Hillary Chybinski: Grocery Store Man Aisles - Brilliant or Insulting?

Friday, July 27, 2012

Grocery Store Man Aisles - Brilliant or Insulting?



After I dropped the kids off at camp this morning, I was listening to Morning Living (Martha Stewart Radio) and Betsy and Brian were discussing "The Man Aisle" . . . apparently a grocery store in NYC created a "Man Aisle" to help men shopping for their families.  I needed to learn more. . .

Google search "man aisle" and you get 5 million results.  Seriously??

A photo in the Huffington Post, indicates the aisle is stocked with chips, sugary cereal, BBQ Sauce, Beer cookies and more.  Not a piece of fruit or vegetable to be seen.

So if studies show that more men are doing the grocery shopping for their families. . .is this helpful? And why is it necessary? Are we assuming men can't find their way around the store? John is quite capable of going to the store, finding what we need and bringing it home.  Not only that, he can kick my butt in cooking it too.

Now I have friends that will put "diced tomatoes" on their list.  The husband gets to the store and is overwhelmed by the selection of canned tomatoes.  If he isn't the regular shopper - give the guy a break - there are a LOT to choose from.  Is that an excuse? No. . .it depends on how you divide responsibilities in your house.  John may not know what brand of diced tomatoes I prefer, but I don't know what kind of oil is in the car. (ok he doesn't either, but that's a different post)

So what do you think? Should grocery stores be more "gender neutral"? Are we taking this all WAY too far? Are we being "mean" or "insensitive" to men?

What say you? Please leave some thoughts - here or over on Facebook and let's talk.

catch you soon -


5 comments:

  1. The man aisle (in my humble opinion) is an insult to men.

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    Replies
    1. see I thought that too Jessica. . .

      Hillary

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  2. This is so odd. I am truly puzzled by the point of this.

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    Replies
    1. same here. . .not sure what they hope the end result it - although they did get a lot of attention =)

      Hillary

      Delete
  3. I read about this too and am not surprised that a study would be done about this subject. I won't be surprised if I see stores creating man aisles. I am saddened by this, though and do see it as putting men down.

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