The $50 flip flop near miss

| Posted May 20th 2008 12:19PM by Cat Lincoln
Filed under: Shoes

As we mentioned in an earlier post, this weekend we had a blister emergency. After a false start, Band Aids saved the day, but we still wandered into Banana Republic, like a zombie, to see if they had inexpensive backless sandals we could buy and wear out of the store.

We're shaking our heads at ourselves, even writing that.

Oh, please, admit you've done the same thing, possibly more than once. It's slightly less reprehensible when you buy the $4 red checkered material flip flops at Walgreens, but it's the same behavior. Blowing cash on an impulse buy is practically a national pass-time.

So back to Banana Republic. These patent leather flip flops jumped out at us from across the floor. The deep purpley-magenta color was amazing, but it was the chalk (fancy off white) that stole our monochromatic heart.

We tried them on, and no surprises here, they felt amazing after walking blocks in our blister inducing orange wedges. We checked the price and choked on our tongues. Forty-eight dollars for a pair of shiny beach shoes! Outrageous!

We then proceeded to carry them around the store, limping from one sale rack to the next, Battle of the Bad Purchase Rationalizations raging in our head.

Finally we were interrupted by the sales girl (she was maybe eleven years old) in charge of shoes who probably thought we were an unskilled shoplifter. We asked how long these had been out, and if she thought they'd be on sale soon. Because everything goes on sale at Banana Republic, eventually.

"Oh, those are brand new, part of our summer collection," she said. "They're really popular. You could open a Luxe card and get 15% off." Yeah, thanks, totally unhelpful. Reason prevailed and we left empty-handed chanting "Buy them online later," under our breath.

Two days later, chatting with fellow blogger Kristen, we shared our sad story about leaving the pretty shoes behind.

"Link please!" she said, so we clicked over to the site to find that our sandals were on sale already!!! They were part of the 30% off Memorial Day sale, down to $33.60, which is not free, but much more reasonable.

Yes, we went back and bought them. Because we'd waited for the sale price, they went from bad impulse purchase to smart wardrobe staple. It was very satisfying.

And no, we did not give that girl credit when the cashier asked if anyone helped us.

Tags: banana republic, BananaRepublic, blisters, flats, flip flops, FlipFlops, impulse buys, ImpulseBuys, patent leather, PatentLeather, rationalization, sale price, SalePrice, sandals, shoes