Is Change Always a Good Thing?
I don't know about you, but my favorite M&M's color was light brown. That is until they replaced it with blue; bright, offensive, invasive, blue. When they first came out I refused to eat the blue, giving them away or leaving them behind. Of course now I eat them, but not without a bit of spite, imagining them as the discontinued glossy light brown morsels as I chew.
What is it with ever evolving products and expanding product lines? Why do manufacturers feel the need to mess with stuff all the time? Is there actually pressure on them to change products and constantly formulate new ones? Do we really need 250 choices? Am I the only one who takes it personally when one of my beloved products is "new and improved?" Also, who the hell coined the phrase, "new and improved," it is impossible, if something is new it cannot also be improved.
Find a shampoo you love and within a few months they have changed the formula. Supposedly it is improved, reformulated for even better hair days, but I call bullshit. I think that some nerd figured out that if they cut one ingredient and add another that each bottle will cost .0001 cents less manufacture thus increasing the company's profit margin by 2 million for the year. Who cares about the wee consumer and her frizzy hair.
And toothbrushes! My god, toothbrushes. It seems that every day there is a new toothbrush out on the market with some weird new rubber finger thing that is going to massage my gums, fight cavities and walk my dogs. Isn't the basic premise of a toothbrush to brush the teeth. Can't a simple cluster of bristles do this efficiently? Maybe I'm wrong, maybe we need 14 different height levels and rubber thingies, and angled heads, but somehow I don't buy it.
I do understand the need for change and the desire to evolve, even with the toothbrush, but do we really need an entire aisle of choices? I see people all the time just standing in the middle of the aisle completely overwhelmed, eyes glazed over, staring at all the choices and trying to decide which one to place in their cart. You can almost see the wheels turning in their heads and the stress it is causing their primal brains only designed to choose between a few things.
I am typically the person who walks down the aisle and picks up the same items I have picked up for years without even looking at the new and/or improved products. If my mascara has worked for 10 years why change it? But then one day I can't find my mascara. Where is it? What did you go with my mascara? What do you mean you changed the formula and redesigned the packaging? Now I too stand in the middle of the aisle, head spinning, waiting for another woman to come along and choose a mascara so I can just grab the same one and be done.
I hate having to make decisions like this. I have already spent countless hours that I will never get back deciphering between literally thousands of baby products and gimmicks and have decided on my favorites. I'm sure once baby gets here I will tweak my choices a bit until eventually I find products that I love...that will surely be discontinued or "improved" within a matter of months.
Progress
What is it with ever evolving products and expanding product lines? Why do manufacturers feel the need to mess with stuff all the time? Is there actually pressure on them to change products and constantly formulate new ones? Do we really need 250 choices? Am I the only one who takes it personally when one of my beloved products is "new and improved?" Also, who the hell coined the phrase, "new and improved," it is impossible, if something is new it cannot also be improved.
Find a shampoo you love and within a few months they have changed the formula. Supposedly it is improved, reformulated for even better hair days, but I call bullshit. I think that some nerd figured out that if they cut one ingredient and add another that each bottle will cost .0001 cents less manufacture thus increasing the company's profit margin by 2 million for the year. Who cares about the wee consumer and her frizzy hair.
And toothbrushes! My god, toothbrushes. It seems that every day there is a new toothbrush out on the market with some weird new rubber finger thing that is going to massage my gums, fight cavities and walk my dogs. Isn't the basic premise of a toothbrush to brush the teeth. Can't a simple cluster of bristles do this efficiently? Maybe I'm wrong, maybe we need 14 different height levels and rubber thingies, and angled heads, but somehow I don't buy it.
I do understand the need for change and the desire to evolve, even with the toothbrush, but do we really need an entire aisle of choices? I see people all the time just standing in the middle of the aisle completely overwhelmed, eyes glazed over, staring at all the choices and trying to decide which one to place in their cart. You can almost see the wheels turning in their heads and the stress it is causing their primal brains only designed to choose between a few things.
I am typically the person who walks down the aisle and picks up the same items I have picked up for years without even looking at the new and/or improved products. If my mascara has worked for 10 years why change it? But then one day I can't find my mascara. Where is it? What did you go with my mascara? What do you mean you changed the formula and redesigned the packaging? Now I too stand in the middle of the aisle, head spinning, waiting for another woman to come along and choose a mascara so I can just grab the same one and be done.
I hate having to make decisions like this. I have already spent countless hours that I will never get back deciphering between literally thousands of baby products and gimmicks and have decided on my favorites. I'm sure once baby gets here I will tweak my choices a bit until eventually I find products that I love...that will surely be discontinued or "improved" within a matter of months.
Progress
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