• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, March 15, 2011

In its latest analysis of shopper behavior, Nielsen is reporting a subtle gender shift: Men are spending more time in supermarkets, and women are spending more time on the couch watching the tube.

Women are still doing the majority of shopping in all retail channels (with the exception of convenience stores), writes Todd Hale, SVP/consumer & shopper insights, in his analysis. And they also ring up bigger totals at checkouts, which implies they still do the heavy-duty weekly stock-up trips. But men aren't just running out for beer and chips: At the grocery store, women spend an average of $44.43 per trip, while men spend $34.81 -- and at dollar and warehouse club stores, women are only spending $3 and $5 more respectively per trip than guys are, the market research company reports.

One factor, he writes, is that men are still facing a slightly higher unemployment rate than women (8.8% compared to 7.9%), which may be making them more hands-on at home. But the men-go-to-market trend was well established before the recession: "Men have increased trip shares between 2004 and 2010 in all retail channels but drug stores," he writes.

And no matter who is pushing the wagon, Sunday is the most important shopping day of the week. (At warehouse clubs, Saturday is almost as big a day.)

Nielsen also did gender comparisons in media use, and found that women are watching more live TV than men in every age group over 18, as well as more time-shifted programming recorded on a DVR. And those under the age 45 turn out to be the heaviest users of DVDs.

While women are heavier users of phones, both for talking and texting, using texts 30% more than men, males still are the heaviest users of monthly data activity on their devices. On their phones, they search the Internet more than women (31% vs. 29%), read and send e-mail more (33% vs. 30%) and are more likely to download apps (24% vs. 21%).