Resourcefulness

…………………………. for women

Sometimes when I look at the stores in a shopping centre, I can’t help but conclude that the gross of the world economy might be running on products catering to the needs of women.

Women are big spenders. They buy more on average, way waaaay more than men. But women are also caring, and part of their spending habits include purchases for their husbands, boyfriends, and children. This buying contains many unnecessary things.
A man is happy wearing a suit he bought 30 years ago if it’s not damaged and still fits. Our male counterparts are practical buyers. A man shops with a purpose; he leaves his house when he needs something: a new tool, a new pair of something because his current ones are torn out. A mindset of purchasing with a purpose is good for the environment but bad for businesses explicitly catering to a niche with a smaller target group. Hence, fewer businesses are present at shopping malls selling men’s clothes.

On the other hand, women are susceptible to the “woohaa” of smooth marketeers. A woman will buy something every time she walks through a shopping mall. A woman leaves her house to go ‘shopping’ without having any clue of what she is going to buy. Usually, the argument is to have a fun day out. She can hardly resist passing a shopping centre without just looking. Every time she goes to and sees something that looks ‘nice on her’, ‘cute on her’, ‘sexy on her’ or simply ‘hot’, she will buy it.

A woman will buy very similar things in the same colour and defend her purchase by stating that it is her colour. Then she will continue by saying that she needs one with a V-line for the warmer days and perhaps because it gives her a nice cleavage. Furthermore, she needs one with a round collar for fun and one with a high neck due to its practicality, i.e. for use during colder days and when she is visiting her in-laws.

For that same reason, there are tons of female products to make women feel better about themselves. Women need more skin products; A face-crème for the day and one for the night. A moisturiser for after the sun, under her eyes, to remove puffy eyes/dark circles/wrinkles around her eyes, but this one needs to be different from all her other anti-wrinkle cremes because it is only made for the eyes. One to remove scars, reduce cellulite, improve collagen etc
Of course, there are the must-haves that work preventative and protect us from other people’s bad breaths that only work when we re-apply them throughout the day.

Marketers play in on the non-existing insecurities of people, especially women, and if there are none, they create these on behalf of these cooperative, well-spending creatures. Major cosmetical brands think for women, thus creating non-pre-existing needs and wants. Visualise the market for different make-up brushes used only for the application of make-up on ONE face.

In other words, women are not resourceful at all because they think they ‘need’ so much. Even after all the information available about the need for recycling, a circular economy and leaving a better world behind.

All women are guilty of this.

If a woman is clever about her finances and is resourceful, then other women corrupt her by making her believe that she does not need to wear a particular dress twice to attend an event.
A woman will not only buy clothes for every event, and we can all admit that this process is psychological for women as it brings about a genuine sense of euphoria. Searching, strolling, driving, talking about it on the phone with her friends, on the app, via the mail, scrolling and sending links, buying, matching, and exchanging them for a better fit is exhausting as it is therapeutical for some.

There is a reason why fewer stores cater to men’s needs in shopping malls. That is because men don’t fall for nonsensical marketing tactics. Men don’t feel the urge to spend their money all the time.

Men are resourceful through their spending patterns which adds to the environment. Women recycle more, at the same time, buy a lot, and also many cosmetical products that add to overall pollution.