A Tale of Two Sneakers

Maybe I'm a cheapskate.

I bought a pair of sneakers last week, because they were on sale, from $60 down to $50. Fine. They were maybe a half size too big, but that's all they had at the time. I like them, and I figure maybe a tiny bit loose isn't so bad. I hadn't bought a new pair in a while, and it felt good that they were on sale.

Come to find out, the place I bought them from, dropped the price another $10, for their 'Black Friday' sale. They were now $40. I had paid $50 just last weekend. That didn't sit right. Here I was sporting a brand new pair of sneakers that I had paid $10 too much for, and that really weren't even my size. I had to remedy the situation.

I had the day off, so I went out and braved the teaming masses of post-Thanksgiving bargain hunters to settle a $10 score. I still had my receipt, and the sneakers saw maybe 3-4 hours of use since I bought them, max. Slightly dirty on the soles, maybe a couple light scuffs, but otherwise still pretty new. I expected light resistance at the courtesy desk, and I managed to score a parking spot within a quarter-mile of the store. Sure enough, the lady accepted the return without too much ado, and I was off to the shoe section to see if they had gotten my size in, since last weekend.

Turns out they did have my size. I tried on a couple pairs to be sure, one extra wide, one normal. For some reason they felt really tight. I had been using this size for a few years, but on another brand of sneaker. Would they stretch and eventually fit nice and snug? I decided they would, and the clerk standing by agreed. I think he would have agreed no matter what I said, just to get me out of there. I think I was interrupting a conversation with his buddy over in the outerwear section.

I purchased the sneaks, and immediately put them on when I got outside, to begin the breaking in process. I drove over to another store nearby to pick up some stuff, since I was out, and also I needed to get a watch battery replaced. That turned out to be a whole other story- to make it short, don't ever let an acne-ridden teenager named Tristan, with the sniffles and jittery hands, try to replace your watch battery. I ended up having to take his bacteria infested watch tool, and finish the job myself.

During the battery ordeal and some other roaming around, I found that the sneakers didn't seem to be breaking in too well. In fact, I was starting to lose the feeling in my toes. I fondly thought back to the slightly larger sneakers I had returned, and the good times we had.

Before I knew it, I was on my way back to the sneaker store, tail between my legs, to return these sneakers too, and beg their forgiveness, for my indecisions.

Luckily I got a different lady at the return counter this time, so I didn't have to plead stupidity.

I went back again to the old shoe section, and looked for a pair of sneaks of the original size. The shoe clerk asked if I was all set, obviously not remembering me from 20 minutes ago. I saw only one box of the original size, and grabbed it. I opened the box, and immediately saw the tell-tale dirt on the sole, and the familiar scuffs. It was my sneakers. They had wasted no time putting them back on the shelf for resale.

I happily put them back on as soon as I got back to the car. For some reason, they seemed to fit much better now.

I drove away wondering who was worse; me for scamming them for $10, or them for putting my used sneakers back up on the shelf for some other unsuspecting consumer...