Sometimes we have too many choices in life. This came home to me last week while shopping at Walmart for skin lotion.
If I had a go-to brand, there would have been no problem. Given there are so many choices, I tend to switch from time to time to try something new. Maybe it will smell better. Maybe it will make my skin softer.
I use the lotion after shaving to get rid of the dryness of my skin. The most recent purchase came on vacation when I bought a pump-action bottle that now has congealed and clogged, necessitating the search during the weekly shopping trip.
Heading down the lotion aisle reminds one of the toilet paper and cereal aisles: HOW CAN THERE BE SO MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF THESE PRODUCTS? Who buys all of them? How is the market segmented? It boggles the mind.
It reminds me of the stories we would hear when Eastern Europe broke up after the Berlin Wall fell, and how shoppers couldn’t find toilet paper, meat or produce. During that point in history, I used to wonder what the citizens of those countries experiencing shortages would do if they came to the U.S. and were exposed to all the sizes, colors and shapes filling the shelves or our supermarkets. They’d be paralyzed.
That’s how I felt last week. Unable to make a decision. I couldn’t even come up with a decision variable matrix. Should I seek a specific scent? Should I want something more “moisturizing” or “smoothing” or “soothing?” What the heck, I don’t know.
As I went back and forth, up and down, looking, mentally sorting, discarding, considering, fantasizing, wondering and ultimately stymied, two elderly women came down and asked the stocker to find them a version of Gold Bond. That gave me a break, but also added to the confusion, because there was another choice.
Tea tree oil? Coconut? Lavender? Argan oil? Pump-action? Squeeze bottle? Sixteen ounce size or 32-ounce size? The questions kept arising.
You can go cheap or expensive. You can choose a name brand or something generic.
If I had a go-to brand, there would have been no problem. Given there are so many choices, I tend to switch from time to time to try something new. Maybe it will smell better. Maybe it will make my skin softer.
I use the lotion after shaving to get rid of the dryness of my skin. The most recent purchase came on vacation when I bought a pump-action bottle that now has congealed and clogged, necessitating the search during the weekly shopping trip.
Heading down the lotion aisle reminds one of the toilet paper and cereal aisles: HOW CAN THERE BE SO MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF THESE PRODUCTS? Who buys all of them? How is the market segmented? It boggles the mind.
It reminds me of the stories we would hear when Eastern Europe broke up after the Berlin Wall fell, and how shoppers couldn’t find toilet paper, meat or produce. During that point in history, I used to wonder what the citizens of those countries experiencing shortages would do if they came to the U.S. and were exposed to all the sizes, colors and shapes filling the shelves or our supermarkets. They’d be paralyzed.
That’s how I felt last week. Unable to make a decision. I couldn’t even come up with a decision variable matrix. Should I seek a specific scent? Should I want something more “moisturizing” or “smoothing” or “soothing?” What the heck, I don’t know.
As I went back and forth, up and down, looking, mentally sorting, discarding, considering, fantasizing, wondering and ultimately stymied, two elderly women came down and asked the stocker to find them a version of Gold Bond. That gave me a break, but also added to the confusion, because there was another choice.
Tea tree oil? Coconut? Lavender? Argan oil? Pump-action? Squeeze bottle? Sixteen ounce size or 32-ounce size? The questions kept arising.
You can go cheap or expensive. You can choose a name brand or something generic.