baby girls shoes

tazzababe

I used to work at Clarks and obviously bought their shoes for my daughter, not too expensive because of the discount.:p I left after a year because of the management style and because of the pressure they put on you to sell.

One incident occured when I told a mother of three that the her kids hadn't really grown that much and that she would be wasting her money to buy shoes at that point. She left with a smile on her face, the manager at that point pulled me into the back room where she proceeded to tell me that even if they have grown a bit (not enough to warrant new shoes) you have to push for a sale.:eek: I was gobsmacked. The shoes are overpriced for what they are, and to some peoples amazment are pretty badly made. We had a large box for all the returns, this would be full by the end of one week- usually kids shoes.

Since I left I have only ever bought one pair of Clarkes and that was off ebay for a pair of boots that my daughter loved. Yes they have a narrow fitting which regular shops don't provide, but even instore if they don't have the E they will give you an F and say "oh, they're fine" or stick an insole in. Boots don't even come in a E fit, they only start at F and rarely go to a G.

When i buy dd shoes I stick to the same fitting rules that I learnt on the Clarks course (which I might add is only a day!) You have 9 different points but I stick to Width, Depth and Length. The shoe should be wide enough to allow easy movement of the leather- no movement is too narrow, loads of movement is to wide. Have a good press down to feel the instep, again checking leather. As for length, "a thumbs width" is what we were told (I don't know why considering everones thumb is different!) so thats a thumbs width from the end of the big toe. To much can make them trip up especially in smaller kids, not so much in the older ones.

Sorry it is so long, I hope it helps someone. These are not just my experiences, they are of my ex-collegues also, from across several different stores.

Sorry again! I didn't even answer your question just went on and on

Quackers

tazzababe wrote:

I used to work at Clarks and obviously bought their shoes for my daughter, not too expensive because of the discount.:p I left after a year because of the management style and because of the pressure they put on you to sell.

One incident occured when I told a mother of three that the her kids hadn't really grown that much and that she would be wasting her money to buy shoes at that point. She left with a smile on her face, the manager at that point pulled me into the back room where she proceeded to tell me that even if they have grown a bit (not enough to warrant new shoes) you have to push for a sale.

That is definately not what Clarks want.

I'm a manager for them so obviously my opinion is probably a one sided argument!

I would NEVER expect my staff to push for a sale when the child has not grown and I would never do it myself.

I started off as a part timer and was not trained to be pushy either.

Persuasive to adults puchasing adult shoes - yes - but no more so than any other retailer on the high street.

persuasive or pushy to adults purchasing shoes for their children is not what we are trained to do and is not acceptable.

I could go on and on but I understand that people have their own opinions and experiences of Clarks and they are obviously entitled to them but I really dont think Clarks do the hard sell on kids shoes at all. Well, not in my experience.