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The 'miserable men of shopping,' via Instagram

January 29, 2014 by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

In the early days of my marriage, my wife and I spent a lot of time at local shopping malls. In those pre-children years, shopping was more a leisure activity than a necessity, and we frittered away countless Saturday afternoons just browsing, me looking at books and music (you youngsters out there, this was in a time long, long ago, when there were stores that sold books and music), her poring through every clearance rack she could find and trying on outfit after outfit.

Ah yes, the trying on of outfits. I recall how I had built a mental inventory of clothing stores, ranked by the relative quality of their "husband chairs." I remember one place in particular that had the most comfortable leather chairs you′ve ever sat in, situated right outside the dressing rooms. Guys would walk into the store and, upon seeing both of them occupied, let out an audible sigh of disappointment. In the same way that coffee shop patrons feel a pang of guilt for sticking around for the Wi-Fi long after the coffee is gone, I often wondered if it was wrong of me to stay in that chair after She Who Must Be Obeyed had moved on to another store.

I hadn′t thought about all this for some time — having small children changes the mall experience, to say the least — until I came across this awesome new Instagram feed called Miserable Men. Yes, it′s a photo feed of men having a very bad time shopping.

(That last one in particular is so heartbreaking. Just look at the looks on their faces. It's like those three kids at summer camp whose moms were late picking them up, and it's starting to dawn on them that she might not be coming back.)

Now, this of course is all very gender-normative, but leaving that aside for the moment, we should ask why retailers still aren't doing a better job of providing comfort and activity for the idle partner in any shopping pair. This has been a cliché for as long as anyone can remember … so why aren't stores taking this as an opportunity to stand out and be different? Some have tried, but in the most clumsy and ham-fisted (and sexist) of ways.

Do you think there are any retailers that currently do a good job, taking care of the non-shopping partner? And are there any that do it without resorting to the old "men want beer and wings, women want free manicures" tropes? I'd love to hear about it, in the comments below. And photos are of course welcome.

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