Whenever I go to buy something with a female friend, I notice that the salespeople usually talk to me more than my friend. Most of the time, this happens because of the assumption that I’m the one who will be paying and thus, I’m the one who needs to be convinced that making that purchase will be a very good thing to do. For the sake of this post, whenever the words ’sex’ and ‘gender’ are used, we shall assume two things. We shall assume that the word ’sex’ refers to the actual biological nature of a human being : male or female. We shall also assume that the word ‘gender’ refers to the characteristics found in a human being that are usually attributed to a specific sex.

Usually, salespeople focus on selling something to a guy rather than a girl at many stores. I see this happening a lot at car dealerships. The salespeople will walk up to a family or a couple, and talk about the details of the deals with the man, even if the car is being bought for the woman. I see this happening at electronic stores also, where the salesperson comes and greets everyone in the buying party, and then starts focusing on the husband or the guys. Even if a guy is holding a baby in an electronic store and his wife or girlfriend is looking at stuff, the salespeople usually tend to hover around the guy. It’s also interesting to see that sometimes you see salespeople of either sex acting the same way when it comes to zoning in on a single member of a buying party in order to make a sale, or to influence their buying decision.

While it would be interesting for me to say that females are the only ones that are the target of gender bias or prejudice on such levels and in such cases, I cannot do that since that would be an inaccurate statement to state. Men are also victims of gender bias; Why is it “nice” for a guy to pay the bill all the time? Being “nice” for what? Why not be nice to another guy all the time also, then? Are girls weaker that we have to be nicer to them more than necessary? No. Then, are guys expecting something back from the girl? Who knows; I’ll delve deeper into that interesting, yet sensitive topic of thinking one is forever “biologically handicapped when it comes to attraction”, some other day. Why are guys ignored in most of the toy stores? Why do many jewelry shops focus on guys only when it’s time to make the payment?

It’s good to get rid of the archaic theory that women do not affect the decision of men when it comes to buying something. Both men and women affect each others’ decisions when they are living together, and the more we move towards a society where gender differences are not glorified or sympathized by either sex, the less differences we will see between the buying habits of both men and women, and the effect of such habits on the opposite sex and their lives.

The mentality that a certain gender is good for something, and that some things should be done so as to trigger a response in a specific gender, is a stereotypical social trend that definitely needs to be changed. This change should come because of realizing that such a mentality is not a justifiable one. This change, however, should not come because of realizing that respecting a specific gender on purpose will yield some benefits, such as more sales. Only when we can’t change that mentality based on the concept of equality can we turn to focusing on the buying power of the females. Better to do at least something that can get us a bit closer in the direction we want to go.

When you go with someone of the opposite sex to buy something, whether it’s expensive or not, who do the sales people usually talk to more: the female or the male? What is the gender of such salespeople? When you go to an electronics store like Best Buy, which of the two gets more attention: father or mother? How about a toy store like Toys R Us? What do you think about this?