Everything was better when everything was worse
Written on 10:46 PM by Sarah
In my last post, I briefly talked about the fact that Gen Y-ers like to have choices. But what happens when we have too many choices? Barry Schwartz believes that the explosion of choices available to modern consumers has caused several negative consequences, including paralysis and a decreased level of satisfaction with our choices. As he puts it, “Everything was better when everything was worse.”
So how have we, as modern consumers, been affected by the ever-increasing number of alternatives presented to us on a day-to-day basis, and how have we changed the way that we make purchasing decisions?
One result of too many choices is a loss of ability to choose for ourselves. We are no longer qualified or well-informed enough to determine which brand of detergent is better, or which kind of lotion we need. This has spawned two different consumer reactions. The first is to strive to be well-informed. Thanks to the Internet, all the information we could ever want is now at our fingertips. We can now read consumer reviews online, research the benefits of the active ingredient in an anti-aging cream, and so on. The second reaction is to admit that we don’t know what we’re doing, and leave it to the experts.
Related to this idea is the increased importance of knowledgeable customer service representatives. Best Buy has excelled in this area, making sure that all their employees are well-trained and able to assist the frustrated or completely overwhelmed consumer who is trying to decide between 40 different (but seemingly identical) digital cameras. Home Depot is another company with a reputation for helpful associates.
But what about when we are shopping for groceries? There are no helpful employees stationed in the spices aisle to tell you which spices go better with salmon and which go better with chicken. We are, for the most part, completely on our own when we are shopping for groceries, which is ironic considering that: (a) we shop for groceries much more frequently than for anything else and (b) the number of choices presented to us in a grocery store is staggering (see image below). There are a few exceptions, such as butcher shops who can help you pick the right cut of meat or gourmet food stores which will help you pair a cheese to the wine you’ve picked out. But for the most part, we are left to wander the aisles of HEB with only our shopping cart and our grocery list.
Last summer was my first time living on my own, and the first time I went grocery shopping was unbelievably overwhelming. I had made a list, of course, which included many typical staple foods: bread, eggs, milk, etc. But my list was hardly sufficient and not nearly descriptive enough. Did I want white, wheat, or multi-grain bread? Extra large or extra thin? Sara Lee, Mrs. Baird’s, or HEB brand? Medium, large, extra large, or jumbo sized eggs? White or brown? And how much milk did I need? A pint, a half-gallon, or a gallon? Fat-free, 1%, 2%, or whole? Organic or not? And so on.
Just as Barry Schwartz states in his podcast, the huge number of choices created paralysis. I stood frozen in the bread aisle unable to choose, or even process what had to be hundreds of loaves of bread sitting in front of me. I tried to look for the lowest price, but after a while all the numbers started to swim together. So I threw my hands up in the air and grabbed what my mom always bought. The same thing happened in the pasta sauce aisle, the orange juice section, and before I knew it, I had a cart full of familiar products, and I didn’t choose any of them: my mom did.
The “Eager Sellers and Stony Buyers” article describes a similar occurrence, which is that people tend to resist new products because they overvalue the benefits of the products they are currently using. I think this idea can also be interpreted to mean that consumers need a safety blanket, and they tend to hold on to things that are familiar to them. This is the reason why I automatically began looking for the same products my mom buys when I went grocery shopping. I also found that the hardest choices occurred with products that my mom doesn’t buy, or when the product that she buys was not a choice, in which I was completely on my own with no familiar standby to fall back on.
So while some may argue that having more choices allows us to lead enriched lives, Barry Schwartz would say that they have now produced a “paradox of choice”, and that we are now less satisfied with our choices than we would have been with fewer choices. One thing is for sure: the massive quantity of choices faced by consumers has created a challenge for companies to differentiate their products from those of their competitors, and offers a very interesting problem for marketers.
