Salvation Army

So, I am a thrift store girl. It really chaps my end to pay retail for anything. There are some things that give me pause, however, when it comes to buying used, shoes being among them.

When I was getting pedicures every other week or so (years and years ago), I contracted toenail fungus. I know it was the instruments that the Asian lady was using on my feet. How can I go 35 years without getting toenail fungus, only to contract it when I start getting regular pedicures? After months of prescription Lotrimin and a year of new, healthy nail growing out, you can understand my reluctance about wearing used shoes.

I was talking about  a pair of shoes I saw at Salvation Army and my concerns for wearing used shoes with my Sunday School ladies. One of the ladies told me that she has a boot dryer that her husband uses during hunting season, and if you leave the shoe/book on it for a couple of hours, it sanitizes it. Problem solved!

So, I hustled my thrift-store self back down to Salvation Army to get those navy, square-toed pumps. I had trouble finding the price on them, until I realized that it was written on the bottom of the shoe in permanent marker. Since the sole was black, I had trouble seeing it. $3. Just my size and budget! And, while I was there, I decided to look at the others. There were two other pair that I liked, equally inexpensive, so I put them in the cart, too. It's pretty exciting when you have to have a cart to haul your thrift store finds!

I spied another pair that I liked. The brand was "Chadwicks", the discount women's catalog. I turned them over and saw that they were $15!! I will pause here for effect.

I had seen another pair of Chadwicks-brand shoes, so I went back to those to see how much they were. $3. Go figure. I took the $15 pair to the counter, where there is a sign taped to the top that says, "Do not ask us to reduce the price of any of our items. Our items are fairly priced." Hmpth I, of course, asked if they would meet the price of the $3. He, of course, had to go in the back and ask someone else, who told him that they were from the Cullman Salvation Army and they were very strict on discounting items. No, he could not lower the price. I put them back and bought the other three.

Notice the shoes to the right. These are from the Chadwick's catalog, and while they are not exactly like the pair I wanted at Salvation Army, they are very similar. They are $17.00. And they are new.

I have probably spent my last minute at the Salvation Army in Arab.