To get toddler feet measured in shop then buy online?

[Heather91]

Just that really. Is it ok to get my toddlers feet measured in a shoe shop but then buy online?
so many options are half price online but full price in the shop. But I feel bad… do I tell the shoe fitter I only want a measure or will they not want to measure if I’m going to go way and buy elsewhere?!

The shoes my DD (3½) has are £65, they're ricosta. And she's had ECCO before that at about £40-60 as well. Fitted properly byba proper shoe fitter.

They're worth paying for. She has one pair of shoes (and sandals for summer) They're waterproof, light, durable, designed for children's feet, have suoport etc and they outlast her growth and the girl absolutely hammers them, running, climbing, through mud, rivers, beaches, walks, dragging along with roundabouts, riding her bike/scooter and dragging them along as a brake etc. They've never fallen apart, split at the sole, gone frayed,.worn soles etc like I see with my friends kids and cousins shies. Yes they're well worn by the end of them fitting her, bit still complete and excellent shoes.

id rather pay £60 once than £25 4 times...

Things like wellies and crocs and wet shoes I always buy second hand from FB marketplace or charity shops. As they're only wearing them for short periods generally.

You can pick up kids wellies for £1-3 of not free, and crocs again maybe £2-5. I just store the next few sizes up in a box for when they're needed and sell the old ones for whatever I bought them for... So basically she has free wellies crocs and wet shoes.

And so this means I can spend the £60 odd on decent every day shoes that she might be wearing for 5+ hours

I do a bit of both. School shoes I buy from the shop as I want them properly fitted, they wear them so much.

But then I will use that size knowledge to buy things like school trainers online (£14 from Decathlon vs £45 from the shop), summer sandals etc.

Mine always have start rite. They have good sales if you don’t want to pay full price. Had no choice but to learn to measure myself during lockdown and honestly it’s the easiest thing in the world once you’ve been over the guide. So much better than all the waiting in the shop and DC deciding they don’t want to play ball.

I had this one but the Next one is even better it tells you the size on the measurer instead of having to convert like the clarks one

I did this for my DC's first shoes, although I didn't intend to. I went in to the only shop I could find that offered measuring and the cheapest shoes they had in the size were nearly 70 quid!!! So I said I would think about it, left and bought some second hand, new in box, for £5.

Buy a gauge as PPs have said and order online
sometimes great shoes at TK MAXX for toddlers

can be a challenge to find well fitting shoes outside of shoe shops if they have particularly wide/narrow feet though!

I often get my DC's feet measured at Clarks and then order on their website as there are way more options. I order into their store to collect for free delivery too. I feel no guilt. I would feel guilty if I bought the shoes from a different brand though.

Clarks must know that online shoppers either measure at home with their gauge or go into a shop to get measured prior to buying.

Yes good idea! They sell start rite shoes at full price, for example, shoes that are half price on start rite website. But there is no actual start rite shop, just other stores that sell start rite?
but I’ll try your suggestion !

The reason they are cheaper online is because the online store doesn't have to rent a shop front big enough to house a big store room with lots of different shoe sizes in, they don't have to train people to measure feet or assess shoe fit, they don't have to hire and pay enough staff to have someone available to fit shoes, they don't have to provide furniture for you to sit on and space to walk around the shop in the shoes.

So yes, it is a bit UR to use the service provided by the shop and then not actually pay for it (in the higher cost of the shoes).

But I rarely get my children's feet measured "professionally" as I don't find they are that great any more, I just let them try on whatever shoes and assess the fit myself. I looked up online how to do this and it wasn't that hard. So you could always do this, order online, try them on, send back the ones that don't fit.

You can definitely ask to try sale shoes - I have done this, I don't see any problem with doing this. Including ordering the sale shoes in the sizes you want to try to the shop (Clarks let you do this for free IIRC). I just think it's a bit unreasonable to go in with the sole intention of being fitted and then going straight to Shoe Zone and buying cheapo ones for example.

Good points everyone.

even if I did get measured in store, I wouldn’t buy different shoes. But soemtimes the shoes in store are £20- £30 cheaper elsewhere for the same shoe and I wish it wasn’t such a big difference :(
im going to ask to only try sale shoes

Although I might do the foot gauge thing and learn for myself depending how that goes!

This is probably one of the reasons the prices are so high in shops

Would you be able to return sales shoes?
The only reason I am asking is that as a parent of two DCs, one who had very wide feet, and one who had very narrow feet, I could never guarantee a fit until the shoes were actually on their feet.
Generally, trainers were a better fit on the one who had narrow feet, but as to the rest of it, it was trial and error because different styles fitted differently.
It got to the point that I knew what to look for myself when finding shoes when they were young (and better than Saturday staff TBH), but I never would have felt confident buying online and expecting that they would fit.
(By the way, the youngest who had narrow feet as a child still has 'baby heels' as an adult. ☺️)

The Clarks Outlet stores are good for this because instead of one person measuring the feet then getting out a selection of shoes and trying to flog them to you, they measure the feet and hand over a ticket with the size on. Most of the shoes are out on display to select from, or you can just walk out.

OP don't do it. It's so unfair to the employees of these shops, especially when they are monitored for their KPIs...loads of measures but no sales gets them a bollocking

That isn't the OP's problem.

And the retailers will close stores regardless of how many people ask them not to, so quite frankly they can bog off with that sort of emotional blackmail. Quite often the sales figures are fine, but a lease is coming to an end so they think they can save money. If shops don't feel any responsibility towards their customers or staff, customers don't need to feel any responsibility for shops.

Also, if you go into a shop when it's empty, you are not taking the sales staff's time away from a genuine customer.

Would you be able to return sales shoes

The laws are no different regarding sales shoes than they are for normal prices shoes. However, goodwill returns policies may be different for face to face sales.

If you buy online you can return regardless of reason.