It’s a good thing I’ll never own a shoe store, it’s got to be a tough business. Brick and mortar stores are facing a world of hurt from that monster Amazon. eBay and other internet sales are nipping at their heels. Zappos, Sierra Trading Post are all getting their share of the consumer dollar. Then you have one of the biggest irritants of all, the nitwit shoe buyer. There are several classes of OCD buyers, each with their own irrational phobias and bias. Men who need an EE shoe, and wonder why it doesn’t fit in a D. Women, who have a much higher return rate then men period, will often decide days or weeks later they don’t like the color or fit. You didn’t know that when you bought it?

But often times the local store doesn’t help itself. Ames has two main street shoe stores, Emerhoff’s and Brown’s. Both have displayed incredibly poor customer service. Emerhoff’s ordered a pair of running shoes for me, but was completely disingenuous about how long it would take. How do you turn “3 or 4” days into 10? You knew darn well. Then when it finally did come in, they knew they would be closing in the middle of the week for inventory, but made no arrangements for me to come in and pick them up. I can meet or beat your prices by going online all day long, you might want to think about providing customer service.

Brown’s had another issue. Some Ames princess had gone in and rented a pair of Hoka Vanquish 3 for a couple of weeks. She’d had no intention of buying this $170 dollar shoe. She’d returned them weeks later after getting the fun out of a new pair of shoes. Then the store had compounded it by not returning this used pair of shoes to Hoka, or putting them on the clearance / as is rack. It was upon walking to the checkout I notice on the bottom the stickiness of walking through a cherry soda, the divot in the heel and the overall scruffiness and dirt from weeks of wear. Sorry dude, I’m not going to pay $170 dollars for a used pair of shoes. I know what the bottom of a new Hoka looks like, snow white. Tissue wraps the shoes and there is a thin plastic loop through an eyelet that holds a couple tags about the “Orthalite” sole and whatnot.

You need to change your return policy. I come from a world where if you go off the carpet with a new pair of shoes, you own them. You either need to have the manufacturer take the hit on returns, or change your return policy. I see it on the internet all the time, people returning shoes weeks or months later for some vague, “I didn’t like them” reason. You need to figure out in the store whether or not you like them.  You see this “the world owes me” attitude all through society. People feel they have the right to endanger others by texting and driving. People who think Starbucks has some sort of obligation to provide them with Wi-Fi for hours on end because they bought a $2.20 cup of coffee. People who can’t return a shopping cart to the rack or leave their soda cups in the parking lot.

Competition is a killer. I’ll vote with my wallet. Des Moines stores aren’t that far away, neither is the internet. You’d help your good customers by being tougher with your bad ones. Its not my job to come in and buy their mistakes. The mall stores are trying real hard. They have some topnotch salesmen and women at Scheel’s, Finish Line, Tradehome and others. If people are going to pay your premium prices, they want premium service.