Reading. Shopping habits (Pre-Int)

A recent survey of shopping habits has discovered that the vast majority of men buy the same clothes from the same shop year after year.

Women are far more adventurous. To them, clothes shopping is exciting, a journey of discovery. They will go from shop to shop, often not looking for anything in particular, and not knowing what they are going to find. They will try things on, go off to another shop, come back, and try them on again. At the end of the day, they might come home with hundreds of pounds worth of clothes or with absolutely nothing. But for the most part, it will have been an enjoyable experience.

Men, of course, don’t understand this. Just look at a man accompanying his wife when she goes shopping for clothes. He looks bored, tired, frustrated. Compare that with a woman shopping with her female friend, her sister, her mother.

According to experts, when it comes to shopping for clothes, men are driven by habit and tradition, and don’t like having to think too much. When they go shopping, they have something they want to buy and they go to the shop where they know they will find it. Once in the shop, they know exactly where everything is – the shirts, the jeans, etc – and what brands they will find there. They don’t like uncertainty.

‘Men often feel uncomfortable or uncertain when clothes shopping,’ a retailer says. ‘A shop that they know can remove much of that discomfort. In a smaller shop in particular, the sales assistant will probably know his customer. He will know his size, the kind of things he likes. He will advise him. Most men prefer to buy brands that they know rather than try something new, but if the sales clerk has a customer’s trust, he may even suggest something a little different.’

Shop owners will tell you that in these competitive times, it is essential to attract new customers. But they also realise the importance of the customers who come back year after year.