Today my older brother Andrew and his wife Belinda decided they’d come for a drive to the Gold Coast for the day. After a little discussion between Claire and Belinda, it was decided we’d head to Pacific Fair to check out the shops (I know, who would have thought; women and shops?).

We all had some lunch in the food court after which the chicks decided to get a little shopping in. Belinda tells us that it is nice to have the shops so close, as they have to drive into Brisbane from Ipswich (roughly 45 minutes) to get to them; where as it takes about 12 minutes from our place to Pacific Fair. One has to wonder, it takes 45 minutes from Ipswich to Brisbane and about an hour from Ipswich to the Gold Coast; was the extra 15 minutes a sacrifice to get to one of the largest shopping centres in the Southern Hemisphere? ;-)

Back on track, women shopping is an amazing act to watch take place. The female species have an uncanny ability to walk through shopping centres aimlessly for hours on end, not looking for anything in particular, whilst being perfectly content. They’ll go in and out of shops, touching nearly every piece of clothing, just to see what it feels like and if it would look good on them. Keep in mind, they aren’t looking for anything in particular, they are just there, therefore they must look and touch.

Compare that against how a male shops. Males will go to a shopping centre with the express purpose of buying something and those somethings will be predefined before they get in the car. When they get to the shopping centre, they will seek out the nearest shop which offers one of the items on the list. Once in said shop, they will do one of two things; buy the item or immediately move onto the next nearest shop which offers one of, but not necessarily the same item.

I wonder if the difference is that women find shopping relaxing and fun, where as for a male it is more of a chore. I personally, don’t not like shopping; I just don’t like shopping for no particular reason. If I’m not there to buy something in particular, I’d prefer to be at home relaxing. By comparison, Claire hates just sitting at home doing nothing. Is the driving force to do something one of the forces that makes females shop? Maybe we’ve just unravelled part of the puzzle.

I think you could summarise the two like this:

• shopping for men is an exercise in efficiency
• shopping for women it is a relaxing fun excursion
• a graphical representation