Emery's Shoestore Chronicles

[Robert]

The Shoestore Chronicles - Part I Posted by Emery on January 9, 2003, 15:53:22 In response to the overwhelming flood of requests - two, to be exact - I submit herewith the account of my brief but delightful experience as a salesman in a woman's-only shoestore. Regulars on this Board may recall a couple of them that I posted at the time, but I never did cover all the events. It began because the store was adding a full-service section (insiders call it sit-and-fit) to the existing self-serve and needed a lot more sales help. It lasted about six weeks, and it was the experience of a lifetime; once in a lifetime, as it turned out, was quite enough. In what follows, all the facts are true, all the names are false (except mine), and all conversations are as accurate as I can remember them. Part I - Work in the Heelsplace About a month before I went to work, I had bought a pair of wedge-heeled slingbacks (5" wedge, 1.5" platform) with wide-open toes (all 5 toes showing), black with two contrasting textures (calf wedge and sling, coarse-woven fabric instep). Sara, my favorite salesperson, waited on me then; now, promoted to floor manager, she was my supervisor. At the end of my first week she asked me how I liked working there. I told her the only sad thing was that I was surrounded by high heels I couldn't wear. "Why not?" she asked. I told her I was concerned that management or the customers might object. She said she doubted the customers would even notice, and, "as far as management is concerned, don't forget I'm management too!". She got a kind of mischievous grin on her face and said, "Of course, if YOU'D be uncomfortable...." and walked away. I didn't know if that was a dare, but the next week I was selling really well and feeling pretty confident, so when I learned Sara would be on duty Sunday morning, normally a quiet time, I decided to give it a whirl. I wore the slingback wedges with instep-length black jeans (covered the sling but not the wedge) and black socks (covered my toes but contrasted with the shoe). Before opening I was talking to 4 salesgirls, all of whom were new hires who didn't know of my heels. They hadn't noticed my shoes yet, so to clear the air I said, "Well, here goes my first work shift in heels," and showed them. Girl 1: "Too high for all day"; Girl 2: "No, I've got a pair of those and they're comfortable - you'll do fine"; Girl 3: "I like the way the toes turn up." But Mary, a look of astonishment on her face, burst into giggles and fled to the back room. I rated that as 3 in favor, 1 against, but I persevered and went to stand near the entrance as Sara opened the doors. Heck, I thought, how many people could there be early on a Sunday morning? A lot, as it turned out. For some unfathomable reason this was the busiest Sunday the store had had in months. In spite of that, in the first wave of customers no one - NO ONE! - reacted to my high wedge heels at all. In fact, within a few hours I was beginning to feel invisible, so I started steering customers to the display of shoes like mine and saying, "so comfortable I can wear them all day, and I'm on my feet the whole time." Sold one pair that way, two other women discussed them but didn't buy. All morning I had to focus on the customers, so not till nearly lunchtime did I look for Sara to tell her how well it was going. No Sara - her shift had ended, and because of the crowds the General Manager had come in to help. Ouch! Tough lady, no-nonsense attitude, work-work-work. I thought I'd better clear things with her before some customer actually did notice my heels and mention them, so I showed her what I was wearing. "Are those yours or ours?" she snapped. It took me a second to realize she meant was I wearing a sample pair or did I own them. "Oh, they're mine - I bought them last...." "Okay, didn't want you to wear out the merchandise," she said, and off she went. I was left sort of dumbfounded. Had she entirely missed the man/heels connection? Or did she make the connection, and find it irrelevant? Finally, late in the afternoon, I got the day's one and only spontaneous reaction. I was waiting on a lady in the sit-and-fit; you bring shoes to the customer, sit down in front of her, and either help her or chat about the shoes. Sitting raises pant cuffs and exposes the whole shoe - slingback, wedge, platform, socks, the works. I'd done that maybe 20 times already that day, but only this lady reacted. "Well!" she said, smiling cheerfully, "Look at you!" "How 'bout that!" I replied, looking forward to a long conversation about heels. No such luck. We talked about the shoes she wanted, got her fitted, and did the thanks-goodbye-you've-been-very-helpful ritual. Invisible again! So the net result of my wearing explicitly feminine wedge-heeled sandals all day long in a shoestore was one spontaneous comment, three neutral to favorable remarks, and one giggle. There's much more, but this post is too long already. Part II coming soon.

