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Recently Connie said she needed some makeup so off to the makeup store we went – and I do mean store, an entire rather large store selling just makeup. We were greeted by one of a dozen young ladies dressed in black. They are there to help you find what you are looking for or perhaps more accurately, to educate you on what you should be looking for.
I stood by the entrance patiently waiting until I was called for my opinion – that never goes well. Which of these coverups looks more natural I was asked. I agreed with the lady in black as a safe hedge while I wondered how covering anything up looks natural.
Anyway, with shopping done, as we left the store and my phone signaled a text arrived. It was my bank telling me the cosmetic charge was $179. How $179 worth of stuff fit in a bag the size of a small popcorn at the movies amazed me.
We weren’t done though, the store didn’t have a couple of items so off we went to Macy’s. Another text message – $125. I delicately inquired about the grand total of things to cover up, enhance and moisturize – only at night no less. Some of the items were in tubes smaller than a travel size toothpaste and others were jars smaller than a marshmallow- I was later told those were samples. Besides Connie said, it all lasts a long time.
After over $300 of assistance Connie was armed to look her best – for me I was reminded. The markup on cosmetics must rival pharmaceuticals.
As we were walking to the car she said she wished she had the physical ability to shop more. “Why,” I asked. “There are a lot of things I need,” she said. Well if you know what you need, we can get whatever it is.
“But I don’t know what I need until I shop.” Say what?
I made the mistake of defining shopping as knowing what you need, walking into the store, making your purchase and getting out as fast as possible.
Connie said she had to look while shopping to decide what she needed.
Women and men are different I was told.🤔
The woman cutting my hair yesterday offers a counterpoint. She asked where I was going next and I responded Home Depot. Her reply was “Ah, the man mall.” We all fit the steroptype.
My wife is different in that she hates to shop most of the time, except in the grocery store. When she needs, and I mean needs, new slacks or a dress I have to drag her out to buy something and even then she wants to walk in, pick up something that looks nice try it on and buy it. End of shopping trip. I am the same way about my closes, but I usually try to take her in and while she tries on one thing I shop for her for several other items for her wardrobe, get her to try them on and buy them for her if they work for her.
If you look at the list of writers under the Articles tab, you will see that there are 69 men and nine women. The number of commenters seems to match that.
This kind of stupid “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” rant is probably part of the reason. It says “men’s locker room here, women keep out”. (Or, worse, girls keep out). Sure there are some women who fit your stereotype, likely stay at home wives of advanced years, but a lot more who don’t. The only window shopping I do is checking out the markets when I’m traveling abroad.
When I first started reading this site I decided to even the odds a bit and stick around, but I bet a lot of women decide not to bother.
Over the years, I’ve made a big effort to encourage women to write for HumbleDollar — as I hope you would attest — so I find your rant bothersome. Why are there more male writers than female? The easy answer is to blame men. But maybe, at least here at HumbleDollar, we shouldn’t mimic the rest of the world and immediately go for the easy answer.