In his book, Future Shock(1970), Alvin Toffler had a chapter about Overchoice And Overchoice arrived and has flourished for years. Oh!, the choices, in the isles of super stores, supermarkets, autos, entertainment, medicines, gifts, on and on. How, how, HOW TO DECIDE? Well, perhaps habit, custom, brand. Here is a bit of advice on how to deal with it.
Number one is Consumer Reports Magazine. Looking for a new whatever, look it up in Consumer Reports. Ratings, ratings from stoves, to televisions, to automobiles, especially autos, the annual April issue. Lets say, you want to buy an older car, a 2002 Honda Accord. Get a 2007 Consumer Reports April issue or annual issue. There a 6 year repair history of all makes sold in America. Very interesting and in the magazine, red is good, black is bad. Well that car has a lot of red in regards to for example electronics, engine, transmission etc. In addition in, it is the last car of the edition, a new model came out in 2003. the problem with a new model is that they have more problems. those problems are addressed in the following models until a new model comes out. Thus the final model is the best, fewer problems. Now some auto makes are a sea of reds and some a sea of blacks. Note the tendencies and increase your chances of buying a better car. And we are talking a major purchase, thousands of dollars, a big deal.
Another rating system, is the Amazon site. Products are rated by customers. But a big word of caution, look for and trust more, a HIGH number of ratings. A hand full of 5 star ratings means nothing, easily biased, or fudged, but hundreds or evens thousands of high ratings do mean something.
In this Age of Over Choice, a better, or best choice can be made. It just takes a little research. In the end that adds of $s well spent and $s saved.
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