[Robert]

The Shoestore Chronicles - Part II Posted by Emery on January 9, 2003, 16:28:34 Part II - The Day of Red Socks After my Sunday in heels I had two days off; when I returned on Wednesday I again wore my slingback wedges and black jeans, but this time with a bright red shirt and bright red socks - NOBODY could fail to notice those! I didn't intend to wear them for selling, but I wanted to see what the reaction of my co-workers and bosses would be. Total results: General manager: "Wow! That's - er - really Out There!" Sara: "Hmm - that could work." That was it. It was on to other topics for the morning. Throughout all the rest of my weeks at the shoestore I wore those or other wedge sandals to and from work on a daily basis, and sometimes for an hour or two at the beginning or end of my shift or around my lunch break. In that job you walk between 6 and 10 miles per shift (by actual pedometer test!) and it's a real blessing to be able to change heel heights along the way. By the end of my stay there I had talked some of the girls into trying the same thing; a few of them are still at it, nearly a year later! Back to the Day of Red Socks: when I went to the back room to change to flats, Mary was there, and the first thing she said was, "I'm SO sorry!" I was about to make some That's Okay remark, but she said, "I can't understand what made me giggle. I was just so surprised, it was more like hiccups than laughing!" We didn't have a chance to talk about it at the time, but she's been a good friend ever since. Now that I'm just a customer and don't see the store every day, she calls me up when something comes in she thinks I'll like. Nice turnaround of the one "no" vote! But later, when I was working wearing flats, I got another kind of turnaround which was even more surprising. A lady was looking at slingback sandals in general, so I pointed out the sample of mine on exhibit and made the same "these are comfortable - I wear them myself" remark I had used successfully on Sunday. Oops - the lady looked at me as if I'd suddenly grown tentacles, backed away, and fled to another aisle. I thought she might have been an exception, so I tried - VERY sensitively - the same "I wear heels" comment to other ladies, and got much the same reaction. I find that very interesting: if you're wearing heels and point them out, it's a fait accompli, and seems to be accepted more often than rejected. If you're in guy-shoes and SAY you wear heels, you're a monster and an outcast, probably because their minds create some outlandish image that absolutely terrifies them. Those planning a How To Tell My S.O. About My Heels session, take note. At the end of my Day of Red Socks I went back to my wedges for the trip home. I stopped for gas, stopped again for groceries, all still in red shirt/black pants, red socks/black slingbacks. No comments, no turned heads (that I saw, anyway). I think that if you feel good about how you look, if you're confident that the image you present is the one you want to show, most people will accept the fait accompli and judge it on the grounds of aesthetics, not gender. Just don't let THEM create the image!

[Robert]

