Just imagine you cannot read and you are poor. You live in rural areas.
You need to go into a store in the next town. A real store, not like the small rural seller location where if you go late you just find two or three remaining items and the cans and small containers with a few products inside you know so well.

Wait, you need to take the bus for going there. So, after a ten minutes walk you reach the bus stop. The first bus is the right one, must be the right one – if it is not late. The problem: here stop three buses, one that brings you in town, the other two go to the north…
How can you be sure about the the right bus?
By the color of the line, by comparing a number you have drawn on a paper or your hands before to the sign in front of the bus?
Ok, you’ve made it. The bus is yellow, the signs appear similar to what you recognize. Taking a bus is seen as recognizing a color of the line and a number which is not seen as seventeen but because the sign of seventeen is remembered. Fortunately, no specific written announcement that a deviation has to be taken today due to some ongoing works on the roads or similar.
You have reached your goal. Better not to imagine the crowdy bus stop for going back later on. A real nightmare with all these different buses stopping there. You need to compare the signs or asking others. A question of dignity? How might you feel? Better not to ask too stupid questions…when obviously others find it easy to identify the right one without problems.

The store in town has a lot of similar products on its shelves. Too many. You will take the product you know by memory. The size in relation to the price does not really matter. You take the cheapest one, the one you always take, because you know that this is the one you have enough money for. Brands are bought due to a certain ‘recognizable’ design.
Discounts and special offers are difficult to understand. 20% less? What is that? No idea. You do not care, simply because you do not understand.
Pictographic thinking – that’s what helps you. The colour, design elements, the size as always.

You are not interested in the ingredients, because you cannot read it. Healthier? What means health? Healthiness means simply not to be in a hospital. All people are healthy in the supermarket…
Buying an item is not related to a specific price, but you calculate the same sum to be taken off of your bundle of money, e.g. always 5 units.
And you buy things not based on a concept, not due to a potential future need, but because certain actions should be done. You buy a saw, hammer… , but because you want to cut a tree.

Just imagine how different your world and your behavior look. Just imagine …