Actually, he doesn’t hate shopping; he just hates shopping the way you shop. Men tend to be very goal oriented when they shop. They know what they want, they go straight to that item, they grab it, and they get out. Women are more into browsing and waiting for something to catch their eye. Even when he needs to compare or check size, men are much faster. A review of surveillance images showed that if a man takes an item into a dressing room, there is a 65% chance he will buy it. For women, the figure is 25%.

Women use shopping as a chance to socialise, whereas men have no desire to take a buddy shopping with them. Likewise for shopping with you – it’s not his idea of a great time to get to know each other better.

Do men really hate shopping with their wife? Yes, most do. One survey of 1000 men asked, “Do you hate shopping with women?” A massive 71% said “yes”, while 18% said it depends and only 11% gave a solid no. A study from England found that 8 in 10 think shopping with their partner boring. The same study found that on average, men get bored after 26 minutes of shopping while women take two hours to get bored.

There are a couple of exceptions to the normal male shopping tactics. In grocery stores, men are far more likely to buy things not on the list (see, it is not just your husband!) and more likely to say yes to whatever sugar infused food-like item the kids want to get. Men also seem to take well to online shopping. This is likely because it is easy to find what he wants with the search function, and it is easy to compare items.

Unless your husband is one of the anomalies, the best thing for your marriage is to go shopping with a girlfriend.

~ Paul, I’m XY, and I don’t live to shop!

Speaking of online shopping: If you shop Amazon, can you do us a favour and start from here? It doesn’t change your prices, but we .5% of what you spend. Thanks!

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