Choices are good aren’t they? Or are they?
When I wheel my cart down the dog food aisle at the grocery store I’m amazed that there are so many choices of kibbles and treats to feed the little Sammers.
But having too many choices can be a bad thing. I recently cut way back on my supply of treats for Sam because he started demanding them all the time and refused to eat his regular food, which had a less-than-desirous effect on his poop. Correction made, he’s doing better now. He’s learning that barking at me for treats isn’t doing much good. Now I give him treats only when I decide.
Speaking of shopping (you knew I had an ulterior motive didn’t you?), let’s talk about mall shopping for a minute.
How many gol-danged shopping malls do we need anyway? In the early 1980’s when I lived in Bellingham we didn’t have a shopping mall. But I swear to you every woman I knew rejoiced when it was announced that a mall would be built. The ladies said they would be so glad not to have to drive south umpteen miles to an out of area mall anymore.
So, the mall was built in Bellingham and for several years it was shopper’s central for the local gals. But it wasn’t long before I started hearing them say they were headed south again because the mall in Bellingham just didn’t offer enough choices.
I live in Olympia now where there is a shopping mall and many, many other stores that cater to women. But yesterday my wife wanted to drive to Woodburn, Oregon, between Portland and Salem to shop at an outlet mall there. I’ll grant you that she found some bargains and spent far less on what she bought then she would have at women’s apparel stores in the Olympia area. And we went on an “outing,” which seems to be more important to women than to men. But the drive was two and a half hours each way, took about a tank of gas, and we passed another outlet mall much closer to us. Plus, I didn’t want to leave Sam home alone, so we took him with us, which meant I had to find a park where he and I could chill while the missus bought stuff.
There is ample shopping here in Olympia as far as I am concerned. If I don’t find exactly want I want, which I admit is sometimes the case, I just wait awhile, then a store will stock what I want or I will have changed my mind, and voila! But my wife is like a lot of us Americans. We are accustomed to being offered so many choices, from canned goods to drugs, to drive-in restaurants, to grocery stores, to cars, to shopping malls, to churches. In America we have an embarrassing cornucopia of choices and we are not comfortable with our decisions to buy unless we have hunted down exactly what we want no matter the cost in time, aggravation, gas, wear and tear on the car, and the body. Do they have these kinds of choices in Afghanistan I wonder? or in the poor countries of Africa? You used to hear stories about the lack of choices in Russia. I wonder if it’s still that way over there.
I could probably write a 100-page treatise (or tome) on the subject of choices in this country, but I won’t. Two bags of poop on so many choices we can’t even make up our minds what we really want. Oh yeah, we might have too many choices of political candidates too - just saying.
When I wheel my cart down the dog food aisle at the grocery store I’m amazed that there are so many choices of kibbles and treats to feed the little Sammers.
But having too many choices can be a bad thing. I recently cut way back on my supply of treats for Sam because he started demanding them all the time and refused to eat his regular food, which had a less-than-desirous effect on his poop. Correction made, he’s doing better now. He’s learning that barking at me for treats isn’t doing much good. Now I give him treats only when I decide.
Speaking of shopping (you knew I had an ulterior motive didn’t you?), let’s talk about mall shopping for a minute.
How many gol-danged shopping malls do we need anyway? In the early 1980’s when I lived in Bellingham we didn’t have a shopping mall. But I swear to you every woman I knew rejoiced when it was announced that a mall would be built. The ladies said they would be so glad not to have to drive south umpteen miles to an out of area mall anymore.
So, the mall was built in Bellingham and for several years it was shopper’s central for the local gals. But it wasn’t long before I started hearing them say they were headed south again because the mall in Bellingham just didn’t offer enough choices.
I live in Olympia now where there is a shopping mall and many, many other stores that cater to women. But yesterday my wife wanted to drive to Woodburn, Oregon, between Portland and Salem to shop at an outlet mall there. I’ll grant you that she found some bargains and spent far less on what she bought then she would have at women’s apparel stores in the Olympia area. And we went on an “outing,” which seems to be more important to women than to men. But the drive was two and a half hours each way, took about a tank of gas, and we passed another outlet mall much closer to us. Plus, I didn’t want to leave Sam home alone, so we took him with us, which meant I had to find a park where he and I could chill while the missus bought stuff.
There is ample shopping here in Olympia as far as I am concerned. If I don’t find exactly want I want, which I admit is sometimes the case, I just wait awhile, then a store will stock what I want or I will have changed my mind, and voila! But my wife is like a lot of us Americans. We are accustomed to being offered so many choices, from canned goods to drugs, to drive-in restaurants, to grocery stores, to cars, to shopping malls, to churches. In America we have an embarrassing cornucopia of choices and we are not comfortable with our decisions to buy unless we have hunted down exactly what we want no matter the cost in time, aggravation, gas, wear and tear on the car, and the body. Do they have these kinds of choices in Afghanistan I wonder? or in the poor countries of Africa? You used to hear stories about the lack of choices in Russia. I wonder if it’s still that way over there.
I could probably write a 100-page treatise (or tome) on the subject of choices in this country, but I won’t. Two bags of poop on so many choices we can’t even make up our minds what we really want. Oh yeah, we might have too many choices of political candidates too - just saying.
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