Cornflakes and Cheezits — Thoughts on the Economic Growth Paradigm and Needless Choices

Not so long ago, I was trying to buy a box of Cornflakes. On the same shopping trip, I also needed to get a box of Cheez-its, because Mrs. Denmarkguy like snacking on Cheez-its.

You’d think that would be a simple enough thing; after all these are pretty staple products that have been around for a really long time.

Not so fast Kemosabe!

You can get oversized Cheez-its, extra cheesy Cheez-its, fat-free Cheez-its, low sodium Cheez-its, white cheddar Cheez-its, bacon flavored Cheez-its, kosher Cheez-its, ranch flavored Cheez-its, extra crunchy Cheez-its and gluten-free Cheez-its... but just finding the original plain Cheese-its seemed like it was almost impossible. In fact they were kind of on the very bottom shelf stuffed off to the side at the very back, and largely invisible.

I suppose the natural reaction would be to look at all this and go ”Wow, what a lot of choices I have!”

I briefly had that experience, but then my more cynical reaction was to look at this cornucopia of processed food products and go ”Wow, you're really trying too hard to sell more product!”

The thing about ”staple” products like Cornflakes and certain snack foods is that there's a pretty fixed demand for him. Here's a bowl, it's this size, you pour cornflakes in it, and you eat them. That doesn't really change. People aren't suddenly going to eat more corn flakes simply because there are more flavors of corn flakes available. They will still eat one bowl of cornflakes.

Of course that's a gross oversimplification.

What lies behind — at a deeper level — strikes me as being little more than the economic growth paradigm.

More specifically (and judging by the fact that they're almost always out of regular Cheez-its), the huge selection of Cheez-its on my supermarket’s shelves has LESS to do with keeping consumers happy than with keeping investors happy.

And from where I'm sitting, that's a clear indication of a world that has gone in the wrong direction. I don't say that because I'm anti-consumerist, I say that because I don't believe in creating artificial demand for products and items nobody really wants or needs... simply for the purpose of creating profits for a group of people who aren't even the users of the product.

Some might argue that the more choices we have the better off we are. I'm not convinced that always holds true. And it certainly does not hold true when tried and true originals — like plain old cornflakes — are made unavailable in order to make room on the shelves for “Chocolate Covered Sugar Bombs™” that nobody wants.

And I don't really care whether the margins on Chocolate Covered Sugar Bombs™ is four times higher than cornflakes — which admittedly is a low margin product — because once again that decision is not based on consumer satisfaction but on investor satisfaction.

Back when I was working in the IT industry (late 1990's) a variation on this topic was often up for debate.

Do we create products that meets the company's demand for profits or the users' demand for utility?

More often than not, we ended up going down the road of "we'll create this and MAKE people go down the road of wanting it and buying it!"

I worked for a Fortune 500 public corporation, and generally the investors had far more influence over what needed to be developed next than the end users... and actual end user demand.

"But don't we have freedom of choice?"

Well, sure we do. But you can still find yourself being led around by an invisible leash when the many "choices" being offered don't represent what you actually want but what some organization WANTS you to "want."

And right now? I just want to be able to buy a box of plain original Cheez-its!

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

How about YOU? Are the choices you HAVE also the choices you WANT? If not, what do you think accounts for the difference? Is "new and improved" REALLY new and improved, or just a way to guide you towards what a manufacturer WANTS you to "want?" Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 20210423 13:19 PDT
0247/1490