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Comment by NikolaeVarius | Hacker News Reader

I'm not much of a shoe person, but I have literally never been to or heard of a place like this.

Including places like Modells, Macy's, Payless, Sports Authority, etc etc etc

Perhaps it's a cultural difference? Every shoe store I've been to in my whole life is like the parent poster mentioned: there's one pair of each model on display behind glass, and the salesperson goes to the back to get the boxes in your size.

Definitely a cultural difference, and I'm intrigued about this approach. I used to work the shoe department at K-Mart and spent most of my time cleaning up after people who tried shoes on and just left them in the middle of the aisle, or trashed the boxes getting them open (how???), or tossed their old shoes in the box and walked out wearing a brand new pair.

Maybe not as consumer-friendly as what I'm used to, but it sounds heavenly from the employee standpoint.

What are you talking about? If a store were to keep every size of each shoe for public display they would have space to show about four types of shoe. Every shoe store since the beginning of time keeps almost all stock in the back.

In most of Europe, at least in the part of it where I've lived, you have both types of stores. If the store has a separate back, you only 1-2 sizes of each model on display. If the store doesn't or it's too small, you have 1-2 sizes on display next to a more or less organized pile of shoe boxes.

I think the main reason for either is whether the store is built one way or another.

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