13 Comments

1. 

   Re “crampons”: I grew up with only sisters, married, and had only daughters. I’m happy to buy such products, even on extremely short notice, but I want to take the empty box!

   I don’t think men feel so much uncomfortable buying such items, as confused and unable to relate to the large number of choices.

2. 

   @ zbicyclist (1) – This Calvin & Hobbes exemplifies the problem, but for obvious reasons using a different product:

   

3. 

   The only time I had crampons was for climbing Grand Teton.
   (We had to bail on the climb due to illness. )

4. 

   
   zbicyclist (1): Many times, my wife has asked me to pick up this or that and I’ve either taken the wrapper or just photographed it with my phone. Sometimes, I’ve had to show it to store personnel and ask “Where is this stuff?”
   

5. 

   Boise Ed (5): And I’m sure that the store clerks thank you for supplying the image,
   instead of the various unintelligible non-descriptions I tend to get of various products in various languages.
   Not of feminine products, but when someone has trouble describing paper towels…

6. 

   I can imagine a comedy sketch, something like this:

   Wife: I need you to buy some of these right away.
   Husband: OK.
   Husband goes out, comes back, hands her the bag.
   Ten minutes later: Wife: Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! What did you buy?
   Husband: Um …

   It’s kind of a variation of the old Far Side joke, where the campers are surrounded by thousands of mosquitos because they bought On! instead of Off!

7. 

   @ MiB (7) – That was extremely painful to read.

   The reason that Larson’s “On!” gag worked is that both products were effectively identical (except for the name on the label), so that the mistaken application was believable.

8. 

   Boise Ed –

   I take photos of half the things we need to buy at the supermarket. It cuts down on the arguments on which brand my husband likes of things – but we no longer buy the sort of things you mentioned. More like – “no, you like this brand of cereal, not that one.”

9. 

   @ Meryl (9) – I never liked the moronic cartoon characters that manufacturers seem to plaster onto virtually every cereal brand(†), but at least now I know the reason for the idiotic custom: toddlers cannot read, but they can remember which character is on the box of their favorite cereal.

   P.S. (†) – Except of course the inedible “adult” varieties, such as Grape Nuts, Raisin Bran, and Shredded Wheat.

10. 

    Kilby: Have you noticed that the cartoon characters on the cereal boxes are always looking down?

    It’s because that’s where the kids are.

11. 

    
    Meryl (9): You know better than he does, what kind of cereal he prefers? Perhaps I missed something here.
    

    
    Kilby (10): Just the other day, a crossword puzzle clue was something like “Acme cereal character.” I hadn’t even heard of the cereal brand, much less knew of its character.
    

12. 

    Boise Ed – I won’t say this about all men – Sometimes food shopping with him is like shopping with a child. I did all the food shopping for decades.

    1 – He then quit his job (at my suggestion as I was concerned about his (mental) health due to burnout). For a year or more we held to the agreement we had – that I would go on with my day to day to life as before – work, food shopping, banking, etc – and he would do what he wanted to do. This worked find until the gas prices went crazy a few years in and he pointed out it made no sense for me to go to the supermarket and then he would go to the craft store in the same shopping center separately. Little by little we do almost everything together (I do go to my embroidery club alone).

    2 – I have been a Cheerios eater since I was a child (mom used to push me out the door in the am with them in a plastic bag to eat on the school bus for breakfast – never been a morning person). I also have some instant oatmeal packets for when we travel in our RV – take up a lot less room.

    His current cereal of choice is instant grits (my apologies to anyone from the south),though he also has corn flakes stored away that he will sometimes to add to his pea soup. Doesn’t mean that he knew which brand he liked of same.

    Having the photos in my cell phone of brands, etc he likes saves time discussing which brand or flavor he likes while in the store.

    Food shopping (and banking) was much easier when he was working and I did all of it alone. There were no discussions of “Why are we buying this brand? (or item)” “Maybe we should buy 6 cans of this instead of 2.” (Something we ate once before and have not eaten since – do we really need that much when he will decide he no longer likes it?)

    After 45 years married plus about another 5 years or so knowing each other as friends, dating and being engaged before we married we know each other pretty well. And our friendship still exists over everything else.

13. 

    Except of course the inedible “adult” varieties, such as Grape Nuts, Raisin Bran, and Shredded Wheat.

    I have bite-sized shredded wheat and bran flakes (I add the raisins separately) in my regular rotation of cereal. Those are both Food Club brand, as I discern not significant difference. The other I have is Honey Bunches of Oats, which I do discern a difference.