When surveyed by Men’s Health magazine, a large proportion of U.S. male consumers claimed that they, not their female partners, were the primary ones responsible for food shopping in their households. The survey included both single and partnered men, but the surprising results contradicted the long-standing conventional wisdom that has assumed that women shop for groceries. Specifically, a whopping 84 percent of the participants in this all-male survey said they did most or all of the shopping for their households, and of those who lived with a partner, 66 percent claimed this role. Going along with these trends, nearly all the men indicated that they prepared meals for themselves, and more than three-quarters cooked for members of their household too. These remarkable trends indicate double-digit increases over previous rates—but they also might reflect some specificities of the survey. That is, all the participants in this survey were men who read Men’s Health, rather than any of the women or family members who live with them. Other recent, broader surveys of U.S. households suggests that only about 41–49 percent of men are actually the primary grocery shoppers. But even if the respondents in the Men’s Health survey were exaggerating their own contributions, these trends still indicate the need for a shift in food retailers’ assumptions about who will be pushing carts through their aisles.

Source: George Anderson, Retail Wire, July 28, 2017