Having trouble phrasing this, so in case it’s not clear I’m not looking for casual misogyny thanks
Having a debate with a friend about whether men shopping with women can be fun and I’m wondering how coloured my view of this is by me and my ex.
I’d love to hear what makes a great shopping experience for you with your friends or significant others!
I think it’s not so much about the genders of the shoppers, but rather their approach to shopping that is most telling. I take after my mother: I’m a Combat Shopper. When I enter a store, I have a specific plan of action, and my goal is to execute it as swiftly and efficiently as possible and get out. My father, on the other hand, was very much a lookie-loo shopper. He would spend hours at the store slowly walking up and down every aisle trying to think if anybody he knew would want whatever bit of tat was on the shelves in front of him. Drove me fucking nuts to shop with him.
I think that combat shoppers can shop with other combat shoppers, and lookie-loo shoppers with others of their ilk, but pairing one with the other is a recipe for hurt feelings.
My mode depends on what I’m shopping for and how much time is available, whether I feel like wandering, and whether I know the store at all.
Let’s say I need, idk, a 6TB drive from Microcenter but I have like an hour to get it. Combat mode.
By contrast, this morning I felt like looking for some used blu rays at the thrift store and also felt like being a looky-loo.
If it is something we are both shopping for like garden decor, or we are there to browse like for antiques or furniture, then it’s fun browsing.
I kind of feel like combat shopping is better solo. Unless the person can walk fast and help me find the thing if I don’t have precise Intel on location.
Having another person could be redundant unless you don’t know exactly what you want and need to compare and discuss a few candidate items.
This is my experience also. Me and the wife are both combat shoppers. We plan, we go in, cart blazing, we execute the plan, we get out and away. If either of us was the other kind of shopper, it wouldn’t work really.
My take away from this is the phrase combat shopper
