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Fred's Corner September 30, 2009 By Fred Cicco
After being in the men’s clothing business or
around it all of my life, I have come to observe some big differences
between men’s and women’s shopping habits. Most men are not clothes
horses. They don’t want to be there. If it wasn’t for wives and girl
friends, we would not have near as many customers as we do.
Most guys have other well documented interests when it comes to buying
clothes. Hardware departments, computer and software departments,
electronics, and lumber yards. That’s the first choices. Clothes are
down on the list. It’s more of a necessity than a want for most men. If
they could only understand how much happier the women in their lives are
because they dressed up and look nice, they would flock to the men’s
store. Women think about small things, like do his socks match. They
want to see a man step out and be bold and buy a patterned pair of
socks. I think that in their mind if a guy can successfully match a pair
of socks with a pattern to what he’s wearing, he must have a high level
of intelligence. A lot of guys have the mistaken impression that black
goes with everything.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of men who can think for themselves
and know what they want. It’s just that a majority of men would rather
do what makes their wives or girl friends happy and would rather please
them than themselves. One of the big differences if that women always
want to match colors exactly instead of coordinate colors. They also
don’t want to introduce too many colors into the mix. Men’s clothing
doesn’t have a hot color for the season and then all shirts and ties are
made with those colors. Women reluctantly give up on that idea after
they find out it just doesn’t work out that way.
In a men’s store, everything is done for the man. Suits are laid out and
the customer chooses the one he likes. He tries it on and then it is
fitted for him. The mistake a lot of women make is that when they are
watching the suit being fitted, they always reach under the back of the
armpit and grab the extra material and say, “can we get rid of this? I
don’t like this extra material.” At that point I have to point out that
it looks that way on the mannequins because they don’t move. I have the
man move his arms forward and then excess material disappears. I point
out that he needs that so he can move his arms.
After the suit is picked and fitted, shirts and ties are chosen. They
are arraigned and laid out neatly so that a choice can easily be made.
All the man has to do is say weather he likes this one or that one. All
with his wife or girl friends approval, of course. It’s really a pretty
easy shopping experience.
If you have gone shopping with your wife or girl friend, you know what a
hard job this is. A women will go to ten different stores for a white
blouse. This one has the wrong sleeves, this one is the wrong shade,
this one has the wrong bow. A guy walks in and says I need a white shirt
and there is not too many choices. A women has a lot harder job. A guys
buys a pair of pants and if he buys an identical pair, he usually only
has try one on and the other can be altered the same. Women have to try
on every single item and also have try on the tops that go with it so
they don’t have to try to visualize it.
If you wander around any department store and go to the women’s
department, you will see a lot of women going through racks of clothes
and no clerks are anywhere to be seen. Most women don’t want any help.
They just keep finding more and more things until they can’t hold
anymore. After they spend hours trying on everything, they get their
choices together and search for a clerk for affirmation. The clerk must
validate their choices. Men only look to their wives or girl friends to
see if they are happy with the selections. I’m just glad I don’t have to
go through the process that women do to choose my clothing.
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