To have spent more than I needed to?

[thankyoufor]

We live quite rurally but the nearest town to us is a nice little one with lots of independent shops, including a child’s shoe shop.

I noticed yesterday both children’s shoes were right and originally planned to take them into the city to be measured at Clarks. But I decided to go to the town instead.

Now the shoes were more expensive but …

1. i didn’t have to pay for parking
2. there was much more choice (boys shoes especially at Clarks are black, dinosaurs or black.)
3. we could go to the lake and feed the ducks followed by a play on the park. So a much nice experience.

AIBU? Or woodland you have done the same?

I prefer going to an independent shoe shop rather than Clarks as I began to notice Clarks were happy to say shoes were fine and if my children said they felt uncomfortable they would just say it's because they are new.
The independent store will get out as many shoes as you want to try and check the fit properly. They are more expensive and unfortunately the last school shoes we bought didn't last that long, so in that sense I would say it's unreasonable to spend more (and the current pairs are from the supermarket).
If you can afford the shoes then I don't see what the issue is.

YANBU for all the reasons you've listed. Also, I feel like for a shoe shop, Clarks has a surprisingly poor selection of shoes for kids (or toddlers at least - my experience lately as I only have a toddler) .

Clarks were rubbish with both of mine but unfortunately Brantano closed down.
I was also gutted when Shuropody closed down round here.