Don’t forget about the “pink tax” where woman’s personal care items cost more than a comparable product for men. Think shaving cream, razors, lotions, etc... that alone won’t account for the extra $3k per year but it adds up
That's because too many women will pay the higher prices and most men simply won't.
The sections are kept separate to deter item-by-item comparison shopping.
It's possible to take a mental shortcut and end up in the pink section, then pick something off the shelf that looks right and be blissfully unaware that the same brand has the same product a few feet away that has a higher weight or volume for the same price... or better manufacturing technique (for clothing), or better cloth or similar components, or even a lower price overall. The shelves are stacked high enough, and the sections are spaced far enough apart, that the other options aren't immediately available. Notwithstanding the rather juvenile "BUY ME BECAUSE I AM PINK" codswallop, there are enough other shenanigans that make a person want to show up at the grocery store with a fully automatic assault rifle.
In sports, the philosophy is "shrink it, pink it, and stink it": make it smaller or different-sized for women (like bicycles) without noticeably altering the proportions in a way that might be biologically useful, make it some idiotic "look-at-me, look-at-me" color (such as in women's steel-toed shoes and work shoes-- cough-- Reebok-- cough), and do something that reduces its value overall such as using cheaper components, candy-assed manufacturing, shoddy materials, or anything else to increase the planned obsolescence without reducing the purchase price.
Does this not inspire at least a minor desire to find a discarded liquor bottle, fill it with a mixture of gasoline and dish soap, stuff a rag in the neck, light the rag, and hurl the results at one of those mass marketing displays?
No Mustachian will fall for the obvious marketing bullshit, but unfortunately plenty of people of the XX persuasion get as far as the pink flowery section, decide "I'm here-- I have found the product" and so it doesn't occur to them to nose around in the XY section long enough to notice that there's a better buy available. Gendered departments ensure that the same thing happens with unisex clothing items such as T-shirts, bermuda shorts, flip-flops, socks, and the like. Don't even get me started on the hair care industry because I will be foaming at the mouth in a way that makes my service dog want to call my vet and have me taken in for a saliva test.
I've heard it described as the "pink tax" but that phrase isn't offensive enough because it doesn't capture the full irritation that I experience when I see it in action. So for the past several years I've been calling it the "cunt tax". It's not entirely accurate, since taxes are presumed to accrue to the government as opposed to private industry. Likewise, the word "cunt" has also been in the news a lot recently in Yankistan, where the use of a vulgar term for women's genitalia is deemed to be socially unacceptable although most of the people who use it as an actual perjorative are unaware of the irony of it being the only part of the woman that they value.
I wonder, at times, whether I'm as coarse and immature as some of the people weighing in on both sides of the debate, and whether it would be worth my while to make the effort to be. At times, I think: "yes, I too can aspire to this level of offensiveness." But then, I think: "do I really give a fuck? Probably not so much." Eventually, since I am a slightly lazy version of evil incarnate, my desire to kick back and do sweet bugger-all invariably triumphs over whatever passes for ambition. This is probably good for other people's insurance premiums.
All of these verbal shenanigans are probably better than my first instinctive response, which involved at least conflagration and possibly a good deflagration depending on the level of instability I'm prepared to tolerate in Ye Olde Home Lab.