Timothy Birdnow

(You knew we had to be on the hard stuff...)

A post from yesterday prompted a very thoughtful discussion here on The Aviary and I thought I'd share it with everyone.

Reader Bill had this to say:

I agree with the basic point. Do we really need twenty different brands of corn flakes? On the other hand, stores are prone to outages to a degree that was unknown prior to Covid. I go to Ralph's and without fail they do not have several things on my list. I then go to Von's and get the things that Ralph's did not have. It's never the same things, so it's not a case of one store carrying the item and the other one not. It's that stores are always out of stock on items that are in high demand. "Supply chain" problems which started during Covid and which, after five years, are still problems.

Dana Mathewson chimed in: Well, I sort of miss Blockbuster, though I couldn't read this article without signing up for Blaze, which is the kind of thing I resent much more than having too many choices -- an idea that I think is dubious, to be sure. I agree that these days we do NOT have some of the choices we once had; for example, LPs and the equipment to play them on, and it seems like CDs are becoming extinct too (I remember when they first hit the world and we were so excited at their clarity of sound and ease of use -- wow!).

Tim, if you have to spend so much time trying to decide what to buy in the grocery store, I'm sorry for you, and would never want to send you to the store to buy my groceries. When I go grocery-shopping, I have a list printed from my computer spreadsheet program (we have them for every supermarket we patronize) that tells me which aisle to find the products in, with big checkmarks after the desired products; and if I have any problems selecting a brand it's almost always because of price or (sometimes) nutritional considerations. But if there is a large selection I usually buy based on past experience and/or prejudice (I won't buy Heinz ketchup because of the John Kerry connection and because of the high-fructose corn syrup). If the store is out of something, I mark it and go back a few days later, or go to another store if I need it NOW.

I have a sneaking suspicion that if the gummint were cutting down the number of choices we had in the marketplace, you'd be singing out the other side of your mouth on this subject. Indeed, if Joe Bite-Me or Kamala-Ding-Dong had been elected last November and continued on their anti-gasoline-powered cars mandate, you, I and everyone I know would have raised Holy Hell about the lack of choice.



Tim replies:

Yeah Bill; it gets a bit tedious picking brands sometimes. What I really hate is when brands I used to buy disappear from the shelf and are replaced by some sort of hipster variety "twisted jalepeno mango potato chips" or some such ridiculousness. Or worse the brand names completely crowd out the old stuff. Jays chips,for instance, is a Chicago-based brand that used to be big but has now mostly disappeared from the sshelves here, and that no doubt because they won't pay for shelf-space. We used to have a local brand called Old Vienna which was really good and is very hard to find now. We had a local soda company too (Vess) which is gone, replaced by brands I've never heard of. I would have been fine if they had replaced them with Shasta, but that can't be found either.

On the other hand, as Dana points out, a lack of choices would pretty much cheese us off too. I sometimes shop in Save-a-Lot, a small cut rate store and your options are really limited there. I like the store because it's small but often go to the big chains to shop because there are things I just can't get at SAL.

So I suppose it takes a healthy balance.

As you say the supply problems weren't there until Covid. I get it where imported stuff is concerned, but why are American brands made from American materials in short supply? That I do not understand at all.


Dana, you had to sign up for the Blaze? I don't know why; I'm not signed up and read the article. Maybe it was freefor a day or something. On the other hand I might have read it second-hand and simply included the Blaze link. I just don't remember stuff like that anymore.

I agree; that IS uncool. The Blaze is supposed to be there to disseminate information and enlighten and should not require a sign-up. What are they - the New York Times?

Dana I think choices require a range. Other options should be available but not everywhere at once, which is rather where we are as a society.

You're right; we should be able to get lp's and cd's. I remember when cd's came out - magnificent technology. Yest there are otherways of doing it now, but it all requires the internet and you have to pay out the nose. I'm sick of having to go to a central clearinghouse to get anything via the internet. Albums and CD's meant you owned them and they were tangible things; you could hold them in your hand. Now everything is just electrons.

What frosts my begonias is that they got rid of vhs players alrogether. I had like a hundred vhs tapes and they are now worthless to me. And I have even more dvd's and will be furious if they eliminate the players for those.

Dana, a big part of my problems in the grocery store stem from my eyesight; I have a devil of a time finding the right stuff. I so often bring home the wrong thing because I couldn't see the label. Also, I have unique dietary needs and have to read the labels. It's o.k. for things like ketchup (I buy Heinz not because I want to enrich Herman Munster but because they make a low-sodium ketchup and nobody else does, or at least I can't find any.) The dizzying array of choices for each and every item makes it that much worse; I have to go through every item. And then I have to do the math all the time; regular Pace salsa (which I have used on one or two occasions) actually has LESS salt that their "low sodium" version! While it's o.k. for everyday items if I ever need or want something I don't normally use (like salsa) I have to spent ten miinutes trying to read the label and read other labels to make sure it's what I actually need. Drives me crazy.

Price makes a difference too. Always watching that.

Yes, I WOULD be spitting out the other side of my mouth if GOVERNMENT limited our choices; it'snot their business. But I think there is something to be said about sensory overload. I WANT all the choices on the market, do not misunderstand me. But I am saying the author of this essay (which I wish you could have read) made a cogent argument; we have so many choices now and it takes up so much of our time that many people feel overwhelmed. There is indeed a kind of paralysis that comes from having too many decisions to make - even just as consumers. (It also doesn't help that stores are forever moving stuff around too.)

In a state of nature Man had limited choices and we evolved with that. Now we have so many choices and we just aren't biologically or psychologically suited to that. Structure is a necessary thing to us, and most especially social sttructure, the limits imposed by any society. The kind of prosperity we now have is unprecedented, and it's going to take a long time for people to adapt to it.

You may remember Alvin Toffler and his seminal work "Future Shock". He postulated this very thing, that people would be unable to cope psychologically with an ever-changing world. I think Toffler was onto something. I think that world he postulated is now here.

You can't slow progress, and you really don't want to in the end. But we need to find a happy balance, a range where everyone is comfortable and yet everyone gets what they want. I forsee a time when stores start restricting their options and go back to the way it used to be a few decades ago. Specialty stores would exist to fill the gaps. But I know smaller stores are popular now, especially with old timers (a condition in which I find myself increasingly) and there is a market for it.

Years ago I worked as a grocery store manager and we had a "small" store. It was HUGe by 1950's standards, but small by today's standards. Our products were limited. But we did a gargantuan amount of business out of that little store. So did the other small store in our little chain. THAT store prompted the owners to build a big, new supermarket to replace it. Guess what? The supermarket never did all that well. It became a drag on the company, and they went out of business.

I predicted that at the time. I argued that we should simply give up the big bruiser stores and focus on the smaller market. But the higher ups knew better and they pushed the super centers because "that's the wave of the future". Sadly they were going into direct competition with chains that were well funded. Our company failed.

In a number of respects that was because we were trying to be all things to all people. We could have owned a niche if we had been smart. And all that goes back to trying to offer too many choices; oftentimes people just want to run in and run out.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:16 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 1690 words, total size 10 kb.