GLADSTONE - Buying ingredients for a new recipe. Anticipating good "eats" to come. What's not to like about grocery shopping?
Plenty, according to the American Psychological Association. Studies prove that the more decisions we must make, the less brain power is left for other tasks.
Kathleen D. Vohs, PhD, stated, "Making choices can be difficult and taxing, and there is a personal price to choosing."
Amen to that, Sister.
And nowhere do we have more choices to make in a shorter period of time than at a grocery store.
For starters, you pick a cart, knowing full well it will make or break the trip. Sure, the shiny models all look alike, but a fair share of them need a serious tune-up. Either a wheel malfunctions or they emit a gut-wrenching shriek. Or both. Like, where's a mechanic when you need one?
With no time to test drive, you choose a faulty buggy, and drag it through the aisles to face one choice after another.
In the olden days you picked up a quart of milk. Then they introduced chocolate and strawberry. Now you wade through whole milk, skim milk, soy milk, two percent and one percent. And there's a zero percent chance you'll buy the right product.
Because having too many choices can lead to mistakes.
My dad relayed a recent shopping trip wherein he bought the wrong bath tissue. Blinded by a bargain, he purchased a 12-pack, then tore it open to find one-ply bun wad so thin he could see through it. If there's one thing consumers don't need, it's transparent toilet paper.
Why would manufacturers make such a thing?
How well I relate. In the confusion of too many choices, I've grabbed everything from awful apples to zorry zwieback. After realizing my goof, I waste time at the service desk waiting for a refund or else swallow the error. Literally. Either that or the product faces exile in my kitchen cupboard.
According to the aforesaid studies, participants performed worse on simple math problems than those not required to make choices. Then again, maybe they were just hungry.
Because the more decisions we have to make, the longer it takes to shop. In my perfect little world, grocery stores would offer everything I need in a single aisle, each product available in one brand only.
If the choice were up to me.
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Lois Corcoran of Gladstone is featured weekly in Lifestyles. The columnist writes for a dozen newspapers in the Great Lakes area. Send your pet peeves to corky@dsnet.us. (Please house train them first.)