[efaith]

Go to Amazon. Type in "toaster". Pick "House & Garden" to let you sort. Sort by bestselling. Look at the first six items and pick one. Done. Time taken: it need not be more than 60 seconds. Quality of purchase: unlikely to be worse than what you would have gotten by visiting an appliance store.

As for me, I do take more time to select. But that's because I choose to. I don't have to. I am not in a situation where failure to spend half an hour selecting is going to ensure that I get garbage.

In short, shopping is not broken, at least not judging by the very example he gave. Shopping is better than it has ever been - even for items like toasters.