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Half of us were born to shop

Lucy Kippist

by Lucy Kippist

08 Aug 05:50am

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Filed under: Economy, Retail, Shopping, Women

50 comments

Shut down the Productivity Commission. There’s only one reason shopping as we know it will never die, and that’s women.

Want? Need? What's the diff?

That’s right, you heard me. From the malls to the arcades, we fairer sex are the lifeblood of shopping and it will take more than a little internet habit to put us off our game.

Here’s why.

Women are generically programmed to shop. A Californian research group invested years in a study that found women, over thousands of years of evolution, have been designed to “hunt down” food more efficiently than men.

Not only that our “recall” of nutritious sources of food are better. So that explains why we can get ourselves around Bondi Westfield but can’t direct you out of the car park.

Women need other women to shop.
This doesn’t have to mean going with another woman, I myself only ever shop alone - but women provide inspiration, information and impetus to shop.

Like trying on stuff when you don’t want to and come out in the dressing room, parading the skirt/dress/pair of pants so you can stand back, take stock and decide for yourself.  And helpfully rolling their eyes at the vacant shop assistant.

Women notice detail.
This is important because well-considered detail can make shopping a transformative experience: ie fun.

A friend just back from holiday in New York (where plenty of shopping was undertaken) described the shops there as second to none.

Great looking models draped themselves over the banisters of multi-levelled fashion chain store; another filled with candles and wafting with perfume.

Not everyone is after glamour of course. For some people, like Penbo above, shopping is always going to be akin to dental surgery. So for them it’s always going to be about convenience and avoiding crowds.

Women know how to get the job done.
Any woman worth her shopping salt will tell you that if you’re not in the mood – you just go early, or you just go late.

You can even go late-late. Kmart established its 24-hour trading policy for almost two years ago. Another shopping-happy friend told me they tested it out around 3am on a weeknight – on a shopping expedition for a DVD player.

The result? No crowds, no queues and the fascinating prospect of oogling at the other kinds of people, who may also be shopping at that time of night.

So if Myer and DJs are serious about their plans to expand trading hours, it won’t be long before we’ll be buying more than just king-size boxes of Maltesers and nylon underwear - any time we feel like it.

Most commented

50 comments

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    • wakeuppls says:

      07:25am | 08/08/11

      I prefer the man-method.

      In, out, got what you came for, at possibly reduced cost because of awesome bargaining ability, save money, help economy.

      Reply

    • Tubesteak says:

      09:05am | 08/08/11

      I prefer the even smarter man method

      DO I really need it? Probably not. Therefore, I can do without. Put the money in the bank and build an asset for myself. Helps our country much more in the long run.

    • VVS says:

      11:25am | 08/08/11

      As long as the elastic is still in tact on your underwear it doesn’t matter how many holes there are in the crotch… they don’t need to be replaced yet…

    • Joan says:

      07:35am | 08/08/11

      Half of shoppers are half-wits- especially women. Take some KMart- or Target quality clothing , label it Zarra and hey presto a stampede.

      Reply

    • Dave says:

      07:42am | 08/08/11

      Hey Lucy - your bio says that you wrote for the Village Voice. What was it like working in New York?

      Reply
    • Lucy Kippist

      Lucy Kippist says:

      10:01am | 08/08/11

      Unfortunately it wasn’t the New York Village Voice! Just the Sydney version ...  sad to say

    • Sarah says:

      08:12am | 08/08/11

      And women’s “buy stuff we don’t need because we want it” is precisely what leads to the debt levels that cause so much problem. I wonder whose credit cards are generally carrying higher debt being managed at 18% interest - men’s or women’s who just HAD to have that 23rd pair of shoes that don’t actually do very much?

      Reply

    • marley says:

      08:45am | 08/08/11

      And no guy you’ve ever met has a shed full of power tools he never uses?  Or owes 10 grand on a souped up Commodore he just had to have?  I’ve got a suspicious there’s enough debt going around to cover both sexes.