The Shoestore Chronicles - Part III Posted by Emery on January 9, 2003, 17:05:09 Part III - The Seniors Damn, I hate that word "Seniors", especially since I am one. But I like to think of myself as somewhat of an exception, since I've got a shoulderblade-length white ponytail, I'm reasonably trim, and I stand 6'2" in heels. Which means that when I did wear heels at work, the Little Old Ladies sought me out and became a marvelous source of commission sales for me. And a source of some great fun, too: One rather smartly-dressed lady wanted to see a particular kind of flats in several colors. In that store shoes were arranged by color, so to cover many colors you have to stroll from end to end of a warehouse-sized sales floor, pointing out samples along the way. I didn't think the lady had noticed that I was wearing wedges (blue shirt, tan jeans, blue socks that day), but after she'd picked out her 3 pairs and we were on the way to the cash register she said, "You know, you're really lucky to be able to wear heels - I'm probably your age, and I just can't wear them any more. I'm stuck with flats!" I was all set to tell her how I'd carefully worked my way up to these heels over the past two years, but the cashier was already working on her order and I had to back off. That was twice I'd missed out on a potential conversation! But I didn't miss them all. About two weeks later a rather feisty little old lady came up to me with a flat "comfort" shoe in her hand and said, "How come everything comfortable is so damn ugly?" I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing and said, "If it weren't ugly, some people wouldn't believe it was comfortable!" Salesman or not, I refused to pretend "comfort" shoes were anything but horrid abnormalities. With her, of course, it worked fine and we became instant buddies. "Okay," she said, "now show me something that feels as good as it looks." I was wearing - what else? - my favorite wedges, this time with black socks, and I showed them to her. "These," I said. "I can walk in these all day and keep smiling." "Yeah, but heels," she said. "No heels for me." I figured she meant because of age, and told her I had just started wearing heels again in the past couple of years; I said I'd learned to enjoy them in the 1970's and just went back to them recently. "Oh, I CAN wear them, and I love to!" she said. "The problem is my boyfriend - he's too damn short for me to wear heels!" Well, that was the start of nearly two hours of conversation and shoe-shopping. We toured the whole store, ostensibly hunting for something good-looking and comfortable, but every time we passed a really pretty high heel she'd try on the sample pair (usually a size 6 or 6.5) and walk around in it. I guess she was showing off how she could still wear them with style and grace. At one point she put on a stacked-heel slide with a buckled strap on the toe and said, "Oh, try this - it's padded inside!" Aha! As a salesman, trying on shoes while on duty was a strong no-no, but in this case the customer asked! So I dutifully picked out the size 10's and put them on, and the two of us walked up and down the aisle talking about comfort and heels. In the end, she only bought one pair for the two hours of hunting, but I would almost have GIVEN them to her for that delightful little interlude. The next day I was off, but when I returned the General Manager said, "You sure made an impression on that lady - she came back looking for you the next day." I expected she might try again some day, and I certainly looked forward to it, but she never did come back before I left the job.

[Robert]

The Shoestore Chronicles - Part IV Posted by Emery on January 23, 2003, 15:54:21 Part IV - Hot Magic "High heels," the eloquent Mr. quartz once said on this Board, "are Hot Magic". You and I and lurkers alike know that. We have all experienced the Buzz (another quartzism) that comes of trying on, wearing, buying, seeing, even just remembering a truly great pair of heels. But do you know we're not the only ones who feel the magic? Here's a quotation from an article on milestones in a woman's life, by Susan Orlean ("In Style" magazine, June 2002, p.322); the subject is "your first high heels": "Almost nothing compares with the shock of seeing your legs in a pair of arched, pointy pumps for the first time." I guess we would all agree with that! And like all emotionally charged subjects, Hot Magic has the potential for a profound negative effect. If you want to see it in operation, go to a woman's-only shoestore and watch the men who come in with their women. When I was there, the scene would play out like this: MAN (Comes in with wife, looks around, sees no work boots) Where are the men's shoes? ME We don't carry men's shoes, Sir, only women's. MAN (To his wife) I'll be in the car. He goes out to the car and sits. It's 102 degrees, the sun is blazing, but for him it beats being surrounded by women's shoes. You can see it in their faces - it's not boredom that drives them out, it's anxiety. They apparently feel not only out of place, but actually threatened in some way when they are in a place full of such powerful woman-symbols. My favorite reaction is from the teenaged gangbangers. They come in with baseball caps on backwards, size 60 jeans dragging on the floor, trailing their girlfriends with that "look at her and die" expression on their faces. For a few minutes they swagger along a few yards behind the girls, but as they become aware how totally surrounded theyare by WOMEN'S SHOES they edge closer to their girlfriends, and by the time they emerge from the end of the first aisle they're practically clinging to her skirts and glancing furtively from side to side. Occasionally there would be a man who simply had to stay with a lady: an infirm mother, an uncertain daughter. I was usually the only male salesperson on the floor, so I made every effort to attend to them - the relief they felt when they saw a man would wait on them was palpable. I believe one very perceptive man recognized the extent of the effect: after we had searched for and found a pair of prom shoes his daughter said she liked, he turned to me and said, "I guess you gotta be a brave guy to work in a place like this." He knew, I think, that he had been at the very heart of the Hot Magic. And then, of course, there were the men like you and me, who came in to find and try on and buy women's high-heeled shoes for themselves. If you want a datum to add to the statistics in the Numbers Anyone? thread below, consider this: I worked a 37- to 40-hour week for just under six weeks, and during that time four men, myself included, bought high heels for themselves. Two of them were regular customers of Judy, our most enthusiastic supporter of men in heels, who had taken me under her wing 2 years ago when I was a timid first-time customer. The other was new to the store. He came through the front door twice (first time in-and-out), looked very nervous and agitated, and muttered something about looking for shoes "for his sister", size 10. I could see he HATED the idea of a man waiting on him, so I handed him off to Judy as soon as I could. They hit it off just fine, and she told me last month he's been back a couple of times since then. Guys, believe me: unless you're an Oscar-winning actor, salespeople know the shoes are for you, and as long as they get the commission, or credit, or whatever, they don't care that you're a man. Fact is, you're not a "man" to them, you're a "customer". Hiding and covering-up just waste time and effort and make you even more nervous. Just say "They're for me". It's like jumping into a swimming pool - one big shock, and two seconds later you're feeling absolutely great.

