Saturday, July 12, 2014

Shoe Shopping on Market Day

by Rita Creel 
On Market Day, I strolled around Cagli searching for sandals for my daughter. Shoe sizes vary from one brand to the next, but I knew I could gauge Kimberly’s fit by trying on the shoes myself. My first challenge arrived in the form of a language disconnect or, more precisely, a measurement mismatch. The sizes weren’t 5, 6, 7, and so forth, but 36, 37, 38, etc. Size 36 seemed about right. Eyeing the styles, I pointed to a tan pair of slip-ons adorned with a flowery bow. I asked the vendor, “Quanto costa?” His reply: “€35.”

I wanted to try on the sandals but recalled that in the US, shoe stores generally require socks and I wasn’t wearing any that day. Of course, this was an assumed similarity on my part, but I didn’t want to risk committing a shopping faux pas!

Glancing around, I noticed a several women trying on shoes without socks. Satisfied, I slipped off my own shoes and was about to slip into a sandal when the attendant took it from me and briskly motioned to an area behind the tables of shoes. He pointed to a mat, where he placed the shoes. I tried them on and stepped in place, trying to gauge the fit and support. In the US, I’d be marching all around the store and outside as well, but not here!

Although I tried to do the “right” thing, I was still a victim of cultural disconnect, or at least of the idiosyncrasies of shoe vendors who operate in outdoor markets. I reflected on the experience later. Asking shoppers to try on shoes behind the tables could be a precaution against theft. Or maybe the vendor simply didn’t want the soles dirtied. Anyway, comfort isn’t a big deal, right? With the culture’s (stereotypical?) emphasis on form over function, what counts is how your feet look in the shoes, not whether you can actually walk in them!

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