The story goes that one day Socrates stood gazing at a stall that sold all kinds of wares. Finally he said, “What a lot of things I don’t need.”
Supermarkets are a great thing. I am a true admirer of freedom of choice. Give people all the variety that you can give. And give them the freedom to choose something that suits them. But for heaven’s sake don’t confuse them. That’s exactly what happens when I step into a supermarket. I just don’t know what to buy. And I end up buying all the wrong things and more often than not things that I don’t need. What do I need a shower cap for? I don’t use the shower for Christ’s sake. What about a ready-to-eat meal which needs to be cooked in the microwave oven for only two minutes? I don’t have an oven!
You know, some things are best as they were. I enjoy going to an old-fashioned store where the shop keeper sits on the other side and helps me choose. I need the shop keeper to reassure me that the brand that I select is the best. Alright, I know it is silly. He wouldn’t have ever tried a ready-to-cook meal which costs three times of what he spends on a single meal. And he definitely wouldn’t have tried a ladies’ razor. But hey, you know what I mean. Shop keepers know everything.
What I want for once, just once, is that I walk into a shop and I say soap, toothpaste, shampoo, etc, etc, and they give me just white packets which have written on them in Arial bold font size 16 letters ‘SOAP’, ‘TOOTHPASTE’, ‘SHAMPOO’, ‘ETC’, ‘ETC’. Life would be so much easier. No complications. No trials. No expectations. No disappointments. Sigh! What a life that would be!