Autistic working in a shoe store needs advice

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Oh, and here's a couple random things i have learned through my own aspie-salesperson-errors:

If someone asks if you have something, don't say "yes" and then go back to whatever you were previously doing. Usually they also want you to take them to it and probably give them extra information.

Oh, and if someone comes up to the register with stuff and you ask if they want to check out and then they say "no, i'm just sitting this stuff here," you may want to ask if they are joking or serious, because they might be joking. If you say "okay then" and then go back to doing something else, they might go complain about you.

I could see myself doing all of that.

THANKS A LOT ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR ADVICES!

they really mean a lot to me.


WISH YOU ALL A NICE LIFE!

One last word before you go, Dianitapilla. Quite a few words, actually...

About twenty years ago, I entered into peculiar relationship with shoes. It began with finding the perfect shoe, in a thrift store, an Ascics Gel. I can't at this writing recall the size, but it fit me wonderfully. A year or three later, as the last remnants of my beloved Ascics were falling off my feet, I found another pair of Ascics Gels in another thrift store. Again, foot bliss. When those came apart, I found ANOTHER pair of used Ascics Gels. Yet again, pedi-nirvana.

When came time to replace those, I couldn't find any Ascics Gels in any of the thrift stores left in my area. But I was earning money by then, so I picked up my very first NEW pair of Ascics at a sale at Big 5. Now, ever since my feet had stopped growing, I had always known myself to wear a 9 1/2 EE. While picking through the thrift stores I took what was available, But now I selected my known size for purchase. I left the dead Ascics at the store and walked home. The shoes felt tight, uncomfortable. When my heels started hurting, I ignored the pain, telling myself these new shoes just needed breaking in. When I arrived home I was in real pain. The skin of my heels on both feet came off with my socks, a bloody mess.

I understood from this that I no longer wore a size 9 1/2. Apparently my feet had grown bigger from walking everywhere I went for some many years of my adult life. Flattened, spread out -- I didn't know. Maybe with the outsourcing of shoe manufacturing to foreign lands, the numbers didn't matter that much anymore. Whatever, I wasn't going to learn any more about shoes for that entire summer, because my heels were so damaged I couldn't wear any shoes at all. I went out either barefoot or in sandals for months.

That fall I searched used shoe stores for some time. I ignored the numbers and looked for fit. I tried sizes I'd never even considered before. And I was amazed by what I found fit me the best: a new, but damaged, Reebook, size 12. Twelve! My feet had become gigantic! A few years later I began to hike and looked at some quality hiking boots. I ended up with LaCrosses, size 11. I've had those boots for eight years now, and I have never been able to go out for a hike in them without raising blisters.

About five years ago, I exchanged my obsession with with 3D creation for mountain climbing. I learned EVERYTHING about the gear I needed and, of course, sought the best. Times were lean again, so I had to buy used, and buy what was available. So when I found a second-hand pair of $250 Koflachs professional climbing boots for $50, I had to have them. The number fit into my experience of what could fit me, 11 1/2. I climbed the rugged slopes of Mt. Shasta with only minor blistering To perfect my shoes, I visited a mountaineering store to ask about...I can't remember what they're called...custom inserts to fine-tune the fit. The salesman there measured my foot, which came in at 9 1/2, and he asked me why the hell was I wearing 11 1/2's.

I had no good answer, something like, You mean the numbers mean something again? WTF? I tried a 9 1/2 pro boot he had on hand, and it was too tight. WIDTH, we figured, was at play here. He offered me a bigger size, but I coudn't afford a $300 boot. Then I found on the discount rack the most awesome footwear I'd ever wear again, a Lowa Tempest Lite, size 11 1/2. A light, low-topped hiking shoe, it served wore it for years, up and down, raising no blisters at all. Ever. When those shoes died, I searched for long time for a replacement. Never found one.

My next-to-the-most-recent shoe purchase of any significance was a great find. In a second-hand store I came across a pair of $260 Asolo North tech boots, real mountain climbers, for $30. Oh, I wanted those to fit my so badly, but the number was a little scary: 9 1/2. I pulled off one pair of the two pairs of socks I'd always worn since the Kolflachs -- hey, I'm wearing shoes two sizes too big for me -- and slipped my foot into these Asolos. Man, they were in great shape, beautiful. And they SEEMED to fit. I bought them. And a pair of crampons that were, like, made for them. I was ready to ASCEND.

