Tesco covid shoe policy

[DoesThisMakeSence]

Took my dd to tesco tonight a she has had a growth spurt and outgrew all her shoes for school.
Sanatized our hand and the trolly and put our masks on and we went into the store.

Got quick top up of bread and milk and straight to the shoes.
The whole clothes section was empty apart from two staff filling another row with clothes.

I'm about to try a pair of shoes on dd and the man comes over and said this is not allowed. I stated i had no idea what size of shoe she is.
He said i was welcome to buy both pairs of shoes and return whichever one didnt fit.
That would have cost me an extra £20 that i dont have.

I honestly dont see the sence.
Instead of

1. Visitig tesco once and quickly trying on 2 pair of shoes picking the pair that fit, paying and leave.

They wanted me to
-Visit tescos, pick up 2 pairs of shoes. Go home dd try on the shoes. The pair of shoes due to be returned have still been touched but they have also sat around our house for a few days. We then have to take a second trip back to tescos together to return them at customer service.

I could only afford one pair, so i am £19 down for a pair of shoes that might fit.

Is it me or is it a little bizarre?

It’s not strange at all; it makes perfect sense. What about it are you not getting?

@babydisney

It's bullshit, it wouldnt live on the material long enough, just laziness from the employee he could have quite easily let you try them on and taken the other pair away for sanitation if necessary.

The employee is doing what the company tells him to do. It's not rocket science.

@heartsonacake

It’s not strange at all; it makes perfect sense. What about it are you not getting?

In what way does it make sense?

@heartsonacake

It’s not strange at all; it makes perfect sense. What about it are you not getting?

It doesn’t make perfect sense. The sensible thing to do would be have a box for rejected shoes.

It doesn’t make perfect sense. The sensible thing to do would be have a box for rejected shoes.

Maybe the same box that they must have to put the returns in.

It’s all complete nonsense. You can go in and pick up as many pairs of shoes as you like, with your hands. Hands are known to spread Covid. But you can’t put a pair on your feet (not known to spread Covid as far as I know?) Unless you buy them, then it’s fine to put them on your feet, then you may return them 5 minutes later. Unless you’re in Clark’s or Sainsbury’s, in which case socked feet don’t spread Covid after all.

I had a similar issue with swimwear, another thing which really needs trying on in my opinion. It took me 3 different trips to the shop, to buy, take home, try on, take back, get a different style/size, take home, try on, go back return unwanted ones. 3 different cashiers I had to interact with, 3 different cashiers handled the clothes. 3 times I had to queue for ages with other customers nearby (funnily enough returns queues are large at the moment). It then came in to my house and could have been handled by my family members too. Is that really preferable to me trying on some swimwear in store? Not sure what the risk there is Tbh.

Each store seems to have their own rules as well. I've been in TK Maxx twice this weekend in different locations. One was insisting any tried on sunglasses be placed in a box to then be sanitised, the other had no system at all.

It’s not strange at all; it makes perfect sense. What about it are you not getting

It is strange, it doesn’t make any sense

How many people have been infected through socks

If this is about handling stuff then surely given how the shoes are on a rack and I have never seen the perfect size at the front of the rack so you have to bend down and touch all the shoes to get to the size you want wouldn’t that mean that rack of shoes should be cleared and all go into quarantine

What more can you think of getting a pair of shoes infected if they go on your feet over your socks or tights then you take them off again.
What is the difference between trying them on at home and bringing them back to be quarantined or quarantining the shoes after they have been tried on in store.

Only difference is Tesco’s hoping that once home you lose the receipt or forget to return the unwanted pair so they have effectively sold more pairs of shoes to you.

This has obviously nothing to do with spreading a virus

This is NOT a "new normal"
It is temporary insanity.

You can not buy shoes without trying them on. Feet are three dimensional. A foot guide only tells you the length and maybe the width. It does not tell you whether you can even get your arch into the shoe or wear it comfortably.

Decathlon let you get on with it. Just as well as DS1 needed to upsize for width and height, then there's the balance of not having surplus length.

Yes it's a virus that no one wants to catch, but please do not try to credit it with being intelligent enough to know the difference between buying shoes in Tesco, ASDA, Decathlon or an independent specialist and infecting people accordingly. The hazard is potentially breathing it in in the air in sufficient quanitities, not wearing it on your feet.

And it is unreasonable to make people buy stuff that they are likely not to need and force them to return it and re-enter stores and spend more time in there. It's creating a higher risk and an unworkable policy for the millions without spare money to withdraw and be refunded.

@480Widdio thanks for posting. I was just wondering if marks and Spencer will let my children try school shoes on if I take them tomorrow. I was going to buy and then try them on in the car!

@minnieok yeah same here, tried shoes on my little one in Sainsburys and no problems.
OP I didn't realise this either as I haven't bought any clothing these last few months.

@TheMurk

Some shops are handling this well (mostly the small independents) and I will keep giving them my money.

But the bigger shops and chains are being arsey and ridiculous. I just won’t be back.

In an Oliver Bonas today, made to queue outside and then forced to rub chemicals into mine and my children’s hands before being deigned entry. Inside there were six menmbers of staff in a tiny shop with very little room to manoeuvre. Every part of the shop I went to I got told by one of them what to do or where to stand or what direction to go in, like a naughty child.

I bought something and there was a whole rigmarole about placing goods on a tray and standing back then everything being wiped and then being chastised for not standing exactly on the pink dot please...

Seriously, fuck off.

I think I would have abandoned the shopping for being treated like that, and emailed head office to tell them why. We have to vote with our wallets on this insanity, temporary or otherwise.

I don't see why changing rooms can't reopen. Fair enough, may be only 2 people at a time and tried on clothes go into quarantine.

Had this in Halfords. New bike helmet for my toddler. Wasn't allowed to try on. I just paid with cash and tried on as soon as we got out of the store. Thankfully it fitted fine but if not I wouldn't exchanged it immediately or got a refund in cash. No biggie.

It always surprises me how companies take the longer, more expensive answer to problems.

They need an area to place tried on shoes. Maybe a big recycling bin. That can be quarantined. The shoes will have been touched very little, so carry minimum risk.

Or, as has been pointed out, touched additionally by check out girl, at home by who knows, by person taking them back, by refund area in tescos. Then quarantined!

Crazily complicated way to get to the same answer. And with greater risk, not less.

This thread has made me appreciate the absurdity of it all. When I shop for clothes I touch the fabric, check the lining/embroidery, and without changing room I spend longer holding the item up to my body to see the relative fit to try and work out if the shape will suit me. If I don’t like it.. I just put it back! No one has stopped me from doing this and until I read about returns being quarantined, I didn’t even register that I may have “contaminated” what I’ve touched (obviously after hand sanitising at the entrance!!)

All the folk suggesting cash payments is making me laugh, after the hysteria about cash being some kind of vector...

I went to a pizza take-away last night that only takes cash. The irony is we're on hols and I didn't bring much cash, even though I've got a big pile at home. Luckily I'll be amused not annoyed if I have to go to a cash machine (!!)

I guess it's just a new way of buying stuff, buy-try-return-buy-try-return...