Shopping: Male vs Female

Currently Reading: Hulk: Return of the Monster by Marvel

I'm sure you've all noticed by now that men and women do NOT shop the same. Oh, I'm not talking about the different items we buy. That one is completely obvious. Do you honestly think those bath/perfume shops are really meant for men? Of COURSE they aren't. That's why most of the store is filled with frilly, sweet-smelling perfume type bath gels while the more manly stuff occupies one shelf in the back.

There's also the difference in the WAY we shop. Men tend to have things planned. We don't often go out just to BROWSE unless that browsing involves gathering statistical data on which electronics product will make us look the most COOL and impressive to our friends/enemies. When men shop, we like to know just what we're looking for so we can plot out which stores are likely to have it and what route to take. We do all this not because we hate shopping. We do this because we like to maximize our shopping experience. To wander aimlessly while looking at things we don't want, that's inefficient :-)

Most importantly, we differ when it comes to describing our shopping trips. For men, it runs something like this:

Man: Well, we went out to the mall this weekend. Got some great deals. Spent about $50 bucks on some sweaters and shoes.

While the female version is more like:

Woman: Oh my GOD you won't BELIEVE how much money we SAVED this weekend at the mall. By the time we were through, I saved over 100 dollars!

I'm sure you've noticed the slight change in emphasis between the two. Which brings me to our weekend. As you may have guessed, we did a little more shopping, even though we said we wouldn't. Mostly we went out because we were bored and couldn't think of anything to do. We hadn't been to the mall in a while so that's where we headed after church.

By the end of the day, we'd spent about 55 bucks on sweaters and shoes for CC. Got some great deals. She picked up 6 sweaters, all very nice, most of them light, for spring. She also finally used the gift card for Payless that she got for her birthday. Picked up three pairs of shoes. Great deals, we got all of that for 55 bucks. But that's not how she describes it. From her perspective, we SAVED over 150 dollars due to all the mark-downs.

I guess the lesson for the day is that you have to spend a little to save a lot :-)