The Swiss and Austrians are the European champions of delegation; the British are mummy's boys

A representative survey shows that buying socks is such a chore it needs to be delegated. The Austrians are the European champions in this respect. And the British leave sock-buying to their mothers.

Zurich, 03 January 2012: Buying socks is a chore, it's a fact. For 10 percent of people, buying socks is such a tedious waste of time that they delegate the task. A representative international survey carried out by BLACKSOCKS, inventors of the sockscription, shows how this unpleasant task is dealt with in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Great Britain. The survey involved around 500 men and women in each country who made up a representative sample of their national population. The online survey was carried out by market research institute GfK Switzerland on behalf of BLACKSOCKS.

93 percent of men and women surveyed in Germany bought their own socks. In France and Italy, it is 92 percent. In Great Britain, the figure is still 90 percent of those surveyed. Men and women in Switzerland and Austria are the laziest. Only 86 percent of them shop for their own socks. An internal customer survey shows that BLACKSOCKS customers are more independent: 92 percent indicated that they had ordered the socks themselves. 8 percent of them buy BLACKSOCKS for other people.

Lazy men, reliable partners

If we look at just the men, the level of independence is considerably lower: 84 percent of men buy their own socks (by comparison, 96 percent of women do!). Austrian men are the champions of delegation: 22 percent of them do not buy their socks themselves, instead they leave the job to someone else. Swiss men are almost exactly as shopping-phobic and keen on delegation: 21 percent get others to buy their socks. The French are almost exemplary: only 11 percent delegate the chore of sock-buying. In Germany, 12 percent of men delegate sock-buying, with 14 percent in Great Britain and 15 percent in Italy.

And who buys the socks if you don't want to or can't buy them yourself? The wife or partner! In Switzerland, 87 percent of shopping avoiders send their wives or partners. The figure is significantly less in the other countries: Austria (71%), France (68%), Germany (65%), Italy (61%).

Mummy buys the socks

In Britain, mothers are the most frequent sock buyers: One in two shop-shy Brits gets his mum to do the job, making them real "mummy's boys". One in three shopophobic Germans, Austrians, Frenchmen and Italians also leaves the job to Mama. However, Swiss Mamis only bring home socks for one in seven non-shopping-loving men. In Switzerland, wives and partners are the most important sock buyers by some way. Even mother-in-laws sometimes get the job: a total of 3 percent of shop-shy Germans and 2 percent of Swiss have no qualms about sending their mother-in-law off to buy socks. 3 percent of Brits trust their grandmother to stock up their sock drawers. Maybe she's knitting them herself?

A dozen new pairs of socks a year

On average, the men surveyed bought 12 pairs of socks a year - or got someone else to it. The figure is lowest in France at 9 pairs and highest in Italy at 15 pairs, followed by 14 pairs in Germany. In other countries: Switzerland and Austria buy 11 pairs each and Great Britain 12 pairs. And by the way: Women buy as many socks as men. And in most cases they manage it all by themselves.

But buying new socks is so simple that anyone should be able to manage it by themselves: Order them directly online from BLACKSOCKS.com and rid yourself of sock sorrows.

Further information on BLACKSOCKS and print-quality images at: www.blacksocks.com/media.

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