I went into The Walking Company looking for a pair of Dansko clogs-I know, dead sexy shoes, right? I’m on my feet all day and I have seen a number of Dansko ads telling me they can help.
Now I am going into The Walking Company to buy a $120 pair of shoes-this is a lot for me to spend on shoes. Most of my shoes have Payless stamped on them somewhere. The salesperson tried to upsale me everything from a fancy pair of socks to a shoe with a rocker on their soles that cost twice what the Dansko shoes cost. They didn’t have the size I needed for the Black Dansko Clogs that I wanted, and there seemed to be some sort of impossibility involved in ordering a pair-even the warehouse didn’t have a pair my size.
Since I wasn’t going to buy the two hundred dollar rocking chair shoes, or the twenty dollars socks, or even the 120 dollar pair of Danskos that I wanted-we’re ready to leave. The salesman then tried to get me to buy a pair of sandals-Ok, I come into the store to buy work shoes and you think I’d like a pair of sandals instead?
“I don’t wear sandals.”
“Never?”
“No, never.”
And with that I drove across the large open air mall and found a Shoe Pavilion-which had a very nice pair of Timberlands that were a pretty close knock-off of the Danskos that I wanted-and they only cost 50 dollars. I am wearing them now and they feel pretty damned great.
I am not sure what the problem was with The Walking Company and why they didn’t want to order a pair of Danskos, or even offer a pair that was not exactly what I wanted in the right size-to see if I wanted to order a pair of the Danskos. I will still likely buy a pair of Danskos at some point, but it will not be from The Walking Company.
I mean, I understand the whole Upsale thing, when you order a hamburger and they say-Do you want fries with that? it makes sense. But when you order a hamburger and they ask-Would you like a Porterhouse with that? it makes a little less sense. Dansko is not the easiest shoe to find, and I just went to one of the places that the Dansko website pointed to to. I need to try on shoes before I buy them, but at least now I know what size I need-a 47, or was it a 46?
Payless is a right place for shoes with a great discount. My friend told me that he also get a very nice discount from Amazon.com on his new shoes.