Shopping Excursions

For my shopping excursion, I visited several stores in the Garden City/Westbury area. The first was a Gap outlet store. I went on a Saturday, late afternoon. The store carries apparel for women, men and children. The store was fairly busy. The majority of shoppers were female/male pairs, a few with children. They were of varying races and ages. There was a display of colorful women's shorts at the front of the store, priced 34.99. I found the men's equivalent, also $34.99. While in that section, I checked out prices on men’s jeans. The majority of the jeans were $49.99, with prices for their premium styles ranging from $55-59.99. There were only a few pairs that were $59.99. On the women's side however, the majority of styles were "premium" denim, and were nearly all 59.99. The only jeans that were less than $59.99 were the ones on clearance. I perused the children's section, comparing prices on jeans and t-shirts. The prices for both girl's and boy’s clothes appeared to be the same, with jeans for both at $29.99.

The next stop was JC Penney. I visited the store in the early afternoon. The store was not so busy. The majority of shoppers were women, either alone, in pairs or groups. I counted only two lone male shoppers, and a few others who were with women. Again, races varied, the clientele skewed older. I first visited the children's department, checking out prices on basics like jeans and t-shirts. T-shirts for both were $8. Boys Arizona jeans averaged at $26. There seemed to be more of a range of prices in the girls Arizona brand. Jeans averaged $24, with more styles and colors being available. I briefly compared sneakers in the shoes section. Prices ranged from $40-80 for boys and girls Nike sneakers. The higher prices didn’t appear to correlate to either sex, they were mixed between both. I was on to the men's section. Men’s Arizona jeans ranged from $20-24, depending on style. There were about 4 styles and only a few colors to choose from. In the Levi’s section, prices ranged from $37-50 dollars, again according to style and color. This brand offered more styles and colors. The store didn’t carry women’s Arizona jeans, but the young women’s styles were priced at $24. Women’s Levi’s were priced from $35-40 dollars. A comparison between men’s and women’s Nike sneakers yielded similar results as the children’s; prices varied. There was a far larger variety of men’s styles though.

I also thought it might be interesting to see if there were price differences in men’s and women’s popular fragrances while at Sephora. Men seem to pay less for more product in general. In some instances, women paid more for half or less of the same product that men received. 

Fragrance @ Sephora	Men Price	Women Price	Size
Gucci Guilty	$53-80	$25-95	m 80 3oz	w 2.5 edt 95
Gucci Guilty Intense	$65-84	$63-105	m 84 for 3oz	w 105 2.5 oz
Gucci Guilty Black	$62-80	$56-75	m 3.0 edt	w 1.7 edt
Burberry Brit	$67-73	$70-90	m 3.4 oz	w 3.3 oz
Gaultier Le Male/Classique	$64-108	$69-95	m 6.7 oz edt	w 3.4 edt
Obsession	$40-67	$57-74	4.0 edt	m 3.4 edp
L'eau D'Issey	$64-108	$82-102	m 6.7 edt	w 2.5 oz

In regards to clothing in the stores I visited, there seemed to be few discrepancies in price regarding clothing. The differences, such as the Gap jeans, could be chalked up to there being more styles and cuts, but the majority of jeans were ten dollars more than men's prices. You'd figure with less material used that women's styles would be cheaper! At Sephora, one could claim that the different oils and packaging used could make up for the differences. But I don't think that explains why women are paying more for less. I think a lot of companies, particularly in beauty, simply charge more because they can get away with it. Women generally buy more makeup and hair products for men, and often get charged higher prices just for being women. Again, one would think that women's prices would be lower, but that doesn't seem to be the case.