I seem to have ordered 9 pairs of shoes yesterday. Oops.
What can I say. There was a sudden online Sale. It’s an interesting concept, the Sale. In Boy-mode it’s generally something to be avoided in actual shops.
And in Girl-mode too! Not through fear of funny looks or ridicule, but mortal fear of being trampled to death.
Were more men were familiar with the cost of women’s shoes then then this would seem entirely rational.
At least online the risk to life & limb is removed.
The marketing people know their psychology well; an email invites me to the sale, giving me a specific “personalised” time when I can gain access – no doubt exactly the same time as everyone else has been given.
My basket contains 10 items in no time at all.
The decision process is fairly quick of course; do I like the look? If so, do they have a size which I have a realistic chance of being able to fit into without crippling myself in the process?
Once the duplicate item is removed (I selected “size 8” before I noticed that there was, amazingly, a “size 8 wide” available), that leaves 9 pairs.
Yet the total, with the sale prices, is less than the price of a single pair of my favourite ankle boots.
Still, they are not ALL black. One is pink, one is sparkly, one has crocodile pattern effect, and one is even open-toed. If they fit and are comfortable then there will be hours ahead carefully painting toenails.
In Spain the Sale is run differently and follows a more formal format. The rebaja (or in Catalonia, rebaixa) has well-defined periods of 1st reductions, 2nd reductions and final reductions. You have to balance how much you want an item against the offer price and the probability of it selling out before you buy. It gives the shops both a good chance of selling items at only modest reductions and a good chance of eventually shifting everything. It also reduces the probability of the type of scene below, with all its inherent dangers, and total lack of dignity or decorum.
Now I wait patiently for my purchases to arrive; I’ll be picking them up in dribs & drabs as they arrive at my local store where they are used to me trying them on in-store to filter out the ones which are truly unwearable… the ones which claim to be a UK 8 but so are not, the ones clearly never previously tested on a human foot shape, and similar.
I was once accused of having a boot problem. At the time, vehement denials poured forth. What can I say, they may have had a point.
Or maybe a bargain is a bargain, and a Sale is irresistible.
Sophie Baskerville 