Having lived overseas, the US isn't a "veritable wonderland of consumer choice". There are 5 grocery store chains, for the great majority of the country there is one way to travel: car. At the store (Kroger), I can buy 2 kinds of salt on the shelves. Where is the "veritable choice"? It has been told in the advertising but the reality is very limited.

There are scores of grocery chains in the US, not 5. There are thousands of independent grocery stores. And literally hundreds of salt options, even at Kroger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_supermarket_chains_in_...

https://www.kroger.com/search?query=salt&searchType=default_...

The salt options must be customized regionally, because I only get 3 choices.

Found the guy that doesn’t actually shop at the grocery store.

Seriously. Even the most basic supermarkets stock like at least 10 different kinds of salt. Iodized, non, kosher, sea, for grinding, packets, in disposable shakers, etc., and often a couple brands, e.g. Morton and Diamond. And a larger supermarket will have pink salt (Himalayan), various fancy sea salts, fleur de sel, flavored salts...

Meh. This scenario does not seem broadly representative of the US to me. I mean, I don't live anywhere exceptional and near me alone there are Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Wegmans, Trader Joes, Aldi, and Whole Foods stores in addition to the grocery sections at Walmart and Target. And if one drives a little further, there are Publix, H-Mart, and several smaller local outfits - Compare, Li Ming's Global Mart, etc.

And just Food Lion alone has probably half a dozen to a dozen different salt varieties on the spice aisle.

I'm sure there are places in the US where choice is more limited, but that's the thing about a country of the size of the United States... you can find all kind of scenarios in different regions.

The "veritable wonderland" is big cities; come visit NYC or LA. Also affluent smaller cities. Elsewhere, it depends. You can reach parts of the consumption cornucopia by accessing sites like Amazon from basically anywhere in the US though.

I strongly disagree.

I've lived in a few overseas countries and consumer choice is absolutely limited. As a result you see a lot of people trying to import things they want that they can't otherwise get in their country.

If your hobby is cooking, good luck getting Arabic food ingredients in say Vietnam.

But in the US? If your own city doesn't have a store that carries them, you could easily order them online for next day delivery.

> So we have some annoying advertising. Small price.

Ha. Tell that to the millions of victims from false advertising of Big Tobacco and Big Pharma.

That prosperous society and veritable wonderland is not looking so great these days. Perhaps the fact that the tools built for psychologically manipulating people into buying things can also be used to manipulate people into thinking and acting a certain way could be related to your current situation? Maybe those tools shouldn't have been available to everyone, including your political adversaries?

But hey, glad you're enjoying it over there.

> millions of victims from false advertising of Big Tobacco

People have known that smoking is bad for your health for around 400 years. You can't fix stupid, not even by making advertising illegal.

The snark padding is a waste of screen pixels and undermines your point.