Thursday, May 14, 2009

Zappos

After discovering that my current everyday shoes had holes in the soles, and that the padding was disintegrating into chunks, I decided it was perhaps time to go shoe shopping. But wait, I hate shopping, for it invariably involves an inefficient expenditure of time and energy as you case out the selections at multiple stores, desperately look for your size on the jumbled clearance rack, then go back to buy the first thing you saw, only to find that it has been snapped up by some other shopper. Pooh, screw that. This is clearly an information asymmetry problem that can be solved by (Drama Button) the Internet!

Katherine suggested going to Zappos, and I was immediately intrigued. They offer free shipping and one free return on your shoes, plus you can avoid paying sales tax online. Moreover, with the long tail of the internet, you can pretty much find any style you could possibly want, in the size that you need. They group shoes by "lifestyle" category, which lead to some deep introspection...am I "Urban Mix" or "Retro"?

For a while, I was scrutinizing selections in the "Vegan" category, particularly these EcoSneaks made with organic cotton and recycled car tire inner tube. In the end though, I bought the first pair of shoes I liked (of course). These hybrid Adidas ballet flats were too ironically hilarious to pass up.

Let's review:
  1. No need to physically manifest in a store filled with angsty teens or pushy sales clerks
  2. Free shipping and returns
  3. No sales tax (a nontrivial 10.25% in Chicago)
  4. Browse the ginormous selection with your mouse
Did I mention that my shoes were delivered the next day?

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