It Strikes Me Funny: The benefits of fewer choices on store shelves

My last column, Having fewer choices may one day be commonplace (Feb. 4), prompted an interesting response, in my opinion (and that’s the one that counts around here, right?).

The following email from Andrea proves fewer choices may be a good thing:

Dear Gord,

I originally am from Europe, Austria, and since December 08 I live in Canada. When I arrived here in London and went grocery shopping for the very first time I was amazed by the huge amount of choices that were offered... with pretty much everything and pretty much everywhere.

One of my first days here my fiancé Rick and I went grocery shopping and I wanted to buy some cereal. When I finally found aisle # 2 I was totally amazed.


“Wow, great! That is probably four times the choice as in Austrian supermarkets” I called out loud to Rick. (And that was before I had discovered that the whole aisle was nothing but cereal.) I was in cereal heaven!

After 15 minutes of pushing my cart through the aisle and flipping cereal boxes to read up the ingredients Rick started getting a bit impatient with me.

“How long can it actually take to choose a stupid cereal?” he asked snippy.

So, Fewer Choices Benefit 1: Companions won’t get snippy.

Andrea continues - stay tuned.

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Think: Are there several benefits to fewer choices on store shelves?

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