Footwear wants NOW

RantWoman recently spelled out to the universe some bit birthday wants including a new hat and new shoes. RantWoman has achieved the former and is on a reliable path to accomplishing the latter. By reliable path, RantWoman means the financial wherewithal is in sight. RantWoman has an offer from a friend who likes to shop to provide chauffeur service if only RantWoman can provide guidance about where to go.


RantWoman's longstanding shopping experience is that both shoe and hat purchase experiences go much better if RantWoman has the opportunity to put her physical self into the product before she buys it. Because of this, RantWoman is boring her reader with details about hat acquisition while she casts about on the internet for shoe purchase options.

BIG kudos to RantWoman's family who took themselves to the physical bricks and mortar location of RantWoman's favorite hat store, Byrnie Utz hats and got RantWoman a real, handwritten on EAL PAPER gift certificate to get a new hat. RantWoman LOVES her new hat. RantWoman loved the price because there was money left over on the gift certificate enough to think seriously about buying a second hat.

RantWoman would happily have bought two hats with the following preference notes: RantWoman really wants a heavy cotton canvas hat like the model falling apart on her head. Or RantWoman wants one like hat she just bought but in a darker color. Neither proved feasible. RantWoman has a selection of hats for festive occasions. RantWoman has a new hat for summer practical everyday wear. And the returning rains remind RantWoman that she is probably soon going to want another less well-ventilated hat.

RantWoman would have been happy to save the balance of the gift certificate for future hat purchase options. That was not possible. Sigh. RantWoman will have to have the self-discipline to allot funds when other purchase options come along. RantWoman wishes that she and self-discipline coexisted more consistently in the same sentence. In the meantime, RantWoman needs new shoes.

RantWoman has several problems about the shoe purchase question:

--RantWoman is aware of having a number of options for physical location. Part of the game is what optimizes use of RantWoman's time.

--No, RantWoman does not get to go to Copenhagen. Once long ago RantWoman spent an entire afternoon in Copenhagen at a shoe store that stocked both a whole wall of women's shoes RantWoman's size and another wall of even bigger shoes.

--RantWoman has had decent experience wandering among a couple places in downtown Seattle. RantWoman might decide to do that except that Chauffeur offer means helping putative chauffeur figure out parking. RantWoman is allergic to everything to do with parking downtown and even spends lots of time imploring groupies not even to think of driving a car to downtown.

--RantWoman has consistent enough experience with a few brands that she is most likely to want to start there. Unfortunately, RantWoman's current collection of footwear she at least occasionally wears includes shoes of sizes 8 1/2, 9, 9 1/2, 10, 11, 12, 41, 42, and mostly 43. Yes, these are different sizing systems. RantWoman once went through an online shoe catalog and came out with $3000 worth of shoes she might have wanted to try on. No, RantWoman did not want to pay postage either to try them or to send them back. Nor did RantWoman want to carry a large balance on a credit card just for the privilege of trying things on.

In fact, RantWoman thinks what she most really wants would be a way to package up that list of all the shoes she might be interested in, guesses about size options, include some other shoe salesman details like high instep or wide foot, and send off a query to shoe places in her vicinity asking which locations might have the highest percentage of RantWoman's priority items in stock for RantWoman to TRY ON.

RantWoman finds the idea of this kind of service intriguing. RantWoman thinks she almost certainly is not the only person who would really like such a service if it were available. If RantWoman were a half-way competent capitalist instead of an optimistic dreamer, RantWoman thinks there might be a lot of potential in thinking about how to realize this idea. And RantWoman has way too much else to do. RantWoman wants to channel Captain Picard and dreamily muse "Make it so!" But talk to RantWoman if you also think this idea is intriguing!