Dear LPG,  

When you hear the word ‘shopping’, what does it conjure up in your mind? I am guessing for the gentlemen reading, there are a few pictures which are flashing before your eyes at the moment.  

If you are single, it is probably about dragging yourself down to the local supermarket to get the usual groceries on the same day each week. At the same time, many of the helpful non-assuming men who are still partnered up will spend the trip taking on the portering and financing duties that come with the role of being a devoted husband. For those gentlemen, the picture will display their responsibilities of following their other half up and down the aisles while watching all sorts of items being added to the basket they are carrying or the trolley they are pushing. More than one of my married friends has told me of their mental torture as that ever-increasing collection of purchases gets heavier, and the thought of how much it will cost weighs both on your mind and your wallet!  

Then there will be a few men who will have a picture of their finger moving over the buttons of a computer mouse, mouse pad or touch screen as they click on this and click on that. I cannot omit those who will be fortunate enough to have a wife who never allows them to have anything to do with getting involved, apart from paying for it all. I deem myself one of the elites when it comes to shopping because I have a daughter to sort all that out for me. So, when I think of shopping, I think of her. 

Grocery shopping was the ultimate chore in my book until I gave it up, but it is closely followed by shopping for clothes because as we men get older, that also becomes a headache.   

When it comes to the people around me, the ladies seem to think that choosing the right outfit, item of clothing or beauty product is a challenge that only the fairer sex has to grapple with. I sincerely hope that people never stop trying to do their best with our visual attributes, even as we all get a little, or a lot, older. Still, we might need to remind the ladies that the vast array of beauty items on the shelves these days are not only limited to those for the ladies. Shaving cream is the tip of an ever-growing collection of so-called grooming products that continue to need more and more shelf space in the shops, and choosing the right electric shaver causes us men just as much anguish and as many decision-making challenges as selecting the right pair of hair straighteners when a lady’s old ones are no longer up to standard. 

The ultimate challenge comes when working out how to choose the correct birthday or Christmas present if we haven’t decided that money makes for less of a headache! 

Now and then, I have to admit to buying something that, when I have got it home and taken a good look at it, causes me absolute satisfaction, although the feeling usually has nothing to do with purchasing food or clothes.

I think that the fundamental difference has to be the attitude. From what I understand, ladies seem to enjoy shopping or do the shops want us to believe that that is the case? It is no secret that all those companies who advertise every day spend a lot of money trying to convince us that we will enjoy buying what they are trying to sell so that they can cash in on the profits… 

DG, Bromley