Choices Spoil Us — How to Buy a New Smartphone
Did you know that you can buy a Tesla vehicle online like you would buy an iPad or an iPhone?
We are spoilt for choices. Think about this. Every day, you need to make a thousand micro choices throughout the day. From the kind of toothpaste you use to the type of toilet paper you have, to the choice of car you drive and the brand of coffee you enjoy, we have lots of CHOICES to make. Options that they can really do without.
Add to this list, when you are shopping (especially online on a megastore like Amazon or eBay), your range of choices increases exponentially. It takes a single click, and boom, you have thousands of options of any product that you can possibly imagine. How does this translate to your buying experience?
More often than not, choices leave us confused and overwhelmed.
The Benefit of Having Choices
Having a lot of choices is a result of having heavy competition in the market. Most brands, especially in tech, HAVE to stay on their toes and innovate consistently to stay relevant. Often, they also need to operate on razor-thin profit margins just to make sure that they can undercut their competitors and sell more.
The Cost of Having Choices
Great! Now that you want to buy a product, you have tonnes of choices. But do they make the buying process easy/fun? Here’s the cost of having choices.
Cost #1 Time Spent on Research
Let’s say you want to buy a new smartphone today. If you are even slightly tech-savvy, you need to assess the following features before buying the finished product.
RAM
Type and Performance of the Processor
Screen Size
Battery Capacity
ROM (Memory Capacity)
Type of Camera
Price Range
Choice of Operating System, etc.
Let’s say you know exactly the kind of product you want and know each specification in depth. Even after filtering out the choices with these specifications, you will most likely be left with hundreds of choices. Now, that is just crazy.
Cost #2 Time Spent of Customization
Do you think your job is done? After selecting the right make and model? Nope. You still have a choice to customize the colour, engraving, accessories, and warranty schemes associated with the phone.
Cost #3 Time Spent Feeling Guilty
Even after spending hours on research, choosing, and customizing the right product, is satisfaction guaranteed? I don’t think so. Within weeks/months of buying the product, you can bet that there will be a newer, faster, better, cheaper model in the market that will make you feel guilty for the choice.
The Result
Ultimately, according to this never-ending cycle, you will have spent several hours buying a sub-par product. A product that will become obsolete within a few weeks, holds no resale value and brings tons of guilt with it. And guess what, you will most likely have shot over-budget in the first place going for that slightly more advanced model.
How do you avoid making these purchases? Let’s discuss that in the following article — Consumerism and Mental Health — A life lesson on minimalism.
Onwards and Upwards!