    • Aaron says:

      10:12am | 08/08/11

      Actually, you’ll find it to be pretty even. The reason is that women are far more likely to make many small purchases on impluse, but men are more likely to make a bigger purchase, but less often (10 pairs of shoes or a TV)

    • John the Zombie says:

      10:31am | 08/08/11

      Hey Sarah I do the same and I am a male. Just have a look at my xbox and DVD range. Men have thier retail outlets they are just called Bunnings, JB Hi Fi, Harvey Norman, EB Games and etc.

      Ever seen the faces of wives and girlfriends when they are dragged into these places. Same as when men are dragged in clothing stores etc.

    • Sarah says:

      11:43am | 08/08/11

      Yes but tools and things from Bunnings are useful and make the family home nicer. Shoes are not (ever tried walking in heels?).

    • Ashlee says:

      11:52am | 08/08/11

      My fiance actually has more credit card debt than me thanks to his “need” for a bigger TV. And I agree John, when I get dragged into those places, I dread it.

    • Mahhrat says:

      08:19am | 08/08/11

      The point is fair - there will always be those things that you just go to a retailer to get.  For example, I’m buying a nice new PC this week.  I could save about $250 if I got all the parts shipped, but then I’d have to build it.  It’s been about 5 years since I built a PC, and while I reckon I *could* do it if I had to, it’s worth the extra money to get everything built for me, Windows installed and off I go.

      See, that’s the difference - the service.  I don’t mind paying that premium for the SERVICE.  Listen to that word, G.Harvey et al, listen and absorb it.  I don’t need a 17 yr old who knows less than me.  I need a gaming nerd who I can say “I wanna play Starcraft 2 at 1680x1050 and I want it to run bitching smooth” and have the guy not only know what I’m asking for, but able to ask me what race I prefer and if I’m online with it yet.

      When I can walk into a furniture store and ask the person inside which of her couches is best for my fat arse and poor back and get a real, honest answer that makes sense, then I won’t buy a sofa online.

      Reply

    • Tubesteak says:

      09:10am | 08/08/11

      The other thing you’re getting with the $250 is protection under the TPA and FTA (NSW - sorry, not sure what it is in Tassie where you live).

      If the computer doesn’t do what it’s meant to do you can take it back and tell them to make it do what you asked for. They can’t charge you anything because the law forces them to do so.

      But with the couch, you go browsing in stores to find what you want and then buy it online for a significant discount.

    • Mahhrat says:

      10:18am | 08/08/11

      @Tubesteak, yes, although “fit for purpose” would only apply if i wrote that down on a purchase order.

      I’m not sure what interpretation a judge might place on “Bitching smooth” though !:)

    • Tubesteak says:

      11:18am | 08/08/11

      You can always tell the sales clerk what you want and that it’s a condition of sale that it be bitchin’.

    • iansand says:

      11:21am | 08/08/11

      Fit for purpose applies if you made the purpose known at the time of purchase.  It does not have to be written on a purchase order (although that is pretty solid evidence).

    • VVS says:

      11:28am | 08/08/11

      If it were ever to be challenged in court, I believe I am qualified to give expert evidence as to what is bitchin’

    • Kebabpete says:

      08:31am | 08/08/11

      Women have “been designed to “hunt down” food more efficiently than men”.

      ef·fi·cient - [ih-fish-uhnt]
      1. performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort

      The key words in that definition are “with the least waste of time and effort”.

      Considering that women can shop for hours and walk away with very little you can hardly say that they are efficient shoppers. In fact, using that definition I’d say that men, who predominately get in, purchase, and then get out, would be the efficient shoppers.

      Reply

    • Anna C says:

      08:53am | 08/08/11

      I hate shopping.  I think it is really sad that so many women see shopping as some sort of recreational activity. I can think of better ways of spending my time then battling for a parking space, wasting money on useless crap and navigating maze like shopping centres like Westfield. Frank Lowy should be charged with crimes against humanity for his shopping centres which I consider more like torture chambers than offering a delightful shopping experience.   

      I’d be interested in knowing whether women have higher credit card debt levels then men because of their shopping addiction?