For some reason, maybe it was habit, I forgot that I tested these boots with one pair of socks, and resumed the wearing of two pairs for every climb for the next couple of years. The results were...uncomfortable. In snow, the Asolos were great, raising minor blisters after hours of climbing. But on the bare, dirt trail, they were torture. I adapted by wearing a light pair of shoes to the snow's edge then changing into the pro boots I carriend, not the best way to use precious pack space. The blisters I came to expect, a small price to pay for the privilege of wearing such awesome boots.

Just this last spring, the weather unseasonably warm, I decided to go with a single pair of socks solely because of the temperature. I carried the Asolos up to the snow line and changed into them. They felt wonderful, for six hours going up, no blisters at all. Then it hit me: OMG, I had been unnecessarily padding the fit for years! On the descent, I even wore them below the snow line, miles to the parking lot. Home, I examined my feet, amazed. No skin damage at all. They remain the perfect climbing boot for me. I love them so...

Now, my most recent shoe purchase was just a couple of weeks ago. In the same store where I found the Asolos, I discovered a strange, techy-kinda footwear that I find difficult to describe. It looked like a sandal, but with a solid, rubber toe, and lots of mesh covering the places where a sandal wouldn't have anything. My driving job requires me to wear closed-toe shoes, so I had been suffering all this hot summer with cheap, thrift-store athletic shoes. I saw the ventilation these strange things offered, with a solid toe, and bought them for the walks to work.

I love these things! Looking them up on Google, I found that these New Balance Adventure 695's were made for aquatic sports like rafting and kayaking. They're all synthetic and fasten on the foot with that single, black plastic snap-in buckle I'm so familiar with from all my other mountain equipment. Their traction capabilities are unbelievable. The soles being made to stick to wet surfaces, on dry land I feel like I could walk up a wall. And taking them uphill is a breeze because they weigh only 9 oz. each. I can wear either double or single socks since they're size 10.

I hope within the above obsessing you can find lessons to apply to sizing your customers with new shoes, Dianitapilla. There is much to know about shoes.

dp

Good advice!

Definitely good material by the way, I've learned to advice my clients to change often their shoes if they are for heavy use, because the sole starts getting over used in places where your feet are putting more weight, wich means that they start creating ergonomic problems.



I hope you find another pair of perfect shoes after your last ones, and that this time you don't forget to count the sock space

another thing I learned yesterday, (in european sizes) one maat difference is more or less the diference between a panty sock and a dick sock.

By the way... I won't leave XD I get notifications from this post by email XD

Shoe manufacturers build their shoes on all different lasts, which is the foot form on which most shoes are built. Individual companies change their lasts all the time, sometimes from year to year. They don't always conform to a standard from company to company. Sometimes, however, there are standards within one company. The last shape means that some shoes of a specific size can have more room than others, more volume in the toe or around the ball (ball girth). European shoes run narrower, and Japanese shoes are wider (Japanese people have wide feet). Ask me anything about the subject, I'm a footwear engineer.

thanks all of you for your help!

A little update on the situation: I didn't succeed the proof time, so yesterday I worked for the last time in the shoes store.

They rejected me cause "all the little things", translated: cause my limitations, such as dyscalculie and bad visual motricity, cause I was unable to find shoes, marks, see numbers, follow visual sequenses of this numbers and see little things I had to arrange on my way (like shoe boxes on the stair way to stock) among others.

But good news is I got hired today at H&M, wich seems to me more or less like the place for me to be. My direct boss has ADHD himself (at least H XDXD) and the store actually likes hyper people, even though the store is kinda busy all the time they made clear to me that structure is strong there (cause all of the people that works there has to know exactly what the have to do without recieving orders). they like work-o-holics and people that is always willing to over work, aaand! you get paid all the extra work!

They like me smiling, and they want me to burn all that stamina in me So I'm very happy about this!

Thanks all of you for yor help, thanks to your advices I've learned some useful things for my life this month!

Have a nice life.