If you are short, or like me you are tall, then I bet we have the same problem :)

As I stand before a display of shoes, normally for me in a shop where there is a lot of variety and sizes available at a reasonable price, or in a chain store, I am always puzzled at how the displays are set up.

I am tall, 5'8", and being a tall person I have a foot that isn't huge, but it is 'large'.  Short people have smaller feet of course, or they would look really strange I imagine.

A workmate and I began a discussion last week on shoes.  How it came about, I don't recall.  She is short, probably 5' or maybe a little bit taller (not much though).

I remarked how frustrated and annoyed I am when I have to bend all the way over to reach the shoes I want to try on.  Or sit on a stool, if there is one, or even on the floor. She remarked how she has to literally climb up on the shelves to reach her size.

It got me thinking once again about the people who stock those shoes stands. Can they only count down from 1 to 10?  Are they all really short and use a ladder?  Or are they all really tall and sit on the floor.  Damned if I can work out how they can't start at the bottom with 1 and work their way up the shelves to the largest sizes.  It won't make any difference to how many shoes they can fit on a shelf but it would certainly make a difference to the comfort of the shopper.

If I were short and I was confronted with such a display, I would walk away muttering.  I usually walk away muttering because I get dizzy bending over from the waist for too long a period. I also have trouble with my glasses.  I can't see well enough to read sizes unless they are within my focus range.  Multifocal glasses do not work well on an angle, such as looking down and trying to read.  Looking up is just as bad, but if the larger shoes were up higher I wouldn't have to look far up at all. 

Am I just being paranoid, along with my workmate, or do other people feel the same way about this issue?  It really 'gets my goolies'.  I am sure that a lot of sales are lost through annoyances like this in shops.

One of the male members of staff walked by and stopped to listen to our beef on shoes, and told a story about one of his children.  The child had picked up a toy from a display that was low down on the shelves.  The toy was subsequently dropped, and it broke.  The attendant demanded that the father pay for the broken toy.  He refused telling the attendant that the display was placed in such a position where little hands could reach the toys, no doubt in the hope that the parent confronted with a possible tantrum, would buy it for peace.  He added that as far as he was concerned the store had made a choice and taken a chance on breakages being less than sales.  He walked out without paying the price.

On another subject altogether, I have a big axe to grind.  I don't know how the salary and wages payment system works in other countries, but for the majority of workers that I know in Australia, we have no choice how we are paid.  Our pay goes into our bank accounts.  There is no longer that lovely last day before holidays when you collected your holiday pay and loading for the number of weeks you would be away.  Now you are paid each week, fortnight or month, depending on how your normal pay period is worked out, even during holidays. 

Therefore, unless each payday you take all your pay out of the bank that you have already paid tax on, you are charged everytime you access that money.  I think that I can hit my bank account 7 times in a month without fees, then every other time I am charged a fee.  This is totally outrageous.  I didn't want my salary paid into my bank account, but I had no choice.  I was forced to learn to live using plastic and to pay bank fees.  And while the bank has my pay I'm sure the money goes onto the short term money market where it earns a high rate of interest, and then they get the fees as well. 

In an effort to thwart the bank I decided to buy almost everything, except food, and pay all my bills, by credit card.  That way every fortnight I only had one withdrawal, to pay my credit card.  However that is not to be recommended because bit by bit you fall behind and things happen that don't allow you to pay as much off that dratted credit card as you should pay.  It becomes a war of robbing peter to pay paul, and a never ending stress arouser.  Who said that all progress is good?  I say bring back the notes and get rid of the plastic and let's all feel a bit more secure having some money in our purses instead of an array of plastic cards.

For every man woman and child in Australia I imagine the credit debt is astounding, and frightening.  And then there are the huge mortgages that the banks are lending money for.  People are going to the wall bigtime and when the interest rates start to escalate, there will be house after house on the market as families can't cope with the debt any longer.  It appears there is little moral fibre in this world.  All that matters to the banks is the bottom line profit for shareholders.  Aren't we all shareholders?  After all, they get our money every week, fortnight or month. 

I rest my case.  My goolies are overcooked :)

Copyright Vena McGrath 2006