The Married With Children view of the family – husband glued to the couch with remote in hand, the wife out shopping for groceries – is slowly shifting toward more equal time in each position for both genders according to a recent Nielsen study.
Women are still handling most shopping duties in all retail channels aside from convenience stores, and still ring up higher totals at the cash register, but men are gaining quickly on those numbers. At grocery stores, women average $44.43 per trip and men $34.81, while at warehouse stores where families can stock up on bulk goods, women are only $3 – $5 ahead of men in spending averages.
Analysts attribute this subtle change in numbers to the higher unemployment rate of men compared to women, but the overall trend of men handling shopping duties has been on the rise for the last seven years.
While dad may be out shopping more these days, mom is watching more live television than men in every age group over 18, in addition to more DVR recordings with women under 45 showing the largest numbers of DVD usage.
Retailers, now armed with the evidence that men, are, in fact, gaining more ground in making household shopping decisions should take into account their merchandise marketing. Studies have shown that men have a higher propensity for impulse buys – so how will retailers plan shelves to reflect that?
Will these trends cause you to re-merchandise to take advantage of the sales possibilities?
Source: MediaPost, March 2011
