After 10 hours of non-stop reading up on Data Mining in the retail sector, I now know for sure why Beer and Diapers are bought together. The fact that this was discovered in US shopping and not in India was my first clue. Also, I noticed that most of the beer buyers here were youngsters, and the idea of their having kids needing diapers seemed odd. So I decided to follow various buyers of alcoholic drinks and found that beer tended to be bought in larger numbers per person (the famous 6pack for the double chin), and sometimes tended to get consumed on the way home. I mean, hey, its just a can of beer, easy to hold and drive… and drink of course! So I also noticed that most of these folks who had a beer would pull over on the way home, to the side of the road and relieve themselves – that’s common where I am from.
Now, cut to the US. Where does the poor bastard tanked up with beer take a leak on those interstates or those avenues & streets leading to his house? And then my friends, do you truly understand, why beer and diapers are bought together.
Just as the writers of history have the advantage of making it say what they want, so too the male statisticians who like to believe that behind their beer guzzling paunches lies the soft interior of a caring father!!
Beer and Diapers do go together indeed!!
(This insight came to me as I was reading stuff on the PC, drinking some wonderful Port Wine from a friend in Goa, and patting my baby to sleep on my lap… which is when the Peepul tree sprung up behind me after my 5th glass of wine, enlightening me to the obvious advantages of diapers to a person in discomfort. Fortunately my kid was asleep already and the loo was three steps away, but think of the guy on the 495 Beltway!!)
