The numbers of products continues to muliply exponentially. I finally visited a large grocery store and counted 187 kinds of cold cereals (I did not count the cooked cereals nor the big bulk packages.) In the second of my worlds they still mainly have corn flakes and rice crispies. In the third of my worlds they have three more kinds plus now several imported cereals - mostly of the granola type. What was most apalling with the 187 were the candy flavored cereals!
I saw somebody drinking a vanilla zero coke(?) product the other day. Sigh! I suppose I should now go count the kinds of "carbonated beverages"! That's usually another entire aisle.
In the other two of my worlds it is the powdered milk aisle that is growing exponentially - they have milk drinks for all age groups. The differences are that some are flavored, calcium enriched, fat reduced, vitamin enriched, filled, or otherwise enhanced with some additives of some sort.
It is said that variety is the spice of life. On the other hand, is it worth it to spend so much time every day mulling over which product to choose for that day? Here's my list, so far, of rules for wasting less time on decision-making:
1. For grocery shopping, the best rule of thumb is, the less processed, the better. (that almost eliminates the cereal aisle right there, not to mention the soda aisle!) You don't waste much time reading the ingredient list on a bag of apples!
2. Go to smaller stores. You save time by not having to decide among so many products plus you aren't hiking 17 miles and will have energy left over for something more important.
