Like many others, I like chocolate. So, I thought attending the local chocolate fair would be fun. It was and I am glad I went. I thought I would be strongly tempted to taste and buy. When I saw so many chocolate confections, I had the opposite reaction. It felt as though a tap had been opened in me and all the desire for chocolate was drained right out. Too many choices! I could sense what I would feel like if I took even a tiny bit of each offering. I was without any pull toward any of the items.
When I was in the 2nd grade, my parents moved us into a storefront house. The house was in the back and the confectionary store was in the front, on the street. I liked candy very much and there was so much of it on sale. I was literally a kid in a candy store! Before I could start pestering them for a little bit of this or that, my parents agreed that I could now have an allowance, a dollar a week. In those days, I was especially fond of nonpareils, little chocolate circles with small white sprinkles on them and of candy corn. A good sized box of candy corn cost a dollar and I spent my first allowance on such a box. I immediately ate the whole box and the very thought of candy corn still is horrible for me, to this day.
I think my brain did a fast calculation of what I would feel like if I tried a few too many samples of the chocolate goodies and turned me off. However, the sheer number of choices can also be a turnoff by itself. A mature student told me once that she and her husband had driven 60 miles to buy a VCR. At the store, they found dozens of models and the number of choices prevented them from choosing any of them. Too many! They didn't know what to pick and so picked nothing and drove home.
A good restaurant in our neighborhood used to show diners their dessert tray. The serving sizes on the tray were super, super large. The enormous piece of carrot cake by itself was a turnoff for me and I rarely ordered anything from the tray. Too many choices and too large a suggestion!
I like to have a choice between 2 or 3 alternatives but 2 or 3 million can be a puzzling, paralyzing obstacle to any choice or selection.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
