Today was (part 1) of the Great School Shoe Purchase. I had suitably low expectations so was delighted to find the shoe shop was not teeming, no palpable air of tension, and there was actually an assistant free when we arrived. I should have noticed the very bored person at the till who was almost asleep.
DC had their feet measured. Definitely grown. We were asked for our preferences from the Wall Of Shoes. We didn't really care as long as they met the uniform code of black, and my need for them to be pretty robust. We explained, and suggested a couple that looked alright.
Over the next half hour, the assistant mysteriously brought us a range of shoes that I can only assume she closed her eyes in the stockroom and selected at random - a size too small, up to two sizes too big, all sorts of colours... Around the shop I gradually noticed every assistant was trying to persuade people to buy shoes in the wrong size, with one desperately adding three insoles...
Perhaps they are desperately low on stock and the poor assistants were in fact rotating the same ten pairs of shoes between them, but my mind remains boggled - did they really truly think they were going to flog the wrong sized shoes through some sort of mind control?!
Would love to hear any other bonkers "selling" techniques that were always going to be doomed 