      Reply

    • Anna C says:

      08:53am | 08/08/11

      I hate shopping.  I think it is really sad that so many women see shopping as some sort of recreational activity. I can think of better ways of spending my time then battling for a parking space, wasting money on useless crap and navigating maze like shopping centres like Westfield. Frank Lowy should be charged with crimes against humanity for his shopping centres which I consider more like torture chambers than offering a delightful shopping experience.   

      I’d be interested in knowing whether women have higher credit card debt levels then men because of their shopping addiction?

      Reply

    • wakeuppls says:

      09:03am | 08/08/11

      You’d have to take the credit card debt figure of women and double it to take into account men who hand over their credit card to their wife/girlfriend/whatever.

    • Kate says:

      09:39am | 08/08/11

      I’m a woman and I hate shopping. Absolutely hate it. I go in with a list, get in and get out as quickly as possible, man-style.
      Why? Because I hate getting stuck behind the sort of people who wander aimlessly through shopping centres at pensioner speeds. I don’t have the money for really nice things, and the stuff I can afford is often pretty crap. Window shopping is depressing because it just reminds me of my lack of disposable income. And shoe shopping, which all women are apparently supposed to love more than sex or chocolate, is awful for someone who wears a size eleven shoe.

      Reply

    • Demoman says:

      10:09am | 08/08/11

      So basically you don’t like shopping because you can’t afford it and have big feet.

      The same way a fat woman hates skinny women ?

    • Kate says:

      10:32am | 08/08/11

      Well no, probably not. Fat women hate skinny women because they’re jealous. I don’t want smaller feet. I’m six feet tall, if I didn’t have big feet I’d fall over.
      Even if I had money and could buy ten new outfits a week, shopping would still give me the shits and I’d still do it as little as possible. I just find it boring and I’d rather be at the footy.

    • Mattb says:

      02:18pm | 08/08/11

      A six foot tall woman, who hates shopping and loves the footy.

      Are you single?...

    • Kika says:

      09:39am | 08/08/11

      I love shopping, but only when I have a purpose, a set goal and budget. Back in the day when I had 2 credit cards yeah sure I could ‘afford’ to go and buy stuff I didn’t need. These days in my old age I am much more frugal with my cash and save as much as I can. I buy my cosmetics online because it’s at least 50% cheaper if not more. I already buy all my gifts online because it’s quick, convenient, I don’t have to deal with rubbish customer service and I can avoid the shops.

      Reply

    • Paul C says:

      09:59am | 08/08/11

      Is it because women are impatient or do they just have too much time on their hands?  Perhaps Mr Harvey Norman can explain why he charges $89.99 for a Scan Disk Memory Card (16G Ultra) when you can buy an identical item from Ebay for only $31.99 (including delivery or even cheaper if you go for a unbranded one). I don’t think his proposal to charge GST on all imports will make an ounce of difference.

      Reply

    • Adam Diver says:

      11:12am | 08/08/11

      It won’t and there are several reasons why. As a retailer with an online shop as well there are 3 major and I mean major advantages to online

      1. No rent. A good spot with high traffic is amazingly expensive these days. At the start of the week you are already 4 figures behind.

      2. No staff. Staffing cost are high particularly in retail where its not exactly a difficult job.

      3. Wider Market. Currently we sell summer predominent items, but are selling quite a few during winter online. Why because people up north live in a perpetual summer. If we were constrained to our physical location, winter would be a whole lot harder, and there is noway we could reach the same number of customers.

      Point 1 & 2 as a general rule means you can reduce your markups from 100% to 10-50% and offer online shoppers far cheaper products that can not be matched in store.

    • Demoman says:

      10:16am | 08/08/11

      Born to shop eh ?

      Amusingly it is always the women around me that bleat about the environment and animal welfare but are happy to spend endless amounts of money on clothes, make up and Apple products.

      I don’t think indulging women’s base instincts has at all been positive for society.

      Female nature is to consume resources, male nature is to create resources.

      Reply

    • marley says:

      11:00am | 08/08/11

      So you’re saying that men created coal?

    • Demoman says:

      07:53pm | 08/08/11

      No, from Santa obviously.

