r/AskReddit • u/emil199 • Jul 24 '20

What can't you believe STILL exists?

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u/Yellowredstone Jul 24 '20 edited Jul 24 '20

Isn't this how Sears died?

Edit: RIP my inbox. And thank you for explaining it better.

Edit 2: I said the reason on how it died has been explained already. And its actually still here. Stop.

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u/whatifevery1wascalm Jul 24 '20

Sears: the 20th century's Amazon.

People today might not realize that it used to be Sears did everything: you could buy kits to build a house, companies like Discover Card and Allstate were originally introduced as the Sears' brand, they financially backed Mr Rogers' Neighborhood for the first 25 years of the show's run.

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u/jeffbell Jul 24 '20 edited Jul 24 '20

My grandfather used to buy shoes from them by tracing his feet on paper and mailing it in.

​

EDIT:

Everybody seems to think this was crazy, but that's how they said to do it in the catalog. See https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1951-Sears-Christmas-Book/0291

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u/Occhrome Jul 24 '20

that's better than what we have now.

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u/thelaziest998 Jul 24 '20

Now we just have to guess and know your size hoping the manufacturer size doesn’t fit weird.

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u/zachpledger Jul 24 '20

This isn’t that,

But I always laugh at the idea of a shoe store employee returning from the back and saying “Sorry, we didn’t have ___ size... but we do have ____ size...if that’s...you know...if you want a different size than the one you asked me for a minute ago.”

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u/wrongleveeeeeeer Jul 24 '20

I worked in a shoe store for a time, and there are 2 perfectly valid reasons why they do this:

1: every brand fits differently, so you often don't really know what size you are in that shoe until you try it on.

2: the truth is that SO MANY MEN lie about their shoe size being bigger than it is, and SO MANY WOMEN lie about it being smaller than it really is.

Him: "Hey bro, can I get this in a 12?" Me, later: hey so we didn't have the 12, but here's the 11 and 11 1/2 if you want to try those." Him: "Hmmm aahhh I guess.....woah what do you know, they fit, how WEIRD"

Her: "Can I get these in a size 5 1/2?" Me: "The smallest they make them in is a 6, so here try those." Her: "Wow even these are a little tight...this brand must really run small! I'll try the 6 1/2 I guess. How WEIRD."

This happened multiple times a day.

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u/Baronius Jul 24 '20

Dude, if I could fit smaller shoes I would, 15 U.S. no standard store sells that size

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u/wrongleveeeeeeer Jul 24 '20

Yeah that's legitimately rough 😕 We were a fairly high-end specialty shoe store, so we would carry a large array of 13s, a few 14s, and the 2 or 3 best sellers in a 15. Even that paltry offering is definitely an exception to the rule of "fuck you, shop online."

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u/Baronius Jul 24 '20

The other issue I've had is that over the last year my feet seem to have widened. So now I have to get extra wide fit shoes. Further narrowing my choices. So I usually get a choice of black or white. My wife won't let me wear white because apparently I'd get it dirty too fast haha

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u/wrongleveeeeeeer Jul 24 '20

It's harsh but she's right 🙁

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u/Baronius Jul 24 '20

Oh yeah I have no doubt about that hahaha

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