Imagine wrangling two toddlers and a massive shopping cart while trying to open the freezer door at Costco, only to have your husband confess how much he hates shopping with you. This is the reality for many women. And while some men have learned to bite their tongue during the chaos that is Costco on a Saturday, they didn’t hesitate to put their wives down the first chance they got.
In a viral TikTok, a man did some major hard-hitting journalism. He asked husbands at a local Costco just how much they enjoy grocery shopping with their wives. Surprise, surprise, the answer was “very little.”
What Did He Ask Costco Shoppers?
The resurfaced video was first posted in 2023 by user @lecleric. It has since gained an additional 14.4 million views on a content-farming TikTok account on Wednesday. The account, @amundstokke, showed the compilation of videos where @lecleric goes around Costco filming men asking them one question: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you love coming to Costco with your wife?”
Almost every single answer was zero, with the exception of one man who answered, “Without her, 10.”
A lone husband sweetly answered 9/10, while one sarcastically said “10.”
Why Do Some Men Hate Their Wives?
What’s important to note—and probably unsurprising to many—is that many of the men in @lecleric’s video were on the older side. The notion that boomers hate their wives has been such a heavily debated topic that it has become a meme in the 2020s. One can argue that cultural shifts, societal norms, and the (minuscule) progress toward gender equality have emboldened many women to leave unhappy marriages. Still, that doesn’t mean that the labor that comes with being married and raising a family has been completely balanced. Men’s lives are rarely changed when they become a parent, for example. But for a woman, it’s saying goodbye to her old self for good.
Millennials, Gen Z, and now Gen Alpha have critiqued the normalized trope of women or marriage being a sacrifice for men. “The old ball and chain” stereotype, for example. Or saying a man is “tying the noose” when he’s getting married. The misogynistic language has led young folks today to question, “Why not just marry somebody you like?” There’s even a well-documented phenomenon known as “marital hate.”
The ‘Nagging Wife’ Trope
In 2023, Nicola Brayan penned an article for Honi Soit addressing this very issue.
“The trope crystallised in the West in the 1960s, a time when white-collar jobs rose in popularity, instilling a culture of men working nine-to-five and returning to a home-cooked meal, lovingly prepared by their stay-at-home wife,” she wrote. Back then, women weren’t allowed to have credit cards or even high-paying jobs, meaning divorce was much riskier, not to mention extremely frowned upon.
Brayan continued, “Marriage was at once a force of oppression and a lifeline; being an unmarried older woman was also looked down upon.”
The second wave of feminism may have helped a lot, and women realizing that divorce does not equal failure added to it, too. But the trope exists to this day. In a 2024 Reddit post on the r/Marriage subreddit, one user asked the very question, “Why do so many husbands hate their wives?”
One user replied, “I think what you see if people normalizing their miserable marriages.”
What Did TikTokers Think Of The Costco Video?
Viewers could’ve seen the comments section coming from a mile away. As mentioned, the “joke” of the nagging wife was, simply put, not funny anymore (if it ever was).
“Hey ladies, remember, you don’t have to be with men that hate you!” a comment with 182,000 likes read.
Another wrote, “They’re pushing the cart while their wife is probably planning the meals and finding the ingredients.”
One highly liked comment simply read, “Guess what, she isn’t having fun either. Hope this helps.”
At least one user defended the men (because of course), writing, “You ppl think these men don’t love their wife because they don’t want to be at a grocery store? My god.”
They have a point. Costco on its own is highly stressful. Shopping isn’t always pleasant, and it’s easy for a couple to bicker in an environment like that. Plus, one TikTok cannot summarize someone’s marriage. But isn’t it about time that women stopped being the butt of the joke?
@amundstokke Asked husband how much they love shopping in Costco with their wives 😂🛒#fup #fyp #fypシ゚viral #fypシ #fypage #prank #f #husband #shopping
BroBible reached out to @lecleric and @amundstokke via TikTok direct message.