Choice

I’ve always liked having a choice. Who likes to be told, “No, I’m sorry, this is all we have or this is all you can have?” People usually like the freedom that comes with choice. After all it is what our country was based upon, freedom of religion., freedom to vote, freedom to speak, free to be our own person.

However, is it my age, or is it that I’ve spent way too many years weighing the pros and cons of a choice, that I now reel from the options? Have you ever gone down the cereal aisle in a grocery store? There are hundreds of options. I haven’t done the experiment but I bet if I took the time to read every label, discerning the ingredients and nutritional content to find the most nutritious brand, yes we know this is an oxymoron, I could arrive at the store’s open and leave at its closing and still not complete the selection.It would take hours. So as consumers we usually buy the brand we are most familiar with or the one with the most enticing advertisement.

I’m currently thinking about purchasing a different car. I dread the thought. I like the make of my current car, so the easiest option is to go to that dealer and say let me see the current model. Drive it. Boom. Done, However, what if there is another manufacturer that makes a car with the features that I really desire? Well, we know what that means. I have to go to all the dealers, listen to their not very informative, but rather persuasive chatter, test drive, and then back my way out the door one careful step at a time as to not get myself in a trap.

Consumer choices overwhelm me. It used to be you bought a pair of jeans. They were denim. They usually fit. Now I can get slim cut, curvy cut, boot leg or wide. I can get washed denim or indigo or if I really want to pay the big bucks, I can buy them with slashes and holes for that wonderfully casual distressed look. I have to try on about eight pairs of jeans in as many different brands to find one pair that fits. It’s exhausting and it makes me not want a pair of jeans.

Recently I made the decision to paint some rooms in my house. Ye gads, just choosing a paint color requires a Masters degree in art. There are, of course, at least twenty different companies with paint chips. And once the color scheme is decided there are about forty different shades, with forty different names in each strand. When you hold the chips next to each other you can see an ever so slight variation. This one is a little more pink, this one more green and mind you these are all shades of white. So really, what strikes your fancy, Hampshire taupe, dellwood sand, stone house or everlasting? And I digress here, but do you think there is one lone person just hired to make up paint names? I might want that job.

In general I’m overwhelmed when I shop. I don’t want to stand for hours and peruse the aisle or the internet for the strengths of one style or brand versus another. Or hunt down where I can buy it cheaper and at which day of the month or time of the day.

 I know this is all about free enterprise. And I appreciate the creativity and entrepreneurship of individuals. Some absolutely fantastic consumer products have been created and I’ve purchased them and I enjoy them. I don’t want to go back to one or two choices, but seriously an Oreo cookie was great just the way it was, we didn’t need holiday versions.

I would love to sit down with the people in marketing who have profiled me as a consumer and have identified the spending habits of my community. I don’t think they always have it right and I resent being typed. But this really counters my premise here because often I want other choices when I shop. Sometimes I don’t care for any of the selections and I wonder why my choice is so limited.

So, do I want choice or not? Of course I want a choice. I don’t want someone dictating what I can buy, but in reality they are. I am offered only the choices their buyer deems appropriate to put on the shelf or post on a site. And so I complain there are too many choices and yet, sometimes, not enough. Oh, I am the bane of every proprietor. I am never satisfied. I think it’s because I’ve been given too much choice.