No, not really. Asking for equality and then carving out gender-based exceptions creates confusion and division.
Celebrating diversity while promoting equality just flatly doesn't work.
No, not really. Asking for equality and then carving out gender-based exceptions creates confusion and division.
Celebrating diversity while promoting equality just flatly doesn't work.
At the "Ford rolls out online shopping" thread (http://gtxforums.net/showthread.php?...697#post120697), I saw the remark below. I didn't want to derail that discussion with some unrelated thread-crapping, so I'll bitch and moan in here instead.
(I fixed a minor typo and bolded some text in the quote; hope I didn't change the original poster's intent)
Is that what's happening to all the brick and mortar shoe stores? We're down to multiple locations of the same two big-box shoe stores in my area and they both carry the same limited selection of cheap, crappy, rubber-soled, short-lifespan Dockers and Rockports and Clarks and similar craptastic shitkickers that I wouldn't buy at any price.Originally Posted by Cam
I want some quality shoes like the ones Jack Reacher kicks doors open with in the books but can't find 'em anymore. Seriously, I've been to several shoe stores in the past month and it's like I've moved to some third-world country or something. I only find shoes for twenty-somethings who don't know how to dress yet, even for "business casual".
I want to try on shoes before I buy them to make sure they fit, are comfortable, and that the leather breaks evenly across the toes. If they don't meet my expectations, I can leave without buying them rather than having to go stand in line at the post office to return them.
And I'd like some that are all black or all brown, instead of having contrasting stitching and/or different sole colors on otherwise conservative/classic designs.
Apparently, I'm asking too much of modern retail.
What you're looking for is now probably considered a specialty store. They often don't have enough demand to pay for the rising real estate costs, and can't compete with online stores who offer the same or similar goods at prices that reflect their lack of a storefront to people who are willing to pay it.
I think Red Wing Boots still has their own stores, and perhaps outdoor and/or military surplus stores would have the Reacher-like footwear that you're looking for.
Related: there's a hat store in downtown Cincinnati that only sells high end name brand hats for hundreds of dollars a piece. I've never seen anyone go in there, or come out, and I only know about the prices because I was told about them by my uncle who went in once, saw the $400+ price tags, and left.
I do not know how they stay open, but I presume it's older gentlemen that have been going there for decades and want an experience like you described.
Ashley and I generally shop at New Balance stores. In WI that meant driving down to the Outlet at the Dells, or here in Pittsburgh we have a local store. But I only do that for running shoes. Everything else I get on Amazon, like the Clarks casual dress shoes I wear to work.
Yeah, like krunch says, I bet specialty products can only compete by foregoing brick and mortar.
acket.
I think a lot of it is also that people have so many things to buy/worry about that they don't do much thinking about quality anymore and just buy what's cheap and looks good.
We have a Red Wing store in my neighborhood, but I haven't found anything particularly suitable for my office job that doesn't require a hard-hat or a CDL. I have been in there twice to look around and enjoy the smell of good leather, once before they closed and once after they re-opened a year or two later a couple doors down in the same small strip shopping center. I remember both times I was asked what kind of work I did and felt a little embarrassed, mumbling something about sitting at a desk there in a store that sells shoes to Real Men Who Do Actual Stuff.
I saw some Doc Martens in a store recently (contrasting stitching, I know, but I used to love Docs) that looked great but felt super-flimsy. The soles looked at thick as always but flexed as easily as flip-flops from the dollar store. The tag under the tongue said Made In China. I should have bought some "real" Docs the last time I was on Market Street in San Francisco. There was an actual Doc Martens store there, right next to a Converse store that would made sewn-to-order custom Chuck Taylor sneakers out of a wide variety of colors and patterns. There's nothing like that around here, that I know of.
We have a really good Army-Navy surplus store here that sells everything imaginable but their shoe room is pretty much steel toes, tactical/cop boots, Bates corfams, and camo/hunting stuff. And we have a Cabela's store which had some possibilities on my last visit but the stuff I tried on were labeled in weird European sizes and I didn't find anything I liked that fit me.
Quality low-quarter oxford and similar shoes suitable for the office and weekend casual dress that's a level above sneakers or boots are hard to find in the suburban sprawl full of corporate-owned conformity where I've chosen to reside.
The good news is that all my problems are first-world problems.
Like George, I prefer to try clothing and shoes on before I buy them. I think it is a hassle to have to ship them back for a different size. My wife does that all the time, however, and seems fine with it. It is next-to-impossible for me to purchase pants (trousers, for the UK folk) that fit me in a brick and mortar store. "Hey, you got 31 waist, 36 leg pants?" I ask. These days, usually the response is, "No, but you can buy them online." Lori HAS to buy pants online. The last time I walked into a women's clothing store with Lori, the salesperson immediately walked up and said, "Thanks for coming in, but we are not going to have clothes to fit you."
Re Katy Perry, I think it is important because the argument is often about power. Yes it’s mostly men in power misusing that power. In this case it was her. She is famous and he is doing almost anything to get a break. It doesn’t matter if the incident was sexual.
I do wonder if this was her choice or a decision by the shows producers.
But either way it was wrong.
Is it as bad as “sleep with me if you want the part” - not even close. And it should be used to take attention away from abusers who are male just because a female has made a mistake.
But it is a good example of abuse of power, even if it’s at the lower end of the scale.
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