{"id":2181,"date":"2012-02-11T18:30:11","date_gmt":"2012-02-11T23:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/?p=2181"},"modified":"2012-02-11T19:41:05","modified_gmt":"2012-02-12T00:41:05","slug":"food-for-thought-shopping-stress-and-the-sexes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/11\/food-for-thought-shopping-stress-and-the-sexes\/","title":{"rendered":"Food For Thought – Shopping, Stress and The Sexes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Very early in our relationship, my hubby went shopping with me for a purse<\/a>. Note that I said \"very early.\" There are many things men will do early in a relationship that go out the door when a couple settles into reality - like purse shopping or eating green bean casserole (don't ask). After that early purse excursion, we learned that if we wanted to keep love alive, purse, clothes or shoes shopping should be my department. It must have been a good call, because we've been happily married now for over 20 years.<\/p>\n

I hadn't really thought about how men and women shop better for different things until I read about a study in the UK's Daily Mail Online. The study, commissioned by The Co-operative Food, focused on how men and women feel about and deal with grocery shopping. Although women are considered the experts at shopping, our prowess stops at the doors of the grocery store. Yes, Virginia, the study found <\/a>that women get more flustered and stressed in supermarkets.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers studied around 2,000 people and found that despite the fact that women are more likely to enter the weekly grocery shopping frey\u00a0armed with lists and\u00a0coupons, the experience throws us into a complete tizzy. Women\u00a0hate the crowds at the store, feel rushed at the checkout and are generally shocked at the cost of\u00a0purchases.\u00a0 Two thirds of the women studied said they disliked fighting crowds to get what they wanted and 34% hate it when other people's children get into their way.\u00a0 1 in 10 of the women\u00a0confessed to getting into arguments at the store with other shoppers over things like shopping carts, fighting over the same item or line jumping.<\/p>\n

Grocery shopping, it seems, is an activity that men excel at and enjoy.\u00a0 \"Men seem to adopt <\/a>a much more laid back and methodical approach, taking their time looking for bargains and make sure they\u2019re getting the most for their money.\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The study found that 51% of the men are more likely to opt for brands they know while 26% of the women\u00a0grab the first brand they find because it helps speed up the shopping.\u00a0 It found that women are\u00a0more likely to ask for help in locating something, but men\u00a0are more likely to use technology to make the shopping easier.<\/p>\n

Authors of the study say that for women, grocery shopping is apt to be just another on a long list of\u00a0things they have to do so\u00a0women rush through the grocery store \"to conduct the shopping <\/a>as quickly as possible.\"\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Researchers theorize that\u00a0there is a \"new breed of male supermarket shoppers.\"\u00a0 I find a lot of the studies I run across interesting, and may share them with blog readers even if I\u00a0personally consider them to be chock full of hogwash.\u00a0 I'm sharing this one for the opposite reason --\u00a0based on personal experience,\u00a0I think it's absolutely accurate.<\/p>\n

I hate a grocery store.\u00a0 Just the sight of one makes me feel tense and unhappy.\u00a0 One of the happiest days in my life was when\u00a0Lowe's Foods came to Myrtle Beach because of the Lowe's To Go Service.\u00a0 It meant I could order my groceries online and schedule a pickup time.\u00a0I'd drive into the parking lot, push a loudspeaker button to announce\u00a0my presence, and an amazing employee would wheel my groceries right out to my car.\u00a0 It was life altering for me - and it still would be today.\u00a0 The only reason I stopped using the service is because of a change in workschedules and hours, my hubby started doing the grocery shopping.\u00a0 He prefers going into the supermarket and engaging in that whole battle.<\/p>\n

It was hard for me to understand how my DH could possible enjoy the shopping experience, but the new study indicates that he's not alone.\u00a0 It turns out that the grocery store is a man's world.\u00a0 But you know what?\u00a0 I'm okay with that.\u00a0 I'm very, very okay with that.\u00a0 Really, I'm okay with anything that keeps me out of the grocery store.<\/p>\n

Don't tell my hubby, but he's much better at grocery\u00a0buying than I am! \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Besides, my DH\u00a0looks so cute pushing around that shopping cart...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Very early in our relationship, my hubby went shopping with me for a purse. Note that I said \"very early.\" There are many things men will do early in a relationship that go out the door when a couple settles into reality - like purse shopping or eating green bean casserole (don't ask). After that ...continue reading \"Food For Thought – Shopping, Stress and The Sexes\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2181"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2190,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions\/2190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}