Food
A new mall in Shanghai has set aside a space for what it is calling a ‘husbands nursery’, where it hopes bored spouses will hang out while their wives are shopping in the mall, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.
This ‘husbands nursery’, on the third floor of a shopping mall in Shanghai which opened on October 30, “is equipped with multiple leisure facilities, including magazines in its reading area, and a television,” supposedly for men to relax, CCTV said. But what those running the mall may not know is that Chinese men – the mainland’s biggest online shoppers – will likely be racking up credit card debt sitting in the ‘husbands nursery’ and splurging on themselves.
“Mainland men are more likely to splurge on themselves when making purchases over the internet than women – who focus more on buying daily necessities,” according to a May 2016 survey.
The survey was conducted by Ant Financial Services, an affiliate of the Alibaba Group that owns the South China Morning Post. Its findings are contrary to popular perception that it is women who go on shopping sprees, buying cosmetics and clothes. And, the study also found that women are buying more daily household necessities, while men are splurging on personal-care products and leisure goods.
“Male online shoppers prove to be more hedonistic and the level of online spending by men is higher than women,” Ant Financial said in its report published in May.
The survey said that women still bought a greater number of goods and services on the internet, but that they were buying more daily necessities for household use. Men’s online spending on entertainment, sports, dining and travel was 26 percent higher than the spending of women, and that women’s online purchases were aimed at running more efficient households.
Ant Financial conducted the survey in partnership with the China Academy of New Supply Side Economics. The survey was based on data collected by Alipay, China’s online payment giant operated by Ant Financial, which has 450 million users.
