genebujold Posted January 12, 2004 Posted January 12, 2004 Anyone visited Payless these days? Still have larger sizes, but NO heel heighth to any of them! Looks like Payless is discriminating against higher heels for larger-footed individuals!
Bubba136 Posted January 12, 2004 Posted January 12, 2004 I've never really liked Payless. Less expensive, not so good quality shoes that are "wearable" for one season, if you don't abuse them. Like most multinationals, bottom line is what's important. Fashion trends and sales figures are closely monitored and what sells best gets stocked. Sell more shoes in larger sizes and the company will stock them. Have you ever wondered what happens to the unsold shoes that are returned to the warehouse after they are removed from stores? I guess you can find a large number of them for sale on eBay. Being mentally comfortable in your own mind is the key to wearing heels in public.
hoverfly Posted January 12, 2004 Posted January 12, 2004 The trend for this year is low heels, not high heels. Also last year it was printed that many stores are no longer carrying large sizes because they don't create a singnfaint profit margin. It this Bad or good news? Time only will tell. Maybe the market is just big enough for a specialty producer/marketer on line or small chains. Down side you will probably pay more and get less quality. But I don't think customers will let that go for long. Or if the economy improves maybe they will start producing large sizes in numbers again. Payless is just fallowing a trend. How ever they don't get away with out any complaints. Their server screw up a lot, slow downloads and one time it would not take any of my credit cards that I used before. Large sizes are more available online then at the stores now. Now as for the quality? For the price, what do you expect? It's not called Payless for nothing. Hello,  my name is Hoverfly. I’m a high heel addict…. Weeeeeeeeeee!  👠1998 to 2022!
bootluvr Posted January 12, 2004 Posted January 12, 2004 if you don't find what you're looking for at payless, try wal-mart as they've been carrying up to 12's (wides a rarity) the past 2 or 3 years. Boots Rock!!!!
hoverfly Posted January 13, 2004 Posted January 13, 2004 if you don't find what you're looking for at payless, try wal-mart as they've been carrying up to 12's (wides a rarity) the past 2 or 3 years. Ha!!! Not any more where I live. Hello,  my name is Hoverfly. I’m a high heel addict…. Weeeeeeeeeee!  👠1998 to 2022!
bootluvr Posted January 13, 2004 Posted January 13, 2004 sorry to hear hoverfly, and or course you can't buy any apperal from their web site either. not even in surrounding neighborhoods either?? Boots Rock!!!!
hoverfly Posted January 13, 2004 Posted January 13, 2004 sorry to hear hoverfly, and or course you can't buy any apperal from their web site either. not even in surrounding neighborhoods either?? There are many Wal-mart in my area that are 15 to 30 min drive to each one. Guess what!!!?? Nothing!!! They had them in on or two, but like I said not any more. I even checked other Payless and Wal-Mart when I travel and if I am lucky I might find 11's but that's it. Oh well, these days I have enough shoes to keep me happy to wear out in public so I will just keep watching my sources. Hello,  my name is Hoverfly. I’m a high heel addict…. Weeeeeeeeeee!  👠1998 to 2022!
genebujold Posted January 14, 2004 Author Posted January 14, 2004 The trend for this year is low heels, not high heels. Also last year it was printed that many stores are no longer carrying large sizes because they don't create a singnfaint profit margin. It this Bad or good news? Time only will tell. Maybe the market is just big enough for a specialty producer/marketer on line or small chains. Down side you will probably pay more and get less quality. But I don't think customers will let that go for long. I think you hit the nail on the head! If someone were to come along and market expressly to men in fashionable styles (vs the cheap patent leather club yuk that proliferates the market), I strongly believe the sales of the junk would rapidly diminish and his/her store would flourish while simultaneously priming the pump by ratcheting up demand from the suppliers. Going a step further and working with suppliers to provide between one and three or four styles particularly aimed towards men (foot geometry), as well as to slightly differentiate the style for guys (required to prevent market fall-off in the ladie's styles that men would wear), this business model could really take off!
loveheel Posted January 14, 2004 Posted January 14, 2004 A place where I still find larger sizes (at least up to 11) is Nine West. Sometimes their 11 even feels like a 12. I think many regular shoe stores never carried many large sizes. From talking to the sales people, it seems like many get one 10 and 11 per shipment. So once that pair is sold, you are out of luck. I used to go to a Baker stores where the highest I could get was usually a 10. Then I once met another of the sles girls there and she told me she always bought the size 11 (her size !) as soon as they came in. Mystery solved of why there were no 11's available !
