In recent years, it has been posited that men's "fear of the feminine," as described by Dr. Gary Mortimer of Australia's Queensland University of Technology's School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations, has gotten in the way of some guys shopping for personal care items in grocery stores and other mass outlets.
The opportunity, according to Dr. Mortimer, was for stores to create male product-only aisles to address this phobia and remove an impediment to sales. Here in the U.S., Procter & Gamble has teamed with H-E-B, for example, to implement the Men's Zone concept to drive incremental business.
Another aspect of Dr. Mortimer's research that got less attention was his assertion that male gender segmentation could also work in other categories. He pointed to liquor as a category heavily skewed toward male customers that might benefit from a merchandising bias.
While not connected, Dr. Mortimer's theory is being put to the test in a store on New York's Upper West Side with a men's aisle that includes not only personal care items, but also food and beverage items.
Ian Joskowitz, chief operating officer of Westside Market NYC, told the New York Post, "If you're going to have some guys over to watch a game, you can pretty much stand here — not move two feet — and get your beer, barbecue sauce, chips, whatever. It's all right here!"
"I think it's a great idea," Andy Huber, a Westside Market customer, told the Post. "I don't like to spend much time in the grocery store, so having this aisle makes things much easier for me."
If the test proves successful, Westside Market plans to incorporate what it calls its "men's isle" into four other locations it operates in New York.