Konsumterrorismus

It's one of my favorite German words and captures roughly how I feel going into any department store. No I never got the shopping gene. I have one aim entering any kind of shop: to get out as fast as possible. But online shopping can be just as overwhelming:

A few weeks ago, I decided to get a new pair of flip flops. I dutifully went to Zappos (free shipping!) and looked in the "casual sandals" section. There were 1590 options. Just for men. In my size. So then I searched for "casual sandals" that were between $39.99 and $69.99. I had narrowed down the list to 652 items. I did a wee bit more narrowing, scrolled through the pages, and, after a few minutes, decided to get the flip flops at my local shoe store. The endless number of online options was aversive.

And no he hadn't stumbled onto Mitt Romney's website by accident.