    • jim morris says:

      10:46am | 08/08/11

      Lucy, you say “we the fairer sex”. You mean blonde with blue eyes don’t you? You couldn’t possibly mean fairer as “Without cheating or trying to achieve unjust advantage” because that is exactly the opposite of what defines women.

      Reply
    • Lucy Kippist

      Lucy Kippist says:

      11:51am | 08/08/11

      Actually i meant fairer as in better looking! Sounds like you’ve had a bad experience though, Jim.

    • jim morris says:

      08:58am | 09/08/11

      I was referring to the general state of the misandric zeitgeist when I questioned your use of the term fairer. The feminist state thrives on cheating and unfair advantage. For example, if I was to suggest one sex was fairer (or smarter, or stronger etc) I would be accused of being sexist. When Whoopi Golberg said she would “beat the kid black and blue” on The Circle recently it went unnoticed. If a man had said that his career would have been over. And as for women being better looking? Bigger looking maybe.

    • Thommo says:

      10:52am | 08/08/11

      “Women are generically programmed to shop.”
      genetically?

      Reply

    • DanielD says:

      04:32pm | 08/08/11

      I’d say the women you come across in most Westfields are quite generic

    • Adam Diver says:

      11:14am | 08/08/11

      The irony of this article, is if I wrote it, then tommorrow there would be a punch piece on what a sexist, generalising pig I am. The worse part is I don’t disagree with the generalisations.

      Reply

    • lilly says:

      12:40pm | 08/08/11

      Not this woman, I hate shopping. I have to go later today to get some groceries. I have a list. I will be in and out in under 10 minutes. I will get totally frustrated at the shopping centre ‘cattle’ who aimlessly wander staring at crap in windows while chewing their fast food cud. I coudln’t think of anything worse. I far, far prefer online shopping if I have to shop. But the shops will never die not because ‘women are programed to shop’ or whatever rubbish but because if you need milk, or a new shirt, or a new pair of shoes, or some washing powder etc you don’t order it online, you go to the shops.

    • Reid Wright says:

      01:07pm | 08/08/11

      There’s only one reason shopping as we know it will never die, and that’s men. Men go to work and make money while women prance around the malls and outlets all day spending it. Without men, women wouldn’t have time to shop because they’d be to busy putting food on the table. ;-D

    • sickemrex says:

      12:47pm | 08/08/11

      I’m female and don’t particularly like shopping. My idea of a nice afternoon is the beach, not the shops. If I need something and can get it online, I’m not wasting half a day at the bloody shops.

      Reply

    • Shama says:

      02:11pm | 08/08/11

      SBS had an interesting program just the past few weeks on the evolution of shopping and how it actually liberated women, from providing a public space for them to creating a range of jobs, albeit low paid-apart from facilitating the rise of the middle classes and how they took advantage of the shopping rules (e.g. return of goods etc).  It had a lot of valid points - so don’t look down too much on the shopping sisters.

      As to the gentleman who was whingeing about women being able to shop only because men earn money, this is not strictly true in the 21st century. Besides there is enough to suggest that men earn money to signify their own status - whether this be by way of a hot rod, a mistress or a wife he can afford to keep in furs.  Its a dual dance, not a solo one.

      Reply

    • Outraged says:

      03:32pm | 08/08/11

      Great article acknowleding women’s wastefulness!

      Men may earn more…but women SPEND more…so it all evens out!

      Even the shopping in New York is catered for women. I am a male and was VERY unimpressed by the men’s clothing in options in New York. Men’s fashion in New York was very conservative and drab…Sydney guys beat them by a mile!

