I had an epiphany in Clarkes Shoe Shop today......

[Blandmum]

......I am never going to bloody shop in them ever again.

Kids need sandels/ doodles so I took them into town and braved the dreaded Clarkes

1. the Kids stuff is at the back to the shop, so we had to flog our way through womant fingering beige sandels.
2. We took out ticket and waited and waited and waited.
3. We were finaly served by a very nice child of about 12....or so it seemed to me.

'I want sandels' said I' Nice supportive ones , with good grip on the soles, and support round the foot. For playing in, not ones covered in sequins, boys will do for dd if we must'

4. She brought us trainers 5 she took the trainers away
5. She brought us two pains of sequin be-decked, strappy things suited for a bridesmaids outfit.

I sighed.

Measure ds for doodles.

They had none in his size!

HELLS BELLS AND BUCKETS OF BLOOD!

It is the summer and they have no summer stock!

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

AND she tutted at me when I regected the trainers!

I'm a start rite mum from now on.

get your wallet out then. they are more expensive than Clarks. believe it or not

I wnet and paid 3 pound more.

Trust me, it was 3 pound well spent!

Ok I stand corrected!

I have started boycotting Clarks. They fitted ds2 with a pair of F width shoes which seemed okay at first but then became uncomfortable. I took him in several times for re-measuring and they kept saying he had "plenty of room". Too bloody right he did - his actual foot width, as I found out later from an honest not-just-out-to-get-a-sale shop is D bordering on C. Now he's got beautiful handmade to measure shoes from these lovely people
Well worth the extra expense and when he outgrows them they can be stretched and resoled (only once though)
Clarks stink. And they can never cater for my H width dd1...

I bought DS1 some sandles from Clarks this summer. He wore them a handful of times & then last Sunday, one of the sandles broke while he was running!
Not what you expect from what are meant to be quality shoes!

I love Mumsnet because you get threads with the title epiphany in them.

I almost wrote it with you in mind, mother dear!

I was seething with surpressed rage at the end. It is summer is it so odd that I would want to by summer shoes??????

and why do they put the kids shoes at the back????

Are they so stupid that they honestly think a woman batteling with kids will think, 'oh look, some shoes for me'

She doesn't have the time, the patience, or after Clakes prices the Fing MONEY. ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME SHOE SHOP OWNNERS?????? This cunning trick do3esn't work and just pisses us off!

ah ha but this is where you are wrong

it may be summer, but everything in the shops is Autumn/Winter because of course, we all go out now in 30C heat to buy jerseys and boots and heavy coats. Can't think why anyone would still want sandals in say, oh mid-July.

It is ridiculous and in fact, Franny was just commenting the other day about shops doing this!

mb i had that same epiphany years ago

clarkes schmarkes

But it is stupid!

Stupid for adults and even more stupid for children. Who buys shoes for kids two months before they need them? Unless you plan of foot binding the little buggers!

SHEESH!

exactly, but you know what - you go the last weekend of the school holidays, when you've given their feet a chance to grow the size they normally do over the summer - and lo and behold, they have no school shoes that you like in your children's size

it's a massive vicious circle that repeats itself year after year!

mutter muttermutter

bastards

mutter

Someone told me helpfully the other day our local shoeshop - which does Clarks among others - had a sale on and a friend had kitted her kids out for autumn; well, whoop-de-do. If I take the Inferiorettes in there I just know the dear little b*ggers will sneakily grow a size between now and September and I'll end up disabling them for life by forcing them into overly small shoes. So hey, there's over fifty smackers down the drain - sorry, spent carefully on my darling daughters' wellbeing - this autumn, again...

I hardly ever buy shoes for me, dammit. (Admittedly because I don't wear them indoors, but the principle's the same.)

Last summer they both needed new shoes and new trainers for school at the same time

More than £100 in half an hour.

(I hate to make the point that a non-uniform school helps save money in this area, of course .)

totally agree with everything said, it especially counts towatrds the boys schoolshoes. never in my life have i seen such hideous shoes as the ones left at the end of school hols. ds1 actually burst into tears last summer, because he thought i would make him wear the ones they brought out!

tooticky - i do love those shoes, but i don't think i could persuade ds1 to wear them, hes just turned 9 and now thinks he is grown up enough to do what he wants

Don't you believe it.

Nike etc

Ha!

Reading the active threads I see we have much in common....I'm a shoeless freak as well

I don't go there anymore either, because their Childrens dept. is upstairs and they wouldn't look after my (laden with bags) buggy whilst I took DS up to find shoes.

What a ridiculous way to do business. It wasn't just me either as there was a mum there with more little ones than me who couldn't get up there. Also snotty assistant.

Start rite for me every time. It's all on one level and the service is excellent.

I have to concede that if I had to get them uniform, at least it would cut down the ages and ages of me turning down repulsive options and/or going for something that ends up being deeply impractical. Pink suede trainers. Why oh why oh sodding why did I end up so beaten down by the revolting trainers on offer that I went for the ones that would actually take the most upkeep?????

Rise Up Mothers Of Britain

We have nothing to lose but our queing tickets!

Death to suede childrens shoes.

on the fires with patent pumps

No, but I am going to this afternoon at a friends BBQ

I just don';t see why a comapny that makes it's money from us has to make us farking well suffer why they bleed us dry. I'm coming over all radical in my middle years and may need to have a nap this afternooon to regain my composure!