Travels in the USA: Choice words.

Meat by the yard.

Travelling America, the land of capitalism and free enterprise, one can't help but be struck by the sometimes bewildering choices on offer when making a purchase. Be it beer, biscuits, soup, sausages or cigarettes, there is a huge choice in the market, all competing for your dollar.

Dairy spread.

The same thing is becoming prevalent in the UK as well; as supermarkets get larger the range of goods seems to grow to fill the shelf space. After all, if there is only one type of shampoo, how are the shelves going to be filled? Nearly everything you need would fit into a corner shop.

Which one to quench your thirst?

Now I'm sure we're not alone in sometimes wandering up and down the aisles, getting seriously concerned when we have to choose between one type of breakfast cereal or another. Eventually we realise that it's really not that important, and grab a box that 'will do'.

Lots of vegetables.

So why do manufacturers offer so much choice? I suspect it's to gain market share, or shelf space or some other commercial advantage. But I'm not sure it actually works. Sometimes having to choose makes shopping a pain.

Lots of beauty products.

Now we tend to organise ourselves before we attack the multitude of choices on offer. Decide what we want before we even start looking - cutting out huge swathes of shelving. Jam? Decide on what flavour before studying the jars. Toilet tissue? We'll have the price in between cheapest and dearest. Shampoo? Only the ones with combined conditioner. And so on and so forth.

And the best breakfast cereal to start the day is...?

This makes shopping a lot more enjoyable, because we've now stopped agonising over whether our split ends need Allysodium Phosphate(TM) or the new Benyhydroxophalate Hydroxide(TM) treatment. It really doesn't matter.

Which ice cream to have?

It's the same when eating at a restaurant - I reckon I could starve to death through my indecision. It doesn't help that I like just about everything on offer.