visibly anxious, and he starts flitting all over the store like a hummingbird because he's not sure where anything is or what he's really looking for. Not sure if that's attributable to his gender, though; I've seen women in the store with the same look of fear in their eyes.-COLLAPSE

  • I can sort of understand the 'cereal aisle is overwhelming' feeling. My family was going to be staying in an apartment in Maui for a few days last year, and my flight was getting in several hours before everyone else's so I was tasked with finding a grocery store and getting some food into the apartment.

    That was no problem until I came across the coffee aisle. I don't drink coffee so I just...+READ

    I can sort of understand the 'cereal aisle is overwhelming' feeling. My family was going to be staying in an apartment in Maui for a few days last year, and my flight was getting in several hours before everyone else's so I was tasked with finding a grocery store and getting some food into the apartment.

    That was no problem until I came across the coffee aisle. I don't drink coffee so I just stood there dumbfounded at the zillions of options. I guess I sort of realized that one doesn't just buy 'coffee' anymore, but it was quite intimidating when actually faced with the task of picking a coffee that all the people who drink coffee might like. I eventually ended up asking someone else who wandered by if they knew which of the coffees might be described as 'just coffee'.-COLLAPSE

  • @blegand - have you tried advertising on Craigslist? I know if *I* was looking for a molecular geneticist, that's the first place I'd go.

  • I can't believe this is anything other than a massive joke. What man doesn't go shopping? Hell, I'm the incredibly picky one in my household and I don't like it when my girlfriend goes shopping on her own. Then again, I'm unmarried, living together after seven years of dating, anti-children, and would find it creepy and weird if my girlfriend wanted to take my name.

    Actually, since my girlfriend...+READ

    I can't believe this is anything other than a massive joke. What man doesn't go shopping? Hell, I'm the incredibly picky one in my household and I don't like it when my girlfriend goes shopping on her own. Then again, I'm unmarried, living together after seven years of dating, anti-children, and would find it creepy and weird if my girlfriend wanted to take my name.

    Actually, since my girlfriend works and I'm the one currently looking for a job (hey, if anyone needs a molecular geneticist in San Francisco...) I'm the one most likely to go out shopping alone.-COLLAPSE