genebujold Posted January 16, 2004 Author Posted January 16, 2004 A place where I still find larger sizes (at least up to 11) is Nine West. Sometimes their 11 even feels like a 12. I think many regular shoe stores never carried many large sizes. From talking to the sales people, it seems like many get one 10 and 11 per shipment. So once that pair is sold, you are out of luck. I used to go to a Baker stores where the highest I could get was usually a 10. Then I once met another of the sles girls there and she told me she always bought the size 11 (her size !) as soon as they came in. Mystery solved of why there were no 11's available ! Ahhh... I believe you're right - so long as manufacturers continue shipping larger sizes of real higher-heeled shoes to everyone, they'll never profit. The thing of it is, though, there is a market! But it's a niche market. And you don't get rich trying to mix niche market apparel among those designed for the masses. Consider how many outlets you find for shoes like Timberland. Pretty much every shoe store in the world seems to carry a pair. They're "mass market" shoes. Now compare that with Bacco Buchi, Donald J. Pliner, DKNY, or Bruno Magli. You're not going to find those at Walmart! The fact of the matter is, there is no good way to make a profit on larger sizes, as the current market outlets are spread too thin for manufacturers to make any money off onsies and twosies of larger sizes to the thousands upon thousands of their retailers. Enter the niche market! All it requires is a wholesaler/retailer who will direct market larger size heels (much like Zappos) to those who want them. In so doing, manufacturers don't have to worry about sending large size heels to retailers only to have most of them returned due to non-sales. Instead, they can send to one place, preferrably under an appropriate market-demand inventory model which allows certain styles and sizes to be more stocked than others, but with enough flexibility to rapidly manufacture and stock hot items. Done the right way, using both sales, market analysis and surveys, that wholesaler/retailer could make an incredible fortune selling the right sized shoes to the right people, while significantly increasing the profits of larger-sized manufacturers to the point where they would be happy to make mainstream shoes, sandals and boots in significantly larger sizes. And when the availability problem is solved, you'll see a lot more men wearing higher heels, which will then solve the "critical mass market" problem, thereby ushering us into a new era of styling! All it takes is an entrepreneur with enough cash, market savvy, and management skills to turn tech-savvy individuals into an online website similar to Zappos. But what to call it? What would be a good name for this business??? I used to go to a Baker stores where the highest I could get was usually a 10. Then I once met another of the sles girls there and she told me she always bought the size 11 (her size !) as soon as they came in. Mystery solved of why there were no 11's available ! This also underscores why it's necessary to increase the number of styles and sizes available to meet market demand. Once that's done, the market will take off. So long as it continues to be piecemeal, it's like a 747 trying to get off the ground using a 737's engines. It'll move, but it'll never fly.
Boot Guy Posted January 2, 2008 Posted January 2, 2008 Some things never change. Yes, Payless and all other stores will generally only stock what they think will sell. It's called the Bottom Line. You can't blame them for only carrying what they will sell. You can get bigger sizes on line at Payless early in the season and I like to wait until later in the season to shop the sales at Payless's that carry larger sizes. Some of the boots at Payless are good for a season or two, but for the price, it works for me. Besides you get to update your collection more frequently, and if a pair is ill fitting, it doesn't hurt to get rid of them. I have noticed that Payless copies the trend, so that's cool. But sometimes I wish they would carry the same style for more than a year. Living in a rural area, there aren't a lot of choices beyond the Internet. Thanks, Boot Guy
shrimper Posted January 2, 2008 Posted January 2, 2008 Shelf stock tends to vary from store-to-store depending on their customer profile. I regularly visit 3 different stores because of that. One store has a size 12 lady who comes in and buys anything she finds in her size, another is in a section of town that has a diverse base of large-footed women shoppers, the third carries less in large sizes but much more in my wife's size (6.5). If you see a style online you can order it for pickup at your local outlet and if you don't like it you can return it there.
Shoeiee Posted January 5, 2008 Posted January 5, 2008 One comment on something Shrimper said..."If you see a style online you can order it for pickup at your local outlet and if you don't like it you can return it there." I think this is a VERY important statement as you can bet that Payless tracks where what sizes are shipped to. This aids in shaping market demand and forecasting. If a particular store regularly received shipments of size 12's in one-two pair orders that would indicate a trend for that store, hence the bean counters *might* send some shelf stock there. I'm sure this concept won't fly for those EBay buyers who order 20 pair as soon as a sale hits online but the smaller buyers would indicate a trend for the shipped sizes in the area. I'm sure they also track shipments by address to judge demographic changes affecting their local stores. So if one store happens to have regular shipments of boots in larger sizes within a 5 mile radius I bet their shelf stock would get a couple more larger styles as well. Just a thought that makes sense to me at least :-) "Heels aren't just for women anymore!!" Happy Heeling! Shoeiee
Danielinheels Posted January 25, 2008 Posted January 25, 2008 The thing that disheartens me most is that Payless has not opened any of their New Orleans stores; my favorite store to shop pre-Katrina has been converted to an Athlete's Foot, another (stand-alone) is totally vacant, and two more within strip malls do not appear to be returning. There was another location within a shopping centre, but the whole centre is gone so I can understand in that case. The only option I have to find my size is quite a drive across the river, just outside city limits. There is another location outside of city limits to where I can get shoes shipped/picked up fairly easily without disturbance, but in-store they only carry up to size 12 and that selection is very limited. I'm basically stuck shopping online. When I lived outside Chicago, there was a location about a mile into the city which I frequented; I'd later find that it was the only non-downtown location that carried size 13 shoes. Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. - Oscar Wilde
roniheels Posted April 3, 2008 Posted April 3, 2008 I have not checked out the Payless by my house lately. A few years ago they carried up to womens size 13. I will go there and report back.
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