Ever wonder why food marketers invariably refer to “the shopper” by employing the personal pronoun, “she?” Are they sexists? No, just realists. For though women in the twilight of the 20th century have risen to the highest levels of business, politics, medicine, the arts, and what have you, shopper demographics in supermarkets remain much the same as they were in the Ozzie and Harriet ’50s. It’s a woman’s world.
A scan of ongoing retail surveys performed by New York City’s Meyers Research Center shows that female cart-pushers outnumber male grocery jockeys 82 to 18. Other non-surprises: Half of supermarket shoppers fall in an age group that is more likely to have kids at home (35-59), and more than two-thirds of them are married.
If you want to reach younger, male shoppers at retail, you have a better shot in drug stores, as the table at right illustrates.
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