Shopping: men lack the gift

Christmas shopping and men rarely go hand in hand. Not only do men traditionally favour panic-induced shopping at the 11th hour, they are also renowned for their immunity to partners' heavy hints about ideal presents.

So it will come as little surprise to learn that a nationwide poll has confirmed that men are officially hopeless at shopping for Christmas presents.

More than three in four people who panic-shop on Christmas Eve are men, according to the poll, commissioned by department store John Lewis. And for the majority of those making lastminute purchases, it is the first and only Christmas shopping trip of the year.

In a bid to determine why men always leave shopping to the last minute, the poll identified five new types of male shoppers.

The most successful male shoppers were those dubbed "Dave" - Done All Very Early - "Toms" - Twenty or More Shops - and "Ben" - who Begins Early November. Unfortunately, however, they were few and far between compared with their female counterparts.

The most common type of male shopper was the "Ashley" - who Avoids Shopping However Late Every Year - or worse, the "Cedrics" - who favour Christmas Eve Dash Racing Into Central Stores.

Nigel Wreford-Brown, commercial director at John Lewis, said: "It's a question of practice. Men simply aren't as used to shopping as women are. Women are more creative while men are more purposeful. They come into a store with something in mind but we have 530,000 different items on sale and they can be overwhelmed.

"As a result, the unpractised male shopper may well enter the store and white out." The poll revealed how 77 per cent of those who leave shopping until Christmas Eve are men, while they also make up 73 per cent of shoppers during the week before Christmas. More than three-quarters of those who manage to buy all their presents in one shopping trip are also men - which may or may not be a testament to their shopping abilities.

And the worst culprits in terms of 11th-hour shopping were the younger shoppers. Nearly one in three Christmas Eve shoppers were aged between 25 and 34, according to the NOP poll, which questioned more than 1,000 people over the age of 15. Not all hope is lost however, according to Mr Wreford-Brown, who said: "Men are getting better at shopping for lingerie. Maybe this is due to a strict briefing before they leave the house but they do tend to get the right size. Although having said that, we do still get lots of returns after Christmas." Meanwhile, some women shoppers appeared to go to the other extreme. The findings revealed that women were more likely than men to indulge in as many as 20 shopping trips in order to find the perfect gift.

Nearly six in 10 of the shoppers who make 20 or more trips during December were female, according to the poll.

And nearly one in four of these hardened shoppers will start Christmas shopping again during the January sales in order to scoop the best presents for the following year.

As a result of the lack of organisation that characterises the shopping techniques of male Londoners, a new Map for Men will be distributed at John Lewis stores in the run up to Christmas, offering guidance and advice to overwhelmed men.

But as its tips include combining shopping with a trip to the pub it remains to be seen if the stores will be empty of frantic male shoppers this Christmas Eve.