Men: know your shopping limits

Umm

I make a shopping list – I go to the supermarket and shops at the mall – select and pay for the items – go home and use them – Not rocket science – though I was a rocket scientist (Blue Streak) 🙂 However what DOES annoy me is when the supermarket decides to move the items seemingly randomly so I spend an inordinate amount of time finding the new place they’ve put them. Though I now use the Internet more as sometimes finding an particular item in local shops is impossible – Ex I spent a lot of three shopping days fruitlessly trying to find and buy a particular size and type of plastic jug.- looked it up on the Net – took 15 minutes to find exactly what I wanted – delivered next day – so I no longer do long searches in local shops

I wish they’d mark aisles to discuss your life history so I can avoid them. As I always seem to be behind someone who has nothing better to do.

I really enjoy shopping in the supermarkets when women with prams / trolleys stop for a good old natter in the bread aisle. Coz’ nobody ever wants to buy bread, right.

In our house, my partner and I share duties and shopping is one of hers. I never have to go to a supermarket, ever. I love her so much 🙂

I agree with most of Nikki’s comments though, it seems that in the world of marketing anything is fair game. But as a man I don’t particularly find it offensive as there is generally no smoke without fire. Overall (there are quite a lot of us) men are pretty simple and perhaps I’m in the demographic that they are exploiting. Maybe men just pop into supermarkets for a snack when they absolutely have to, whereas women do the full shop?

I have no idea how they decide what to put in that aisle though as one mans snack is another mans rabbit food

Well done Dean. Spare a thought for all the single men (and women) who have no choice but to do the shopping.

Didn’t Which? do a survey years ago which revealed that men tend to know exactly what they want at a supermarket, and rush around grabbing them without giving other items a second glance, whereas women tend to survey other produce as they wander around the isles and therefore make more impulse purchases?

Maybe the ‘man aisle’ is an attempt to get men to browse more.

Aldi and Lidl have been doing this for ages DIY and electronics constantly changing them while ASDA Keep the same products.Shopping its a womans thing they love to isle block chatting to friends while most men who have to shop like me regard it as a chore a quick dash round Aldi Job done.All the supermarkets seem quite good maybe Morrisons at getting through the checkouts.The Post-OFFICE is appalling long ques only 2 or 3 serving when they have many empty service hatches the other day it was 30mins before i was served.Friday afternoon Stretford shopping Mall Post-office in W.H.Smiths just before Xmas only1 person serving no wonder Britain has so many unemployed.

This seems like a fuss about nothing. I have more important things to worry about. The point about moving the location of products is a fair one: I have walking difficulties, and finding the new location can be tedious. Assuming that the intention is to expose you to other products. If I have this happen I simply resist making any unplanned impulse purchases.
On occasion I have summoned a manager and made my displeasure clear at the re-siting of products. The usual explanation is that Head Office dictate such things. In that case I tell him to record the complaint and pass it on to the decision maker. I only dimly remember one reply. It was vague. In fact just the sort of reply I used to draft to complaints – e.g. ” I am sorry that your perception was that you were dealt with rudely. I can assure you that it is never our intention etc etc.”

Nearly four years on from when this Conversation started I wonder what became of the ‘man aisle’. Did it just fade away as another marketing gimmick? I have certainly seen no examples of it in the UK.

It has raised the question of stock positioning and merchandising. Although we get most of our groceries from Sainsbury’s by ordering on-line, we do most of our top-up shopping in a large Tesco’s within walking distance so I am more familiar with the layout there than in Sainsbury’s. I have noticed lately that Tesco are frequently shuffling the goods around, sometimes even into different aisles, as they cope with two things: first, the food and provisions manufacturers are coming up with a lot of new formats these days in order to disguise the shrinking contents or higher prices of their products [as detailed extensively in other Conversations] and this all seems to require a different approach to merchandising as packet shapes and sizes change; second, Tesco appear to be de-listing a wide range of products so that sometimes there is a reduction in the number of branded goods available, sometimes there is no alternative to an own-label product, and many smaller sizes or individual containers have been abandoned in favour of family packs or bulk packages. Alongside this, and as a consequence, space has been found for more lines that are higher-margin, heavily advertised or promoted in the media, or currently trendy; an example of this is the tea and coffee aisle where coffee in its multitudinous forms now occupies a mileage of shelving with capsule varieties centre stage. I don’t know whether the other major supermarkets are doing the same, but I can understand the appeal of stores like Aldi and Lidl which present a much simpler offering and a straightforward up-&-down route through the shop.