More And More Men Are Driving The Grocery Carts In A Recession-Induced Paradigm Shift

Though more and more men have been doing the grocery shopping and managing the household for decades, the recession – and the increase in layoffs – seems to have kicked the trend into high gear. The biggest of U.S. food and personal products makers have recognized the sea change and are paying closer attention to men, marketing products and rearranging store layouts to cater to them. Market researchers have noticed that males aged 18 to 50 are content to do the grocery shopping themselves or at least participate. GfK MRI and ESPN report that 31 percent of men nationwide are now the primary household grocery shoppers, more than double the 14 percent in 1985. And a Yahoo! survey of 1,000 fathers found that 51 percent were the primary grocery shoppers in their household.