— Jonah Lehrer for Wired: ‘
Why Easy Decisions Are So Hard.’ Marketers are realizing that extreme differentiation within product categories actually intimidates the consumer and hurts sales. Trader Joe’s avoids this fallacy well. The indie grocery retailer culls its inventory to one or two variations per product at most, which greatly simplifies the consumer’s purchase decision. No standing in an aisle mulling over dozens of salsa jars or hundreds of shampoos and conditioners. There are very few choices, which likely leads to many more purchases.