Payless ShoeSource: Cheap Shoes at a Cheap Price

Payless ShoeSource: Cheap Shoes at a Cheap Price

I love bargains. Instilled in me by my mother, I can’t help but look for the best prices I can find and am hard to satisfy. I have even come to suspect that bargain hunting may actually be an unidentified type of inherited genetic disorder! The bottom falls out when I fool myself into thinking I have found a bargain when all I have found is cheap junk. Such is the case with the Payless Shoe Source stores. However, the quality and the comfort of these shoes can be improved by adding some of the best shoe insoles that are available in the market. That will make up for their quality and you will get an affordable and comfortable pair of shoes on you. 

A more honest name for this particular chain of ‘discount’ retail shoe stores would be “PayLess and GetLess Shoes.” “Discount” is a misnomer because it is not that they buy closeout lots of good shoes and then deeply discount them as some other stores do – Rather, they simply stock and sell very cheaply made shoes.

Now there certainly IS a place for cheap things – shoes included. For a young child, barely toddling, whose she size will increase by a digit every few months – spending $50. on a pair of shoes is just silly. On the other hand, when that child is 5 or 6 and spending every available opportunity running and jumping and playing, cheap shoes may be a disservice to his or her little feet.

I have found their selections, especially in men’s shoes, to be extremely limited to two or three lines and have, honestly, never found anything there I thought was worth owning. The choices are also so seasonally specific that you can find only lightweight shoes in the summer. For a few dollars more, better values can be found at mainline discount department stores like Mervyn’s or J.C. Penny.

Kids’ shoes, again, have been another matter. Two pair of light-up tennies for a three-year-old who loves to wear them – sure! In six months, he’ll be needing new ones anyway. But, for those of us whose feet have stopped growing, a second or third thought is probably in order before buying from a Payless ShoeSource store.

Then, there are times when, as an adult, we need a pair of shoes in a certain color or style for one special occasion. We may never wear them again! In this instance, if Payless ShoeSource has them for $20, a ‘right’ deal may be staring you in the face (or foot as the case may be.)

While most people believe the old saying that, one way or another, you get what you pay for – the bargain hunters lurking in our hearts want to continue to believe that we can find really good quality products for really cheap prices – if only we look in the right places, the right websites or retail stores like the Payless ShoeSource; The right auctions, garage sales or flea markets. It is not that it never happens, and that is a part of the problem.

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