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to appear on your computer screen? If you make a purchase, you will see suggestions of what other people who purchased the same product added to their purchases. Amazon has built ever-more sophisticated tools to recommend more purchases, direct your searches toward products it thinks you’re most likely to want, or even remind you that you purchased the same item five years ago.
The point is, Internet shopping doesn’t protect you from impulse buying as much as it used to. You need to be just as careful when you’re shopping online that you only purchase what you came for.
Over 60,000 items available at CreateForLess.com
How can you choose from 60,000 items? Today’s shopper must choose from a multitude of products his grandparents never even heard of. There is a bewildering array of labels and brands on sale in every retail store. In the early 1900s, George K. Burgess, director of the Bureau of Standards, estimated there were as many as 10,000 brands of wheat flour, 4,500 brands of canned corn, 1,000 brands of canned peaches, 1,000 brands of canned salmon, 1,000 brands of canned peas, 500 brands of mustard, and 300 brands of pineapple. Imagine how many there must be today! Each store you visit carries only a few brands of each kind of product. What is available for you to choose from is more often than not based on the retailer's recommendation.
What is important for you to know is that each of the 10,000 brands of wheat flour is not produced in a separate mill or according to a different formula. According to the Census, only 4,022 estab- lishments actually produce flour products and the flour for 70% of those products is actually milled by only 232 plants. Hundreds of wholesalers buy identical products from a single mill. Each one has its merchandise labeled with its own brand name. This practice is common in many industries, e.g., canned goods, frozen goods, apparel, makeup, etc. (US Census Bureau).
Become a Shopping Pro
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