New Favorite Website

You may not know this about me, because I haven't gone on and on about it here, but I have a difficult-to-fit foot. Well, two of them. All my life once I achieved my full growth I was wearing 7s or 7 1/2s, but in fact, my foot is a 6 1/2 WW. Or 6 1/2 E, in the old money. Feet as wide as they are long. As a friend teased me in high school, I should throw away the shoes and just wear the boxes.

I started buying shoes that were the correct size a few years ago, at great expense, at a specialist shoe store just outside David Jones in Sydney. And now I can't go back - once you've been wearing shoes that actually fit you for a few years and go through life not thinking of your feet, you start to demand it as a permanent condition.

But, Appleton being 1.8% the size of Sydney (Man. It is small. I hadn't actually done the math before), there's not as much demand for shoes to fit Hobbit feet, and I wasn't sure what I was going to do - go back to 7 1/2 regular, at Payless, and have blisters and clown shoes once again?

Fortunately, I am a regular reader of The New Yorker, and had many times seen ads for an online shoe store called Zappos.com. It's also on the side of all the shopping bags full of shoes on my new favorite show, What Not to Wear (US version). I checked it out, actually pretty soon after arriving. I remember creating a profile and adding a pair to my wish list while sitting at the Harmony Cafe, way back before I had internet access at home.

Zappos.com is a magical wonderland. From someone who's been sentenced to sensible, boring Lesbian shoes for years and years, it might actually turn me into one of those shoe ladies. I just got three pair in the mail just now, only two days after I ordered them, and one of those days was Sunday. Two of the pairs fit - brilliantly - and the one I have to return, the girl on the phone was so, so nice and cheerful and helpful, it's really not a problem, it's even easier than sending a clerk at an analog shoe store out here in the world back to the back room to get a different size. Brilliant. When you first call they have two employees who introduce themselves on the phone and say they're hosting the phone menu for that day. In addition to placing new orders, tracking existing orders or processing returns, you can dial 4 to hear the joke of the day. Love it! The menu actually takes a little longer to get through, what with the introductions and the joke, but you don't mind, because they're little touches that make the whole experience much nicer.

And, lest I forget the most important thing, they have loads and loads of shoes in every style in size 6 1/2 WW. They don't frown and wrinkle their brow when you enter that size in, and say, "Hm. Maybe. I'll check the back, but we might have to do a special order. Or would you like to try a 7 1/2 regular?" To Zappos, you say, "6 1/2 WW?" and they say, "Sure! What colour? How high a heel? Is red with a kitten heel alright? How about with some sexy straps all around? How many pairs of each would you like, sitting at your front door day after tomorrow? It's no problem! It's our pleasure!"

I love Zappos.com. I love my new shoes (one boot with rugged tread, fake sheep skin lining, and sexy straps all around; one knee-length boot with an amazingly sexy heel and scalloped top, for wearing with skirts in the wintertime). I love that the shoes I don't love, I can easily send back to them. I even love being a 6 1/2 WW, because it brought me to them. Thank you, Zappos!