The highs and lows of impulse shopping

I'M SO not used to being on my feet all day. Having just put in a full shift at the shop, my feet were singing to me.

So after locking up and driving home, it came as a huge relief to sit down for half an hour before going out to meet friends for dinner at the local watering hole. I couldn't stand up long enough to wait in the queue at the bar so husband took my place and got the wine ordered - quick as.

Throughout the day, I met, served and chatted with a huge cross section of customers, all there with one thing in common. To find something new for their lower extremities. It never fails to amaze me how people do their shopping for shoes. Some take an age and a day walking up and down the shop umm-ing and arr-ing while stroking their chins and glancing down at their tootsies. Others just try one shoe on and there's the occasional few that don't even try them on at all.

But on Saturday, a customer bought a pair of trainer-type slip ons. She was more than happy with them after a few strolls up and down the shopfloor's polished board runway and off she went with her new 'must-have'. During the course of the afternoon, some two hours later, she was back.
"I'd like a refund on these shoes I've just bought please" she declared. There was nothing faulty about them and from my years of shopping experience on the other side of the till, traders are not necessarily obliged to give a refund on non-faulty goods. She wasn't happy with the offer of a credit note as she said she was from out of the area and wouldn't be round these parts again.

Hmmm. I could see this was turning into a right sticky wicket. So I put on my most tactful and concerned face and pointed out that as there was, in fact, nothing wrong with them, I wasn't in a position to be able to offer her what she wanted. And that was her coinage back in her purse where it had come from.

At this point, the hairs on the back of her neck started to stick up, her nostrils flared and her mouth went all tight-lipped-like. Not an attractive look but if it got her her cash back, I don't think she cared. She pointed out that there was no sign up displaying the shop's return and refund policy and felt it was her God-given right to be able to change her mind as often as she changed her underwear.

I thought it was pretty obvious really. Only last week, I bought a piece of beef from the butchers. When I'd got it home, I'd gone off the idea but not once did the thought of taking it back to the boucher de quartier and exchanging it for a lamb chop spring to my mind. You just don't do it. And more importantly, you shouldn't expect it.

As a goodwill measure, my boss took over the fast-becoming-stalemate-situation and offered a refund, while re-enforcing the message that she really didn't have to do it. And she didn't. At the end of the day, she's running a business and providing a service.

It's the rash decisions that some people make that get right under one's skin. Mine for one.