The New Autonomy: Limited Choice

A Menu of Jungsik

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Last week I was more than excited to enjoy Jungsik----the only Korean Michelin restaurant in New York City. We were only offered two selections:  either Tasting menu or Regular one. And once a person decided what to try, the whole table had to follow that decision.
This was like a mysterious gambling game, you made a blind choice and let Jungsik accommodate you with surprise.
This was like that Jungsik was secretly telling you to trust them, that they would take the effort to choose the best for you.
This made the dinner even more fun.

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Yesterday on WSJ's front page, the story of the grocery giant Aldi impressed me very much. WSJ wrote a title of How Grocery Giant Aldi Plans to Conquer America: Limited Choice for the firm, which straightforwardly revealed the secret of Aldi's success. Compared with Wal-Mart that has 120,000 items per store, Aldi sticks to 1700 items. Guess what, "Poor people need us, rich people love us," Theo Albrecht, CEO of Aldi, used to tell executives.

The Albrecht Store in 1930. Photo by Getty Images

And it is true. A Forsa Institute poll in 2002 found that 95% of blue-collar workers and 88% of white-collar workers in Germany shopped at Aldi. And after conquering the Europe market, Aldi is betting billions it can win over spoiled American shoppers. 
Aldi's original intention might be cost-saving. As WSJ indicated, limited items allow Aldi to have lower negotiated cost prices, less inventory, higher turnovers, and lightning speed. But lower price can't be the only reason for so many people to "love" Aldi. In fact, "limited choice" is a good marketing strategy as well, making customers psychologically more satisfied, and delivering the idea that Aldi is considerable enough to filter unnecessary items for them.

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Academically, American psychologist Barry Schwartz is a leading promoter for limited choice. In 2004, he republished a book named The Paradox of Choice - Why More Is Less, argued that eliminating consumer choices can greatly reduce anxiety for shoppers. In Harvard Business Review, Barry Schwartz pointed out in his article More Isn't Always Better that psychologists and business academics alike have largely ignored another outcome of choice: More of it requires increased time and effort and can lead to anxiety, regret, excessively high expectations, and self-blame if the choices don’t work out. 
Carl Phillips, author of 22 Ways to Simpler Living, put in his blog The Power of Limited Choice that limiting choice can improve our chances of actually making a decision and then staying committed to that decision. We put mental blinkers on and fully commit to what is in front of us.
That may be why, in a marketing perspective, limited choice always works out.

For more information, check out the TED Talk from Barry Schwartz: