- Women will bring out photos of designer shoes , only to be left disappointed
- Larger women sometimes won’t accept their calves won’t fit into certain boots
- One woman spent an hour Instagramming her feet and based choice on ‘likes’
I work in one of the posher High Street shoe shops and this is one of our busiest times as customers look for autumn footwear.
The trouble is, women in particular have a pre-conceived idea of exactly what they want. I’ll get well-off middle-aged women bringing out pictures, saying: ‘Gucci has this boot and it’s what I want.’
We charge a tenth of their prices, but they’re always disappointed.
Some rather large women won’t accept their calves don’t fit the boots they want.
Shoe shop assistant says well-off middle-aged women will bring out pictures of designer shoes they want, only to be left disappointed (file photo)
I’ll suggest stylish ankle boots, but I’ve had people in tears, determined to tug on a knee boot — one customer split the zip and she had to pay for it. She was furious.
Then there’s the ones I call ‘museum visitors’. They’re the women who come in, drift around trying on endless pairs, then after two hours wander off.
By contrast, men typically go straight in: they try something on, if they like it, they buy it and if they don’t, they’re usually happy with an alternative.
Recently, one fortysomething lady spent an hour Instagramming her feet and based her decision on how many ‘likes’ the various pairs got.
I felt like saying: ‘It’s just a pair of shoes! Nobody cares!’
But I waited till she’d made her mind up. You have to be quite zen in this job or you’d go mad.