[Robert]

The Shoestore Chronicles - Part V Posted by Emery on January 23, 2003, 16:32:41 Part V - The Employee Discount, and The Departure One of the great benefits of my job was the Employee Discount. Not only could I snap up the size 10 example of a brand new shipment as soon as it came in (there's only one size 10 pair per case), I could do it at a discount. There were only two requirements: I had to have a manager ring up the sale, and - of course - I had to try them on first. The latter turned out to be trickier than I thought. Working hours were out - verboten. At first I tried after work: I'd sign out, then shop. But some customers I had helped were still in the store, and they'd chase me down for more help or suggestions or whatever. Next I tried before work: come in early, before the store was open, and browse to my heart's content. Browsing was easy, but trying on heels in front of maintenance men, electricians, plumbers, and anyone else sprucing up the store certainly diminished the charm of the experience. The only really satisfactory way was to come in on my day off and hope none of my prior customers were there to seek me out. The first pair I got at discount were tall cork wedges with a straw instep band (Chinese Laundry brand); I had Sara ring up the sale, and one salesgirl happened to be watching. On my way out, the girl asked, "Who are they for?" "Me," I said. Oops. Her eyes went wide as saucers (fortunately, no giggles) and I had to go through the whole "I wear heels" business. Fortunately, Sara pitched in, saying I'd been a customer for years, had good taste in shoes, always bought really high heels, and generally described me as she would have described a woman customer, only using the masculine pronoun. Clever person, Sara - see why she's such a good friend? It turned out those wedges all sold pretty quickly, and so did the scoopy-heel red ToTheMax's I bought the next week. By the third week (I'd promised myself I'd limit myself to one pair a week), when I picked some Seychelles sandals with enormous buckles, the General Manager and four salesgirls all crowded around saying, "What did Emery buy?" And when the Seychelles also sold out quickly, my reputation soared. For a short while, some of the girls were asking ME what was both hot news and comfortable (they knew I hated pinchy shoes). Here I was in Shoe Heaven, entitled to a great discount on all the shoes that surrounded me, privileged to wear heels myself from time to time (I never pushed that too hard) and to talk about them incessantly - so why quit? One word: saturation. Like a kid summer-jobbing in a chocolate factory who, by September, can't bear the smell of chocolate, I could tell as the weeks passed that the emotional currency of high heels was being rapidly devalued by overexposure. My cork wedgies (which are, to this day, among my all-time favorites) began to seem too plain, the Seychelles too strappy, and nothing much was coming from Receiving that pushed my hot button. The minor annoyances of employment began to assume center stage, and my ability to generate an effective sales pitch for another plug-ugly pair of Birkenstocks simply evaporated. Worst of all, I reached the point that I'd take OFF my work wedgies when I got home, and go barefoot. It was horrible - my most cherished joy was dissolving! So I left, and went back to consulting here, odd-jobbing there, and generally Being A Retired Person. It was several months before I felt like going into ANY shoestore, especially my former place of employment, but that account I'll reserve for my next and last installment, which I'll call The Aftermath.