      Reply

    • Robert S McCormick says:

      04:26pm | 08/08/11

      Lucy!
      Shame on you!
      I never thought I would see the day when you of all people would make such a sexist statement!
      OK! Women do most of the shopping but they are not the only ones who actually like shopping!
      I love it! Now it all depends on the type of store you are in!
      The difference is, I think, that women are more inclined to say “I want that & therefore I shall have it”
      Males, it seems, are not frightened to ask the forbidden question:
      “Do I NEED that or simply WANT it?”
      Very often they will answer in the negative!
      Retailers know this - after all the ones in charge are, sadly, still mostly males & they have not only studied their main customer base they have also employed psychologists to study it too.
      “Impulse Buying” is the big thing. Why else do Department Stores throughout the world have the entire Ground Floor of their stores devoted to women’s things? Make-up, Perfumerie,Shoes up to the 1st Floor more Women’s things - at all levels attractively laid out, lots of “Buy this, get that Free”, the smells, the music,the flattering lighting, ALL the bright, cheery colours! All designed to make women want something - even if they know they don’t actually need it!
      Women often accuse men of being incapable of multi-skilling & thery may be right but they, over the years, have had the last, mega-profitable laugh haven’t they? They have got selling to women down to a fine art!
      Have a look at most Men’s Departments. Where are they? Tucked away at the back of beyond or a very, very long way from the entrance!
      No appealing displays, no seductive lighting, music, drab dreary colours: Beiges, tans,browns,greys,charcoals,black & dark, dark navy blues.
      Why? Because those canny male retailers know that most of us single-skilled males are a bit more practical & a whole lot more suspicious of gimmicks - that is out side of most Hardware Stores where they are every bit as gullible as women over that latest gadget which never really works as well as the Demonstrator demonstrated!
      Just as men ask the Forbidden Question in most shops & women don’t the roles are completely reversed when in a Hardware Store.
      Yes, I am every bit as gullible in a Hardware Store and always ask myself :
      “Why did you but that bit of rubbish, you silly old bugger?” Doesn’t make any difference next time I’m there I do it all over again!
      Male or Female we can’t help ourselves & clever retailers know it!

      Reply

    • Wally says:

      05:13pm | 08/08/11

      Hate shopping, hate shops. Hate buying food. Hate advertising in shops. Hate queues. Hate people in shops. Hate TV advertising, junk mail advertising, radio advertising, all advertising. It’s a complete waste. Nobody thinks anymore. We just obey the voice that says you must buy stuff, or you are nothing. Not a viable human being. In any case, you’re just a person who has to work to get bits of paper plastic and metal, which mean something of value to get stuff we don’t know if we need. Then what we buy, sometimes we give to the person we live with, or know, to make them happy. Then they leave, or are distressed, and fight over the things that were given. It’s no use. Buying things is useless. Except ball bearings. Everybody needs ball bearings. They are indispensable to manufacture goods. The goods you buy, and don’t need, or do need. The world can’t do without them. Buy millions of them, or invest money in them, not shoes.

      Reply

    • Erick says:

      06:34pm | 08/08/11

      Heretic! Tapered roller bearings are far better! They have an immensely greater surface area-to-load ratio, and are inherently adjustable to compensate for wear!

      Tapered rollers! Tapered rollers! Tapered rollers!

    • Illa Wong says:

      06:08pm | 08/08/11

      Half the population loves shopping ! Who are they ?  Are they those people, who left school at year 10 and year 12 without any tertiary education, the ones who love to shop as they understand little else?

      Reply

    • Illa Wong says:

      06:23pm | 08/08/11

      Decades ago before the World War Two , men were the workers and wiomen were the consumers.In the early twentieth century, Women were typecast as gullible shoppers whom misorgynist advertisers targetted to make money. Now after the 1930s, only Liberal Party voters believe the old misorgynist wives tales such as “Women are genetically programmed to shop”, ” Women notice detail”’  “Women get the job done” And “Women need other women to Shop”
      What do men need to do while women shop? Football? Brothels?  Sex? Household chores? Child Minding? Other women? Sports? sleeping?
      Asian women? Ulraine women?Russian women? Playing with kids?

      Reply

    • Illa Wong says:

      06:25pm | 08/08/11

      I love Lucy !  Today, Lucy was born one hundred years ago!

      Reply

    • TheresaSharp says:

      08:37pm | 19/02/12

      I had a dream to begin my firm, nevertheless I did not have enough amount of cash to do that. Thank God my mate said to take the loans. Thence I used the collateral loan and made real my desire.

      Reply
 
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