Why do we Americans feel we "have to have" or "need" so many options?

I was at the store over the weekend and I realized we have too many options, for EVERYTHING. In just this trip, a small shopping not the big shop, I noticed I have lots and many options. I am not talking about selection but the options within each of those selections that available to me. For example, I was looking for apples, and I find that there are the red delicious, the gala, the granny smith, and many others. On top of that, who knows where they all come from. I then looked for some simple cheese slices for a grilled cheese sandwich, you have your deli select, your 2% low fat kind, your normal slices and your extra thick slices, and that is just in the Kraft brand and another 7 or 8 types in other brands. I also was looking at Mayonnaise, regular, low fat, made with virgin olive oil, and again that was in the Kraft brand and several more in other brands. Then I look at relish for the chicken salad I occasionally have, you have your dill, sweet, chunked or diced. What does it all mean?

How many selections do we need? When I was a kid there was wonder bread and maybe one other kind. Now I have over 25 choices, from butter crust to potato bread to rye, Jewish, or not, with or without seeds and some made especially for use with Bratwurst. I looked at the selection of pork chops, already butter flied, thick cut, thin cut, center cut, not center cut, bone in and bone out. I then needed to pick up some laundry soap, you have your powders and liquids and in those subcategories you have your soap for dark colors, for whites only for all colors, there are some that tout being green and those that promise longer lasting fresh smell. Even something as simple as light bulbs my options were countless, 60 watt incandescent, florescent tubes, day light, soft light. I am not even going to talk about the selection of breakfast cereals, the ridiculousness of that is obvious to all who enter the cereal isle. At this point, all I wanted was the insanity to stop.

So that got me to thinking about other things in our lives that offer us too many (my opinion) selections. I looked at going to the movies, simple right, NOT. We have to have to stadium seating and a Cineplex that houses 24 or 36 theatres that all have stadium seating. Don’t get me wrong I like the stadium seating, I am just saying we are given lots of options from what to eat and drink to what to watch. I then started thinking about other things, such as pop or soda depending on where you are from. Now this is an area that I feel has gone completely mad. You can of course have your Coke, Coke clear, Coke zero, diet coke or your Pepsi or the many iterations of that product. Those are on top of all the other soda’s and store brand equivalents. I used to drink Mountain Dew and even that now has no less than 6 varieties, sacrilege I tell you.

Now I know that all those suppliers make the large variety because that is what we want, and that is exactly my point. When did we get to a place in time that we think we need this many options. I will tell you straight out, that many choices actually adds stress to our lives, yes you heard me, that many choices adds stress to our lives. I spend too much time in the grocery, I feel I need to look for the best value first, secondly I need to weigh the nutritional information and the tertiary factor is whether I like that brand or variety. I am a simpleton, this many choices for everything is not needed, I could perform my shopping trips in a fraction of the time if I did not have so many choices. The prices on my products would probably be cheaper if they did not have to maintain a store that covers more than an acre. We have turned into a society that feels we need all this complication in our lives, complication masquerading as choices. The masquerade is very good in that most people think they need all these choices, need, not want. Oh well, I for one would be content with only a couple of choices.

How many different kinds of aspirin do need to resolve the headache you get from all the options?