Yesterday I took my teenage son to a local men’s store to buy him a new suit.  I bought his last suit at overstock.com for $100 (a super buy, since it was a $350 suit), and he wasn’t an active participant in the process – it came in the mail, we took him to the tailor to get it fitted and that was it.  Great suit, very simple process.  I would have done the same thing again this time, but he received a gift certificate to this pacticular store.  So he was anticipating that this was going to be a much more gratifying shopping experience for him. 

LOL.  You wouldn’t think it would be hard to find a black suit with pinstripes, would you?  Especially for someone who wears a standard size and looks good in everything.  But just to take pinstripes alone – do you know how many kinds of pinstripes there are?  Lots.  And when you add up all the other varying factors (like materials, cut, style….) – he was overwhelmed.  It’s good I was there because he almost settled for a navy suit just to be done (when he insisted initially that he only wanted black).   It would have been so much easier if I had just shown him three black suits with pinstripes and told him to choose one. 

But he did finally find something, and I’m so glad he got something he’s pleased with.  When he came home, he told me he never knew how confusing buying a suit could be. 🙂

It made me think about how many choices we have in our modern lives.  We may think it’s a great thing.  And maybe it is.  But the down side of having so many choices is that we spend a lot of time and energy sifting through those choices.   If it means are lives are qualitatively much better, then it’s worth all the time and effort.  But I wonder if there’s really any gain over choosing from just two or three items…

Avivah