[Robert]

The Shoestore Chronicles - The Aftermath Posted by Emery on January 23, 2003, 17:06:18 As I've said, it was some time before I felt right about going back to "my" shoestore. After a couple of weeks to recover from Shoe Overload I started shopping at other shoestores. From my experiences working, I knew I could do so with greater freedom than ever before: I knew I could go in wearing heels, try on whatever I wanted, and usually not be harassed. Any employee who showed signs of objecting, I knew, was distinctly out of line. The sight of new stores and new lines of shoes recharged my emotional batteries, so after about a month I dicided it was time to go back. The girls greeted me like a long-lost older brother; the women, like a long-lost son. I was really overwhelmed by their warmth! Even the stockroom guys seemed distant but friendly, where previously, when I worked there, they were merely distant. Sara and Mary (the ex-giggler) gave me a guided tour of the new acquisitions, urged me to try on this or that example, and when I'd picked out my favorites and went to the cash register (THREE HOURS after I'd come in!), a mini-crowd had formed, asking "What did Emery buy?" So now I have a Safe Haven there. I always go there in heels, so there's a little flurry of "What's Emery wearing now?" to start with; if the shoes are from another store, they'll sometimes get the Fashion Buyer to come check them out. After that little ritual is over I can start hunting for and trying on shoes, though I have to pause often to hear which girl just got a movie role (really!) or had a baby or got sick or got well. And in all this, something is going on that I can recognize easily, but it's difficult to explain: the girls and women there don't treat me as a woman, but they do treat me as an equal. It's a delicate balancing act, but they perform it intuitively and flawlessly. I'm doing a woman-thing - trying on women's high-heeled shoes - but I'm treated as if it's the most natural thing in the world. The discussion about the shoes is no different in any respect from what they'd talk about with any woman: "I like the heel, don't like the strap" or "have you seen the (whatever) at Macy's?" or "let's go see if that pair you liked last month is discounted". But when the subject isn't shoes, they effortlessly transition to "is your wife still designing for...." or "you know cars - I'm getting a funny sound in the...." They are treating me as I really am, deep down inside: their equal, as a wearer of high heels - their opposite counterpart, as a social creature. I think that the way I earned that incredibly rare privilege was that I always behaved around them as I really felt: a heel-wearing, social male. You probably can earn that same privilege yourself; but you have to have the courage to BE yourself! But even as I urge you to total courage, I have an admission of cowardice to make. Last week I stopped in at The Shoestore, and as I was searching the racks a young girl I didn't recognize came up and offered to help. I told her I'd be okay, and added that I used to work there. "I know," she said, "they told me - you're famous." I confess, I didn't have the courage to ask, "Why?"

[Yamyam]

My goodness - that was a fantastic read! Thanks for posting it all, Robert!

[Heelfan]

A tremendous insight into the fascinating world of a heel-wearing shoe salesman. A very important archive. Well posted Robert! Cheerfully yours, Heelfan

[azraelle]

find that very interesting: if you're wearing heels and point them out, it's a fait accompli, and seems to be accepted more often than rejected. If you're in guy-shoes and SAY you wear heels, you're a monster and an outcast, probably because their minds create some outlandish image that absolutely terrifies them.

Fascinating!!!

[loveheel]

Emery, Thanks for the great story. I was glued on the screen hoping there were more installments coming. I have always thought of trying to do this myself and go and work for some weeks in a shoe store. As a college professor I get "sabbaticals". I wonder thought what I will say when my colleagues ask me what I am going to be doing. Thanks for the great story. I hope i get to visit this famous store at some point.

[genebujold]

