Consumer choices

There's no doubt that we have more consumer choices today than ever before. We all think we're good at making choices. Some of us even enjoy making them. And you would think that with all these consumer choices that people would be spending more money because they can get exactly what they want. Well, actually, that's not always the case. Let me tell you about one study that has produced results about this that are really quite counterintuitive. An experiment was done in an upmarket specialty grocery store in the U.S. where a tasting booth was set up, first offering consumers 24 different varieties of jam to try. And then at another time, they offered six varieties. Now, when there were more varieties, more customers stopped to try than when there were only six. But only about three percent of them actually went ahead and selected a product to buy. This is where it's interesting. When there were just six varieties, fewer people stopped to try. But what the researchers noticed and what they didn't expect was that 30 percent of them bought a jar of jam. What does this show Well, it shows that we have choice overload, that up to a point choice is good. But beyond that, it overwhelms consumers.