Shoe day

Now I know many girls revel in buying shoes, but not being a girl I have a generally different attitude towards this activity. However I do need shoes and therefore do occasionally have to shop for them. Today was my annual shoe day (and when I talk of shoes I'm really only referring to trainers).

I find the January sales are often a good time to buy shoes, so I ventured out around some of Glasgow's various shoe emporiums. The first place I went was Foot Locker. I wasn't too impressed by them. The ground floor of the shop seemed mainly concerned with selling clothes and a selection of their most expensive shoes, which was not what I was looking for. The selection of shoes in the sale were hidden away upstairs and as such I couldn't even be bothered to look at them - I just assumed that there wouldn't be any real bargains. Next I tried out the Original Shoe Co.. Again this shop seemed to be saturating its foyer with clothing rather than the footy items I wanted. I was mainly after a new pair of running shoes to replace my very scaggy and holey old pair. This shop had a quite decent selection of more casual trainers, but was completely lacking in running shoes. I left disappointed and empty handed. Immediately next door I came to Schuh. Now Schuh seemed to be only interested in selling shoes, rather than clothing, which was a good start. They also had the best selection of shoes, although again it was generally the casual trainer rather than the running shoe. I made notes of some of nicer pieces of footwear, but again left in search of the running shoe.

I've known this from previous experience and therefore should have probably ordered my shop search slightly differently, but the best places for a good trainer bargain during the sales are actually the sports stores. So I went into a large JJB Sports and low and behold my running shoe needs were amply fulfilled. There were a very decent selection of sales offers with 30%-50% off normal price. I was quickly served by a cheerful assistant and I went away with fairly decent pair of Adidas trainers.

Having found the cheap sale item I was after I went back to Schuh for to treat myself to something nicer. I was pounced on by several sales staff who seemed to be outnumbering the customers by a high proportion. After fending off the first few advances whilst I had a bit more of a look about my eyes settled on a pair of New Balance trainers. I did the usual short walkabout in them and decided to take them. That ended my yearly shop for shoes.

From the length and content of this post it may sound like I actually enjoyed this shopping experience, but I must insist that that's not the case. I would much prefer to have walked into the first shop and found two reasonably priced and nice trainers and then been done with it. I'll leave the joy of the shoe shopping experience to the girls.