The Illusion of Choice

“It’s a free country, isn’t it?”

Watch an old TV show or movie and you’ll hear that line more often that you might expect. It was a common response to “mind if I sit here?”

You don’t hear it much any more…

And that has to make you wonder why. I think it’s because our subconscious knows it’s not as true as it used to be.

Example 1: Socks

I had a client years ago that is a household brand name in clothing. My contact there, the one who hired me and who I reported to, told me he was leaving for another clothing company, but he wouldn’t have any work for me because it was 100% wholesale and they needed zero marketing.

What could this business be, that was entirely word-of-mouth? Even B2B needs marketing sometimes.

Turns out, it’s the one company that makes all of our socks.

Not some of our socks. Not most of our socks. They make ALL of our socks.

If you buy a sock, and it’s manufactured in the USA, it came out of the same factory. That changes the way you look at that retail slat-wall display of all of these socks, different brands, colors, styles, materials – it sure feels like you have a choice, but do you really if they all came from the same place?

Example 2: Drills

A friend of a friend was visiting from out of state. Striking up small talk, I asked what he did. Turns out he worked at a factory that builds drills. His words: “we make every drill.” I asked him to explain, because that was a funny way to put it. He clarified: “we make every drill: Dewalt, Makita, Ryobi, Milwaukee, Craftsman, Kobalt, every drill.”

And here I thought I was making a crucial choice between competing brands… silly me.

Example 3: Cereal

Another client of mine from the past was a company who only does the cool part of packaging printing. They take oh-so-boring full color printed cardboard, and jazz it up with shiny clear coats, foil stamping, holographics, embossing and anything else that isn’t cyan, magenta, yellow or black ink. They do everything from Pokemon cards to Louis Vuitton boxes.

But what got my attention was the rep’s comment on cereal: he confirmed the suspicion I’ve had my entire life that store “house brand” cereal is the exact same thing as name brand. He described the factory where they put the cereal into the boxes that he does the finish printing on. Basically they hit “pause” on the assembly line, swap cardboard to a different brand, and then turn it back on.

It’s the exact same stuff.

Example 4: Batteries

What brought this entire topic to mind this week was shopping for car batteries. Since they’ve gotten so high in price – thanks a lot Obama, or Trump, or Biden, or Trump again, or whoever we’re blaming today – I am getting more picky about where I’m buying from.

So I shopped it around, and a friend of mine told me to ask them to price match against Walmart because that worked for him once. Here’s what the manager of an auto parts store told me: “Every battery is made by the same company: Johnson Controls.”

He went on to tell me it didn’t really matter, you’re just buying slightly better quality parts, and/or a longer warranty, but they all come from the same place.

So what?

These are 4 anecdotes from my life, where I just happened to run into different people and discover these strange similarities.

If we don’t actually have freedom of choice in these 4 product categories, what about everything else? Is it all just an illusion? When we think we’re shopping competing brands, or “firing” one company to move to another, does it even make a difference in the world?

I am passionate about the power of the free market.

It’s objectively the most effective tool for both innovation and prosperity. But it appears that the modern, Western free market might be just a false front soothing us into believing we still have freedom of choice, when in reality we’re just a bunch of pawns.

The only antidotes to this are 1) shopping small businesses where you can actually meet the owner and shake their hand, and 2) doing it yourself.

You can make your own socks, but it’s hard to make your own car battery… so we’ll have to compromise from time to time. But there’s plenty of opportunity to rebel against the all-knowing conglomerates where you can.

Shop small, and stay vigilant!

White Castle Has Chick-fil-A Beat

And not just on Sundays. Chick-fil-A’s testing a vending machine for cold wraps and potato chips. White Castle uses robotics to serve hot burgers 24/7. Now you can invest in the company making it possible, ART. Their robotic kiosks serve beloved food items in seconds, letting White Castle expand at .001% the cost of a new brick-and-mortar. Invest in ART by 4/25 for guaranteed bonus stock.

Invest in ART Today

^{This is a paid advertisement for Automated Retail Technologies Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular at https://invest.automatedrt.com/}