Christmas is just around the corner and while we get ready for the festive season, most ladies are racking their brain on where to get the most elegant Christmas dress and where to shop to get Christmas gifts for their colleague and loved ones. They visit different shopping malls, tried different dress and visit different stores – often spending hours to get something (or nothing at all).
It seems like a fun and enjoyable past time for the ladies as they comb the entire mall, leaving no stones unturned. It was almost like a conquest.
That’s also the time when you see men carrying shopping bags and look like they have never slept for days.
It’s a known fact that most men hate shopping while the ladies are the exact polar opposite.
Have you wondered why?
1. Men were hunters, women were gatherer
According to evolutionary psychologist, Daniel Kruger, it is natural for men to hate shopping while women love it due to our evolutionary past.
In ancestral culture, men are primarily the hunter and when the found an animal, they want to shoot it before it get away. While women tend cave and have a different inert characteristics of acquiring food in primitive time – they gather. They goes around looking for the ripest berry patch alongside other female members in the group.
2. Men go into a shop knowing what they want
Most salespeople would be delighted to see a man who come into the store. That’s because without much persuasion, men would already know what they want and take out their wallet and charge their card without hesitation – just like hunting.
For the ladies, they will go into a shop to try different dresses and go to the next shop to try the next (rinse, repeat) and then tell you “Oh the dress in shop A is better, but ran out of my size. Shop B is more expensive and not worth it. Shop C has too many designs for me to choose!” The men go crazy when when their girlfriend wants them to make a decision by saying: “So which one should i buy?”
The answer is neither, let’s go home.
3. Pushy Staff and Egocentric Men
In another study, they pointed out that men hate shopping because of pushy staff. Men are usually egoistic and they think they know their stuffs more than anyone does. If the salesman comes and pitch their sales talk, it usually won’t work for the egocentric men. It hurts their pride if you salesman or saleswoman out there tries to show that you are more knowleageable than him.
4. Men hate to try stuffs
You will often see snaking queue outside a female changing room in an apparel shop but not the male’s. Similar to the evolutionary theory, men prefer to be more decisive in making choices. They go into a shop, see something he like, pick it up and walk to the cashier to make payment. This also explains why men prefer to purchase their clothes online.
In constrast, the opposite gender see many things they like, pick everything with different sizes and different styles as though they are buying to stock up an entire year supply of clothes.
5. Men have better things to do than shopping
Ask your boyfriend out on a weekend’s evening to shop and he will say no. That’s because he don’t want to miss his favourite soccer game. Look, why would he want to squeeze with the crowd and idle around the mall doing nothing while you shop till you drop?
Hunger, tiredness and boredom is going to turn your otherwise perfect boyfriend into a grumpy old man.
Perhaps it is time to suggest to the mall developers to consider building a dedicated men area – to have a beer, watch soccer and play snooker for the ladies to drop us off.