From MSNBC's The Afflictions of Affluence: "Psychologist Barry Schwartz of Swarthmore College makes the broader point in his new book, 'The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less.' Our individual culture worships choice, but too much of it leads to choice congestion. Consumer Reports now 'offers comparisons among 220 new car models, 250 breakfast cereals, 400 VCRs, 40 household soaps, 500 health insurance policies, 350 mutual funds, and even 35 showerheads,' Schwartz writes. People feel overwhelmed by the time it takes to make the 'best' choice - and may later regret having made the wrong choice."

The explosion in customer choice is not good for the economy. While we would normally postulate that competition drives market prices down, in fact, customers overwhelmed by too much competition, will choose not to participate in the market at all. One example is the market for flat screen TVs, where the offering range is so complex that many otherwise willing consumers have become bystanders, denying manufacturers production scale.

As previously discussed here, companies are leveraging databases of customer information to hyper-segment product portfolios. It's not yet working. If the segmentation were just right, there would be no consumer confusion.