Why Men Make Lousy Couponers

Women shoppers, the stereotype goes, like to browse, compare, peruse and take their time searching for the best bargains. Men like to identify the best deal ahead of time, formulate a plan of attack, then go in for the kill.

So why do these roles seem to completely reverse as soon as male and female shoppers set foot in a grocery store? Women are often the ones with a list and a plan, while men show up with some vague ideas of what they want, and come home with whatever looks good.

They’re generalizations, to be sure. But a new survey confirms what other recent studies have found: more men are doing the family’s grocery shopping. And they’re not necessarily all that good at it.

The survey, conducted by Daymon Worldwide, found that 51% of males consider themselves the primary grocery shopper for their household. A sign of true domestic equality, at last? Sort of. Because only 15% of those enlightened males bother to clip any coupons beforehand. Even fewer, just 9%, download digital coupons. Only 25% check the store’s sales circular before shopping, and just 30% do any pre-shop meal planning. The rest just grab whatever they need, or feel like grabbing, and get out.

That seems to support the results of an earlier study that came out around this time last year, which dubbed these newly involved male shoppers “mansumers”. That study, from the group BPN, hailed the cringeworthily-named “mansumer” as the “newly influential Chief Buying Officer” whose priorities are convenience, solving problems and meeting needs.

Just not necessarily saving money.

In an oft-cited survey from 2011, Coupons.com reported that 59% of men said they used coupons. That had many publications hailing the rise of the male couponer. But in reality, the survey incorporated all types of coupons, not just those for groceries. So it merely reinforced the notion that men may use coupons to save money on big-ticket items they’re traditionally responsible for buying – but many tend not to bother with mere cents-off coupons that would allow them to save on their groceries.

So this latest survey is not so much a sign that there’s been a reversal in male coupon usage, so much as it is a confirmation that, despite the rising number of male supermarket shoppers, they’re still not the best supermarket couponers.

That’s borne out in another recent report, by the Private Label Manufacturers Association, which found that most women believe they’re better grocery shoppers than men. 90% of women surveyed said they pay more attention to grocery coupons and ads than men do. And 77% agreed that women are more interested in saving money, and men more interested in saving time, at the grocery store.

So if you’re a woman whose husband does the bulk of the grocery shopping, you may be happy that your other half is doing his part to help out the household. But if he doesn’t bother paying any attention to coupons or sales – that division of duties could ultimately end up costing you both.