Of Salsa and Choice

by Marko Peric

The other day I had a craving for nachos. That in and of itself is not abnormal, I get the nacho craving every so often, usually every few months. When I do, I generally hit the supermarket and pick up a bag of tortilla chips, some shredded cheese, a little sour cream, and of course the salsa.

The real story starts in the salsa aisle (not that there's a dedicated aisle for salsa, at least not yet). I don't have a specific usual salsa, but I usually go for the President's Choice (better than average store brand) stuff, it's not bad and it's not expensive. So I was standing in front of the salsa, trying to pick something, and it was a lot more difficult than it should have been. I had to choose between Fat Free Mild, Extra Chunky Extra Mild, Extra Chunky Volcano Desperately Hot, Fat Free Extra Mild, Extra Chunky Mild, Fat Free Hot, Extra Chunky Hot, and Mild White Corn and Black Bean. Most of these were available in two different sized bottles. Keep in mind this was only one brand. I didn't even look at the Old El Paso, Pace, or the other brands on the shelves above or below.

So why is there such selection of salsa? I counted eight different President's Choice varieties, and there wasn't even any regular, just mild and hot choices. Does anyone need such specific salsas? (I should take a moment to point out that the fat free varieties contain almost exactly the same number of calories as the non fat free, sometimes more, and all of the salsas listed above contained less than one gram of fat per two tablespoon serving, so fat free isn't really important)

The thing is, salsa isn't the only thing that has such ridiculous superfluity of choice. All sorts of products have wild abundance of selection for no good reason. For instance, can anyone tell me why there is both butterscotch and caramel pudding, and how they differ? Go to any supermarket and the variety is overwhelming. Order a pizza, and prepare for a fight with your friends over which three toppings to get. Turn on your television, and unless you're one of the 40 people who don't have cable or satellite yet, you will have more channels to pick from than you could ever possibly watch. And we are still a couple hundred channels short of the promised 500 channel universe.

But while we have more than we know what to do with on trivial matters such as nacho toppings and television, how much choice do we have with things that are more important? Consider how many political parties were on the ballot the last time you voted. Parties that could actually win an election. While we are thoroughly inundated with the illusion of choice, on important matters there really aren't a lot of options.

So, the next time you have a choice to make, take a second and ask yourself if there is any lasting significance to your decision. If there isn't, why are you worrying about it? Make up your mind and move on. Nothing bad will happen if you drink the 7-Up instead of the Sprite. Don't let the clutter confuse you, and save your decision making energy for stuff that matters. It will be a lot easier on the head, and maybe you won't end up voting for the Natural Law Party again.

Oh, and if you're wondering, I went with the Extra Chunky Hot salsa.