Hi, Emery - your stories are terric - not only are you a natural storyteller, but you probably have a job a lot of us would enjoy for the simple fact that you get to be around (and wear) women's heels. Reminds of my own shoe shop story... About two years ago, while driving home from work, I took a short-cut through a part of town I'd not seen before, spotted a ladies shoe store that looked interesting, and decided to take a peek. When I went inside, it seemed fairly dark (bright Vegas daylight into a poorly-lit interior with heavy anti-heat tinting on the windows). I wandered the isles for a minute or two while waiting for my eyes to adjust. By the time they did I realized I was in a store that contained a lot of very interesting shoes / heels, as well as progressive clothing (leathers, chains, the club scene stuff). I was heading towards the size eights (my SO's shoe size) and was intercepted by the salesperson. She was fairly gorgeous, but I was startled by her lip ring (center of lower lip). I'm not normally into that, but it was beautiful to see a stainless hoop there - and very seductive. I think she noticed my look, for she smiled, then was pretty forward and took me by the hand to "show me what she had." Well, what she had was clothing for the dance club. Clothing for men. "Actually, I'm more interested in your heels. Size 8." She took me there and as we looked at a few pair her comments were along the lines of "these are great, and they fit very well, too. They'll definately get your libido going," usually while stroking the thing as if it were a seductive work of art (which it was). She also had a habit of touching my arm and shoulder when she made a point.... She was dressed simply enough, in a pseudo-leather skirt with moderate-heeled boots and a simple peasant shirt. But her mannerism simply exuded sexuality. After about five minutes, her next comment, quite out of the blue, was "we have larger sizes, too - come on," and gently lead me by the hand to another isle where she began showing me the same shoes but in my size. "I wasn't kidding when I said how nice they feel," she said, then lead me to a chair. "Here - sit here while I get a couple pair for you." I started to protest but she said, "oh come on, you can't be shy, can you? How're you gonna know if she'll like them unless you've tried 'em yourself?" and disappeared into the back for a minute before returning a footie and several boxes. Over the next half hour I tried on just about every pair in my size while we talked about the various clubs and watering holes around town. "So, what do you think - are you going to buy a pair?" she asked, and when I said yes to three pair, she didn't go back and box up the 8's, but rather, boxed up what I'd just tried on. Still wearing a pair of muted green suade lace oxfords with a narrow (but not spike) 3.5" heel, I asked her why. "Oh, come on! You don't look like the kind who'd come into a store like this and buy someone else's shoes. Besides, I love seeing a man in heels." At that point she closed her arms about me and moved closer as if to kiss me, but being the loyal guy I am (and sometimes fantasize otherwise) I gently turned my head and received her kiss on my cheek, instead. She looked disappointed, then said, "well, at least I made some sales, today." When I got home and told my SO about it, she thought it would be nice if we invited her for a threesome out on the town. So, we did! The whole night I couldn't help but thinking that it was too bad I was monogamous in addition to being loyal... In the meantime, the three marketing considerations (location, location, location) forced that wonderful shop to close. Fortunately, our new friend soon found another job, and shortly after that, a boyfriend. We'd double-dated as couples, but for the most part, she's just remained good friends with my SO. And I miss having the opportunity to buy such originally different, yet elegant footwear!

[WarrenB]

Gene, WOW! What a story.

[Heelfan]

Hello Genebojold - very good story, but if you'll pardon my ignorance, what it an "SO"? Cheerfully yours, Heelfan

[jo]

Significant Other

[Heelfan]

Thanks Jo, but I'm only slightly the wiser. What is the significance in the 'Other'? Cheerfully yours, Heelfan

[J-Nation]

partner, spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband etc. I suppose "other" means "other than yourself" Emma

[Bubba136]

Hmm! Means that you're in a relationship with another person. A person that plays a "significant" part in your life. Could be male, female or anything else. Kinda lets people know that you are "involved" without disclosing your sexual orientation. Which really isn't anyone's business, anyway.

[johnieheel]

A great inspreation to us all Emery! I don't read alot of long posts as my time is limited do to my work right now but I could not get away from your stories.It just boils down to, if you just be your self most people won't even notice and the ones that do get over it very soon. It's just like a person going gothic or changing hair color or a man getting earings for the first time. At first, people ask questions or stare a little and after a time or two seeing it its not even noticed. People adapt to change quickly more than we realize. Even our own selfs.Think about it. It's just that first shock of others reactions that we need to get past and then it's off to life as is, if you know what I mean. Also, who knows that one of those gang bangers or what ever, might wish he had the courage to wear heels or what ever in front of his friends and whishes he were in your shoes so to speak? You'd probably be supprised. Thanks and Happy Heeling... Johnieheel

[want-hh]

Emery, thank you so much for the storys! I´ve always wondered how it would be to work in a shoe store and this is a glimpse of it. I enjoyed the reading very much!!!

[Dawn HH]

Thanks Emery for your interesting stories. That was a fantasy that I had for many years, but nothing ever came of it. Cheers--- Dawn HH