Mark and Maria (not their real names - their real names are Bud and Mary) are a typical American couple, time starved working family with 2.3 kids.  They face the same holiday shopping responsibility as everyone else. 

Okay, holiday shopping isn't so much a responsibility as an act of generosity, pleasure and reward.  At least that is how Maria and so many other women see it.  Mark, on the other hand, is like so many other men.  He sees it as a chore, and because it is the holidays, as an obligation.  Hey, Mark likes seeing his wife, parents, siblings, friends and his kids especially, enjoy the gifts they receive.  He just doesn't like shopping.  Too bad.  It's 2008 and things have changed for Mark and Maria, just like so many other American families.

"Mark?"

"Yes, my sweet."

"We have to talk."

"Didn't we talk last week?"

"We have to talk about shopping.  The holidays are only weeks away and we, no, I haven't even started.  I need your help."

"Uh, dear Maria, you know I'm allergic to shopping.  I break out in a sweat just walking through the food court, my favorite part.  I can't help you."

"You have to, Mark.  My boss is all over my case to deliver our departmental sales quota before year end and I am going to have to work day and night.  I simply won't have time to shop.  With the bad real estate market, your business is practically shut down.  You can do it.  I know you can.  You just have to adapt.  You have to learn how to shop like a pro, like a woman."

"My business is in a temporary slump, I'll have you know.  Sooner or later the demand for SOLD signs will pick up.  Besides, dear sweet and loveable one, I prefer to shop like the man I am.  Hit and run.  Shopping like a woman is foreign to me.  For one thing, you have to enjoy it."

"I'm going to coach you.  You'll see that it is not only non-lethal; it can be rewarding."

"You're scaring me."

Mark and Maria are typical of men and women everywhere in their approaches to shopping.  A study done by WomenCertified® in partnership with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, entitled Men Buy, Women Shop, described their differences as unique.  Their shopping styles are based at least in part on the primitive instincts that have been passed down to them by their ancestors.  Men exhibit behavior common to the hunter.  Women shop like the gatherers of primitive societies.  Things haven't changed all that much in 10,000 years.

But things need to change for Mark and Maria.  We'll follow their progress each day in the coming week.

Delia Passi and Greg Smalter

Hey and don’t forget to check out WomenCertified as it was created to give you a better choice, because you deserve it!