Shopping for a New Tea Kettle

I wanted to buy a new tea kettle. It can actually be quite complicated. I know this because I went to purchase one for my dad's 81st birthday present. I naively thought buying a whistling, simple, chrome brushed kettle would be easy. Okay, so it wasn't THAT difficult, it just was more entailed than I would have imagined.

Like many consumers today, I began my mission by doing an online search. I figured it would at least give me a good starting point. Amazon.com had 227 choices. Bizrate.com had 230. Bizrate had your very lowly tea kettles for less than ten dollars to all the bells and whistles (and an 80 gallon capacity) for around 24,000 dollars. Yes, I did say 24 grand for a super deluxe tea kettle. So of course I narrowed the price range down.

There were still too many choices. So I narrowed it down even further to Linens and Things, Wal-Mart, and Bed and Bath Beyond. I guess I was approaching this tea kettle idea inside the box. But I hadn't yet turned into a cartoon caricature of myself being overwhelmed by such a simple errand. And I had inkling that I should keep that mental picture in check.

Suddenly, I realized how wonderful it was I never approached any life altering decisions while surfing Amazon or Bizrate. The choices were almost infinite. Want this? Apply for easy credit here! What if I had been a waffler? I might have looked for hours, even days, sustained only by high energy caffeine and vitamin water drinks. Or what if I easily spent above my means? What if I had been having a mentally deficient time and planet lapse day? Or what if my self control, anti panic meds, (if I was on them) hadn't kicked in?

There was an abundance of colors to choose from, from the angriest black cloud colors to the sweetest color of the rainbow you ever saw. And then there was a choice of materials for a whistling tea kettle. Aluminum, copper, brushed chrome, enamel; plug in, plastic, insulated, and practically gold plated. Handle placement varied greatly as well. I saw fully attached, three quarter handles, and just plain weird handles. Plain tea kettles, decorated tea kettles, tea kettles you could practically take into space. If I looked hard enough, I probably could have found a tea kettle for an underwater habitat that doesn't exist yet.

Oh for God's sake, this was just a tea kettle. I did not let myself run amuck with America's bottomless pit of materialistic choices.

I did something old fashioned. I got in the car and went to some stores. I found exactly what I was looking for at the local Ace hardware store. A 2 ½ quart copper bottomed, chrome polished, whistling tea kettle. Quite suitable for a frugal, don't you dare spend money on me, non techno geek, senior citizen. My only complaint was that it was not made in the United States. And it was 12.99.