A Day in the Life of a Shoe Store

Where the Magic Begins
By Abby Wise

Shoes can complete an outfit or ruin it. Putting on the perfect shoe gives me that complete feeling that I imagine Cinderella felt when prince charming slipped on her glass slipper. But we don’t all have fairy godmothers to say a spell and wave her wand around and “Ta-da” shoes. We have to go shopping for shoes at the shoe store. And we settle for a sales assistant to slip on that perfect shoe. The shoe store is where all the magic begins.

For me the magic began in DSW in Lawrenceville. The assortment of shoes in a DSW gives you an idea of the assortment of people you will find there. The average DSW has over 30,000 pairs of shoes with a variety of styles for men, women, and children. With all the styles you have a different personality to fill each shoe.

All the shoes are lined up separated into sections: men, women, and kids. Within each section there are more divisions: boots, sandals, heels, etc. Then within each section they are lined up in aisles. All the shoes are on display and under each style of shoe are boxes of that shoe separate by size.

The shoe store opened at 10:00 a.m. on that Saturday and the doors open. It is very quiet. The soft pop music is playing to set a nice scene for shoppers. A few early risers are shopping around. Mostly middle-aged women are shopping. There are two sales assistants at the cash registers and a few walking around the store.

With winter shortly approaching, the display of boots are at the front of the store. While all the summer shoes are hiding in the back and the rejected and picked over ones are on sale in the back corner.

I see a couple come in and go to the women’s shoes. The woman is in her late 20s and is dressed very chic. She has on a pair of fierce brown boots and is wearing a tan trench coat and dark skinny jeans. She has long dark brown hair and is about tall around 5’7”. She drags her boyfriend over to look at her try on about 20 different pairs of shoes. It was like a scene in a movie, annoying girlfriend forces boyfriend to go shopping. The boyfriend, who looks like a football player, is beyond uninterested.

He suggests, “Why don’t you get the black pair.”
The girlfriend sounds pissed and says, “Which black pair?”
He asks, “I don’t know what’s the difference?”
This has upset the girlfriend, “They are completely different! One had a pep-toe and one was a pump and the other black pair was just ugly,”
“Well you know more about this than me.”
“Yeah, but I want you to like them.”
The boyfriend responds, “You look good in all of them.” Trying to get back on her good side.
“You are just saying that because you want to leave.”
“Not true,” he said unconvincingly.

After trying them all on again the women buys the black pumps and leaves the store with her boyfriends arms around her shoulder. The fight over shoes seems to be over and they lived happily ever after, as far as I know.

By 11:00a.m. the store is packed with shoppers. Families were getting prepared for the cold winter. Young teens are shopping for heels to wear to the parties next weekend.

A shoe says a lot about who you are. Now the mom with crocs, I see she chooses comfort way over any sense of style, while the women in the same aisles for shoes is currently wearing trendy sandals and looking at four-inch heels has a different set of priorities.
The busy mom has her two kids with her. She is trying on some flats, perhaps for work. Her kids are running around playing. At first the mom just lets them roam, but then they start fighting. Now the mom has to run over and yell at them (can’t blame her for choosing to wear crocs). Now the kids are fighting and the mom has to put the shoes down she was looking at.

The shoe store assistant, with more piercing on her body then pairs of Uggs in the store, is unenthusiastic to be there. She looks to be in her early 20s and looks much more like the typical sales assistant at hot topic than at DSW. She is tall with black hair and wearing black pants with a black T-shirt and her DSW name tag. She sees the mother having some trouble and reluctantly goes over to ask her for assistance.
“Are you finding everything okay”

Embarrassed by her rambunctious children the mom responds with a laugh, “Yes just fine. Can you show me where the kids boots are.”

After the mom finds some shoes for her kids, I see she goes back to the women’s section and picks up the pair of heels the other women had been looking at. She tries them on and examines herself in the mirror. Almost as to see whom she could be. She puts the heels back in the box and away and forgets about trying to be someone she’s not. She browses the aisle again and picks up a more conservative heel, tries them on and examines herself in the mirror again. She walks up and down the aisle. She puts them back in the box and adds them to her pile. Whether the other lady in the aisle inspired her to step up her style is unknown, but I’d like to think it did.

Now a bunch of girls were in the shoe store all excited. They are trying on shoes and laughing. The group of girls looked like they were in high school and had just learned to drive. While they are trying on shoes they gossip about cute boys in their class and talk about shit about the girls in their class.

“Doesn’t Jessica have those shoes?”

“Ew! I can’t get them now she’s a slut,” She responded as she put the shoes back instantly and picked up a new pair. They all walked to the register to buy their shoes happy to have new ones. I over hear them chatting about the outfits they are going to wear to the party to match their new shoes, as they leave the store.

Hours pass and the shoe store assistants clean up and make the store look just the way it did when I walked in at 10:00a.m. They turn the lights off and lock up for the evening.