What HAS been the problem you ask?
I could use one word, but I'll use two for emphasis and clarity.
FUCKING IDIOTS!
Ok. I can understand people not having a full grasp of how their feet are put together, how a shoe interacts with the various joints of your lower extremities, how European or children's sizing works, or even not being sure about their shoe size. Much of this I have learned very quickly in the past few weeks. But there is no excuse for some people being just plain idiotic. No I take that back, not plain.... fucking idiotic.
When a steel toed boot is so narrow in comparison to your foot that the edge of the curved steel plate is grinding into your toes and the outer side of your foot, getting a narrower shoe is NOT a good idea. When you think you have some horribly abnormal condition (bunions) and the store clerk tells you its actually quite common and we can work around it fairly easily, continuing to try on enormously large shoes and whining about how awful it is that no one can help you find a better fitting shoe is really NOT a good idea. Coming in three different times to look at the same shoe and trying to haggle down the price with two separate clerks while getting nowhere each time is just really annoying.
In the end this is a very small segment of the population (at least I keep telling myself that). But they have a knack for making their presence known to all again, and again. Sometimes I worry about the future of humanity.
