Posted on 06/27/2023 6:18:32 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Leave it up to The Atlantic to tell us we've got too many food choices in a grocery store, and for our own good, we ought to have less.
Leave it up to The Atlantic to tell us we've got too many food choices in a grocery store, and for our own good, we ought to have less.
That's pretty much what writer Adam Fleming wrote in his plaintive cry against too much choice at the grocery store.
On a recent afternoon, while running errands before I had to pick up my kids from school, I froze in the orange-juice aisle of a big-box store. So many different brands lay before me: Minute Maid, Simply, Tropicana, Dole, Florida’s Natural, Sunny D — not to mention the niche organic labels. And each brand offered juices with various configurations of pulp, vitamins, and concentrate. The sheer plenitude induced a kind of paralysis: Overwhelmed by the choices on offer, I simply could not make one. I left the store without any orange juice.
According to the American Time Use Survey, an average grocery trip takes more than 40 minutes. That may not sound like much, but the task can feel overwhelming and time-consuming in the midst of a busy day, especially because every trip consists of a plethora of decisions. Through this lens, what seems like a modern benefit — 100 different kinds of ice cream! Every imaginable chip flavor! Hot-dog buns sliced on the side or on the top! — can become a bit of a burden.
Cripes, of all the things to complain about.
We have this thing known as "Google," and we have subscriptions to publications such as Consumer Reports, which help consumers pare down to the best choices, if that's a big deal to him.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Indeed.
Overwhelmed by orange juice. Imagine if he had to make a life or death decision in seconds!
I remember reading many years ago that people from the Soviet Union who came here were sometimes extremely disturbed by our grocery stores. Having so many choices was disorienting and kind of overwhelming to them.
On a sadder note, I was working in a hearing clinic before the Soviet Union fell, and some Russians attached to their government came in one day - one of them wanted to buy a hearing device for his mother back in Russia. I asked him if they didn’t have anything like this in his country, and he appeared very sad, shook his head, and looked away.
That wasn’t the USSR, that was Walmart last year!
Reminds me of a scene from the Robin Williams movie, Moscow on the Hudson.
Robin plays a guy, newly defected from the soviet union to the United States. In this scene, he is going supermarket shopping in the states for the very first time and gets overwhelmed by the sight of so many coffee brands to choose from.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VHIcmoY3_lE
I always wanted to watch that movie. Thanks for reminding me :-)
When starvation comes large and small markets will have empty shelves……no difference .
…
Freedom of Choice
Is what you’ve got
Freedom from Choice
Is what you want
-DEVO
First World ‘Problems.’
If you’re in charge of shopping for foodstuffs for your family on a weekly basis, you pretty much have it narrowed down to what fits into your grocery budget, what your family will consume in a week’s time, what your family will and will not eat (they didn’t get a CHOICE in MY house; I didn’t get a CHOICE in my Mother’s house...), what’s ON SALE that week and how and where you decide to part with your hard-earned dollars.
Grocery shopping is NOT Rocket Science.
Except, obviously, for this guy. Enough with the Soy Boys, already! Yeesh!
Ah you beat me to it.
I think of the scene in Mr. Mom, where Michael Keaton goes grocery shopping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y—v_LdWlQA
“No two people in my family can use the same ammo, for reasons which I don’t quite understand.”
Look at it this way: In an eotwawki event, whatever you scrounge up can be used by somebody.
Yep - my fave song on that album and second favorite Devo video after “Love Without Anger.”
Bernie Sanders voter.
Somebody should tell him the secret.
When in doubt, buy the cheapest.
Good point. Maybe that was the original theory. Realistically, it probably wasn’t, but it helped to think so.
Well he could move to Russia…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FpypTXccG2I&pp=ygUkQ29tbWVyY2lhbCB3aXRoIHJ1c3NpYW4gZmFzaGlvbiBzaG93
I actually think Cuba would be a better place for him!!
Don’t forget Victory Pot!
I visited the UK a couple years ago. The difference in here and there is pronounced.
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