Excursion Post: Shopping at Bloomingdales

For my excursion assignment I visited Bloomingdales in the Upper East Side. The reason I chose this store is because it has a large selection of merchandise, and this would allow me to make a better comparison between men and women’s products. The first thing I observed when entering the store, was the people who were shopping there. The shoppers were predominantly business people (early 30’s and 40’s) on their lunch breaks and tourists. However, there were slight variations in each department.

In the first part of my excursion, I wanted to find the same items in both men’s and woman’s departments and compare their prices. These are some of my findings.

Item	Men	Woman
Ralph Lauren Polo shirt	$70.99	$59.50
Button Down shirt Tommy Hilfiger	$89.90	$60.99
Sneakers Nike	$110.00	$95.00

What I found was surprising. Even though these three items were identical for men and women, the product designed for men was still more expensive. A possible answer for this might be that more material is needed to fabricate men’s clothing or shoes and as a result they cost more.  Another possible answer might be that because men make more money than women and are believed to shop less than women, their products  are a given a higher price.

In the second part of my excursion I was interested in visiting the perfume section of the store. There were mostly women or couples in this section. The sales associates who were promoting male perfumes were usually good looking and wearing tailored suites. Thus, the sales associated promoting women’s perfumes had a more delicate look, usually wearing fitted dresses and make up.   As I kept walking through the section and looked at the perfume advertisements, I realized how everyday we are bombarded with these ideas of what it is to be beautiful or the way you should look or smell in order to de accepted by society.   Advertising companies make us believe the idea that by buying certain perfumes or a piece of clothing you will get everything you want or desire. However, this is just a technique these companies use to make profit.

Not only did I want to understand the differences in prices between men and woman’s products, but I also wanted to see how I would be treated in the store when using different outfits. The results did not surprise me at all. When I visited the store wearing my gym clothes people tended to look at me weird and sales associates tended not to ask me if I needed help. However, when I was wearing a business type outfit I seamed to blend in with everyone else.

In conclusion, I believe this assignment gave me a lot of insight on how gendered our society is. I noticed how gender differences are present in every detail of our lives, and how clear cut gender roles have become a norm in our society.