ro be PISSED OFF with this shoe shop behaviour

[PitysSake]

ok so shop hEAVING.
mum comes in with a huge rucksack and then gets out every shoe her two kids own. battered old trainers, school shoes, even brings sprots socks for kids to try
then get the kids to try on every shit pair of shoes to get the assistant to say if they need new ones

this is NOT degree level science lady, you feel the toes and work it out. These people are not higher beings they are shoes shop assistants.

Meanwheil the rest of us were waiting and wiating.

THEN some annoying muj let her 2 year old walk SLOWLY down the stairs holding up one mum who was calling for a kid she htought had done a runner and me and another guy who wanted to get downstairs AT SOME POINT

and they WONT sell babies shoes iirc

nobs

We are lucky enough to have a Startrite factory shop.

But it has strange hours. Closes at 4.45 on a weekday and no weekend opening. So you can imagine what its like on a normal weekday after 3pm, but yes you still get mothers of toddlers (usually pfb's!) turning up, oohing and ahhing over purple and pinks and where "daddy will like these or not".

It makes me want to scream, you have had all day to bleeding well get here, why pick the most popular time of the day.

it wa slike a mountain climbing one
so she could trek up the crag of school shoes and have a shoe for each step of hte way

rofl at toady

and the socks for hte complete shoe fittin gexpereince

Actually there is a mother of one boy in ds's class who I could imagine turning up with a rucksack of shoes.

we were rather debonairely playing cards as we waited.

ds3 lit a cheroot

a man who was way over 50 once asked me to fit his shoes for him when I worked in a shoe shop (jones as it happens!)

he was being deadly serious, not pervy or anything. I did wonder if this was the first time he had bought shoes without his mumsie being there

needless to say i informed him that we could only fit childrens shoes, accompanied with a withering look

nothing to do with your thread but just thought i would butt in

Wilkos - I used to have a Saturday job in a shoe shop, every week without fail just before closing we would have this wee old tranny bloke come in and try the ladies high heels on, he fitted into a size 6, he used to say he was just trying them on for his wife!

Oh clarke's shoe shopping experiences.

Best part of £40 quid and you can't even chose the shoe. You have what they offer you. Child gets measured, gimlet-eyed shop assistant brings out choice of 3 hideous shoes, says this is all we have. You buy them anyway because you have been stood there for 40 mins in the seventh circle of hell with your butcher's ticket. Then leave, defeated and worn out.

YAY to having a teenager and never having to darken their doors ever again!

Oh, and the people obsessed with malformed feet. Clarke's marketing department are geniuses.

All this malformed feet stuff is bollocks. I grew up wearing a selection of jelly shoes, deck shoes, hand me downs and shoes which were always tooo small (grew like a weed) - my feet are fine.

I ended up getting DD's shoes from Ladybird in the end. Simple.

Stop talking about school shoes! I have my fingers in my ears singing lalalalalalala.

I had to leave Clarkes, without shoes, because I was going to brain a mum and dad hogging the bloody assistant. For toddlers shoes "take a walk in your big boys shoes," "what a nice colour, do you like the colour? Would you like to try another colour?" "aren't you such a good, big, grown up?", and on and on and on. All the while the child running as far away as possible and the berks grining at everyone, because he's so clever.

Me and another mum started the heavy sighs, but they were unfazed. Then we tried the "He'll only throw them out the car window on the way home" line sotto voce. But nope, had to go.

fimbo you have just reminded me of something else!

guy came in one day and said he wanted to buy some shoes for his wife, asked me my shoe size (which was the same ) and had me parading up and down the shop in various pairs of high heels until my manager walked in and slung him out

Im my 18 year old naivety I had no idea he was a well known local foot fetishist!!

he he, there are advantages to living in the sticks... no queues in shoe shops being one.

wandered into byrons on a saturday afternoon with dd, had her measured and shoes bought within 10 mins, then wandered to elverys and got a pair of runners at 60% off within another ten minutes.

simples...dunno what all the fuss is about

pmsl at the rucksack though

I thank god those days are behind me.

You're spot on though, Pitysake, some people really do seem to think it's an exact science and that these shop assistants have some higher knowledge that the rest of us don't.

Clarks are the worst for it.... all that marketing to try to convince you that you might be a Bad Parent if you don't get your kids feet measured in some fucking machine, and then spend 5 times more than you'd spend down the road.

It really isn't rocket science. You can feel if shoes are too tight/loose. (Clue: if you have to grab child's leg and s-q-u-e-e-z-e foot into shoe while they yell, it's probably too tight). You just get some families where it's a statement though isn't it? They make the visit to the shoe shop into a full-blown family outing so they can exclaim loudly 'Well of course we buy all their clothes secondhand at NCT sales, but SHOES are different.'
Aaargh
Having said that, as another poster pointed out, even those of us who wore hand-me-down shoes, plastic jelly sandals, sloppy wellies two sizes too big etc have all survived to tell the tale.

GetOrf... totally agree, dd is 4.5 and this is her first pair of fitted shoes, up til now she's been in any old pair of primark/next/lidl/dunnes shoes and her feet are fine.

imo the most important thing for foot developement is simply not wearing shoes as much as possible, mine wear shoes outdoors if we're going out or it's wet, the rest of the time they're barefoot... fab for growing feet

Pink - where do you live, I'm moving there!

talking of foot fetishists.....have you seen what people sell manky worn out smelly shoes for on ebay....friend found this by accident looking for a well pump....they turned up a load of well worn, well used ladies pumps.....buyers even asking did they SMELL good!!

Re obsession with malformed feet in the UK

Here in France they couldn't care less about about corns, but they are obsessive about ankle support

Ankle type boots practically compulsory for pre-schoolers

west of ireland... in the interests of fairness i should point out that i live so far out on the bogs i have to drive 45 mins to get to a decent supermarket though so i wouldn't organise the move just yet

POWN- yes we have a good laff at some of them on Ebay. My mum wanted a a Harrods bag so I searched Ebay and up popped an adult nappy in Harrods material.

PMSL at 'DS3 lit a cheroot'.

Last year I had a similar experience, although the woman had a Tescos placcy bag of shoes rather than a rucksack.