{"id":42899,"date":"2013-06-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/how-one-company-streamlines-complexity\/"},"modified":"2013-06-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T18:59:58","slug":"how-one-company-streamlines-complexity","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/how-one-company-streamlines-complexity\/","title":{"rendered":"How One Company Streamlines Complexity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our lives are filled with gadgets we can&#39;t use (automatic sprinklers, GPS devices, fancy blenders), instructions we can&#39;t follow (labels on medicine bottles, directions for assembling toys or furniture) and forms we can&#39;t decipher (tax returns, gym membership contracts, wireless phone bills). Every facet of our lives, even entertainment and recreation, is complicated by an ever-widening array of choices delivered at a frantic pace. Consider:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\t<li>More than 2,000,000 apps in the Apple App Store<\/li>\n\n\t<li>250-plus selections on the Cheesecake Factory menu, and is 20 pages long<\/li>\n\n\t<li>135 mascaras, 437 lotions and 1,992 fragrances at Sephora.com<\/li>\n\n\t<li>In 1980, the typical credit card contract was about 400 words long. Today, many are 20,000 words.<\/li>\n\n\t<li>One company, PC Pitstop, deliberately buried a clause in its end-user license agreement, offering $1,000 to the first person who emailed the company at a certain address. It took five months and 3,000 sales until someone claimed the money.<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>But one company has worked hard to counter this complexity trend&mdash;the supermarket chain Trader Joe&#39;s. Trader Joe&#39;s figured out that trying to give people everything is a lousy business model: It overwhelms customers, clutters stores, and undermines the shopping experience. So Trader Joe&#39;s offers many fewer products than other supermarkets (about 4,000 items instead of 50,000). But limiting variety doesn&#39;t mean bland selections. The company offers customers the best choices possible. Thus, shoppers don&#39;t have to sort through dozens of options for jam or mustard or frozen foods.<\/p>\n\n<p>Does it work? The chain, which has about 350 stores in the U.S., sells an estimated $1,750 in merchandise per square foot, more than double the sales generated per square foot by Whole Foods Market.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Editor&rsquo;s Note: These statistics have been updated as of 8\/2024<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angles: <strong>(1) Church Life and Church Programs<\/strong>&mdash;When the church needs to simplify its options and programs and focus on what&#39;s really important. <strong>(2) Personal Spiritual Disciplines or Devotions<\/strong>&mdash;The need to pare down the distractions in our life so we can focus on what&#39;s really important.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[410,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3572,3726,3776,3777,3778,3808,3997,4066,4476,4553,4708,4969,4976],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-42899","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-choice","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-devotion","tax_ctp_tags-devotional-life","tax_ctp_tags-devotions","tax_ctp_tags-distractions","tax_ctp_tags-focus","tax_ctp_tags-goals","tax_ctp_tags-mission","tax_ctp_tags-objectives","tax_ctp_tags-priorities","tax_ctp_tags-shopping","tax_ctp_tags-simplicity"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How One Company Streamlines Complexity - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/how-one-company-streamlines-complexity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How One Company Streamlines Complexity - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our lives are filled with gadgets we can&#039;t use (automatic sprinklers, GPS devices, fancy blenders), instructions we can&#039;t follow (labels on medicine bottles, directions for assembling toys or furniture) and forms we can&#039;t decipher (tax returns, gym membership contracts, wireless phone bills). 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