22 WEEKS!!
By Dan Miller
July 27, 2007
I'm always intrigued watching couples walking through department stores and malls.
As often as not, the man is trailing about five paces behind the woman.
Everywhere you look, women with the stamina of highly trained prize fighters, moving along aisle after aisle.... while the men, who can somehow manage to play 18 holes of golf in the blistering sun, struggle to find a place to sit down and survive.
Men, when shopping alone, tend to go after a specific target.
It's a bit like a military mission for us.
Once we've completed the mission (found the item) we pay and leave.
We men don't worry too much about comparing different versions of the item we might purchase.
We don't concern ourselves with whether there's a big sale going on (unless it's a gadget for the workbench, or perhaps some electronic device, or something to enhance our golf game).
On the other hand, women shoppers might call a friend, or a sister, and tell them about some "big sale" they've heard about.
They'll make it an afternoon "social get together".... slowly moving through racks, trying on clothes and having a great time.
My wife, bless her heart, can easily spend a 6-hour afternoon with our daughter, or a friend, or her mother.... in and out of dressing rooms, with a cart full of potential purchases.
For the life of me, I cannot imagine myself calling a buddy and saying,
"Hey, let's go try on some clothes and look at shoes!"
OK, here's what brought all this to mind (this time).
I ran across a survey of 2,000 men, commissioned by the British online clothing shop known as MissButterfly.
They surveyed British men, but I'm sure it applies to all of us.
Perhaps most astounding of the many conclusions was this:
The average man -- during his lifetime -- will spend at least 22 weeks waiting outside those little changing rooms in stores for his wife or girlfriend.
22 weeks!
That's 3,696 hours!
Such a waste.
In that amount of time, just think of all the football games, golf tournaments and boxing matches I could watch on television while snoozing on the couch!
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(photo - "Man Waiting" by David Malcolmson)
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