We decided this week that we needed some new sandals for our vacation next week in Omaha. Myself, I've never owned a pair and have rarely worn them, but I think they'll be nice for our vacation. Emily wears hers all the time, but her Born sandals are four years old, maybe older, and need replacing.
Mine were easier. We went to DSW and checked them out. There was a nice set of Born's for $60, but the straps cut into the sides of my feet, so I passed. Then I saw a pair of Hush Puppies for $40 that felt great, so I got those. And, after checking the clearance rack, I found a nice pair of Asics for $28. Not too shabby.
Emily was more difficult. She's flat-footed, and shoes give her more problems. Her Crocs are great, because they're flat. But tennis shoes are trickier. The selection of women's sandals at DSW was dismal, even though two thirds of the store is dedicated to women's shoes. So we went to the mall to check out Doc Martens at Steve's. Only, Steve's wasn't there anymore. It had been replaced by The Walking Company. We went in and Emily asked what was a good walking sandal. The saleswoman pointed at a shoe and said those were good. She didn't offer to get any out or any alternatives. So Emily tried them on, and didn't like them. She asked if there wasn't any others. By this point we had both mentioned to this woman that Emily had no arch, and that a shoe with a high arch probably wasn't the best option. The woman insisted she was wrong and indicated an even more expensive shoe. Emily told her it was out of her price range, which seemed to turn off the woman even more. Somehow I think she had decided when we walked in that we were in the wrong income tax bracket for her store. Hey honey, you're working commission. Shut up and show us the shoe.
Anyway, we gave up and went home for the night. The next day we went downtown to the Plaza and checked out their shops. Emily remembered there being a Steve's down there, so we looked for it. No dice. In its place was The Walking Company. Emily wanted to give it another chance, but I decided to try other options first. We got a map of the Plaza and walked around to a few of the stores before hitting up E. G. Geller, a shoe store that exists only in Dallas, Houston, and Kansas City (apparently the owner is from Texas and has family up here). A wonderfully nice woman named Camille (okay, she was a red head, which I like, but she was nice. Remind me to tell you about the girl who dyed her hair red after I mentioned I liked them) helped us out. Emily mentioned her arch problem, and the saleswoman mentioned that she had the same problem. She recommended a sandal she had worn in Italy. Emily loved it and it was funky (and more expensive than anything we saw at The Walking Company). The woman, wanting to make sure Emily was happy with her choice, showed her several other sandals before Emily decided on the first one.
The point here is that a nice woman (and I swear it wasn't just because of her hair) sold a sandal because she was kind and new her shoes and was willing to help out a customer. Isn't that the definition of sales? Getting someone to buy something because they need it? Anyway, Emily had her wonderfully funky shoes and will have them broken in by the time we go to Omaha. And the woman said that they'll last twice as long as her Born shoes. I told Emily that if she likes them and they improve her quality of life, that she can come back in the fall and look at a good shoe for hospital work.
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I love my new sandals. They are awsome (but still need some breaking in). I didn't even have buyers remorse about spending almost twice as much as Matt did on two pairs of shoes.
Okay, here's my experience with The Walking Company. I go in with a friend and we buy some Dansco shoes. A few weeks or months afterwards, I'm sitting there with them on and daydreaming and I think that one shoe gives my foot more room than the other. I figure I must have done something to stretch the shoe or something, but I don't think anything of it. Almost a full year later, I'm inspecting my shoes and realize I have two different sizes. The idiot sales lady had me try on two different sizes and then boxed them up wrong and I got two different shoes. I called the store, talked to the owner and he traded me out for two shoes that were the same size. By that point, the idiot lady wasn't working there anymore. Hmmm...wonder why.
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