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The Looming End of Payless ShoeSource

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Re: The Looming End of Payless ShoeSource

#41

Post by kasey_junk »

pascalxus wrote: post #17

Shoes is one of those things I almost never need to buy, now that I'm an adult and fully grown. Even the very cheapest ones can last me 10 years or more without wearing out. Actually, it's the Nikes that wear out much faster, it seems. PS:(edit) I walk around a decent amount and even go running 6 to 9 miles per week. Even a super cheap pair of running shoes won't show any holes in it for 4+ years at least. The Nike o…

Are you having them repaired? The shoe repair shops in my neighborhood are aging out & im worried it will stop being an option.

Re: The Looming End of Payless ShoeSource

#42

Post by astura »

pitaj wrote: post #31
debatem1 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure where to go with this, honestly. From an electoral perspective it's counterfactual: my family in the midwest have roughly 1.5x the electoral power I do. Historically speaking this has led two democrats in my lifetime to win the popular vote but lose the presidential election. So I don't think there's an issue with those voices being unheard in elections-- quite the opposite in fact. On the other hand, I…

Does winning the popular vote mean anything under the current system? It's not hard to assume that many people would vote very differently if the electoral college wasn't involved. For instance, left-leaning people might vote more often in red states, and right-leaning voters in blue states would do the same.

Don't forget- there's 4 million Americans who are ineligible to vote for president due to the fact that they live in territories, not states (and DC since 1961).

Re: The Looming End of Payless ShoeSource

#43

Post by learc83 »

pascalxus wrote: post #17

Shoes is one of those things I almost never need to buy, now that I'm an adult and fully grown. Even the very cheapest ones can last me 10 years or more without wearing out. Actually, it's the Nikes that wear out much faster, it seems. PS:(edit) I walk around a decent amount and even go running 6 to 9 miles per week. Even a super cheap pair of running shoes won't show any holes in it for 4+ years at least. The Nike o…

Maybe if you have 10 pairs of shoes and you are sure to wear each pair the same amount, and you don't walk that much. That or you basically never walk on non-carpeted surfaces at all.

I suppose you could also have be having them repaired, but cheap shoes don't tend to be very repairable.

Re: The Looming End of Payless ShoeSource

#44

Post by pard68 »

kristopolous wrote: post #23
pascalxus wrote: post #17

Shoes is one of those things I almost never need to buy, now that I'm an adult and fully grown. Even the very cheapest ones can last me 10 years or more without wearing out. Actually, it's the Nikes that wear out much faster, it seems. PS:(edit) I walk around a decent amount and even go running 6 to 9 miles per week. Even a super cheap pair of running shoes won't show any holes in it for 4+ years at least. The Nike o…

What brand are you wearing?

Not OP but I got a pair of Clark's in 2010 that I still wear. Granted they are sandals, but of anything that is even more impressive, I used to go through sandals once a season.

And don't get me started on the poor state of common flipflop

Re: The Looming End of Payless ShoeSource

#45

Post by mobilefriendly »

buerkle wrote: post #22
bdcravens wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sums up well Trump's ascension: there are a lot of people who have real needs and real opinions, and whose votes count as much as someone's in California or New York. An environment where we insist on leaving those voices unheard is what enables someone to have extreme influence.

In many cases California and New York voters count much less than in smaller, more rural states. The senators from Wyoming represent about 300,000 people each. The senators in California represent nearly 19,000,000 each. And the The Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 capped the number in the House of Representatives. In this case, each California House member represents three times as many people as the House member…

This is by design of course. The United States is a confederation of states...geographical balancing against population density was the Great Compromise. That people are surprised or shocked by this reveals how poor our civics education has become. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/A_Great_...

Re: The Looming End of Payless ShoeSource

#46

Post by kristopolous »

pard68 wrote: post #44
kristopolous wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What brand are you wearing?

Not OP but I got a pair of Clark's in 2010 that I still wear. Granted they are sandals, but of anything that is even more impressive, I used to go through sandals once a season. And don't get me started on the poor state of common flipflop

oh excuse my french but fuck-an-a clarks are amazing. The pair I bought mine at (which actually still somehow work) was from a mall which is now demolished and has since turned into a condominium with a park.

Yes, the store left, the mall was abandoned, it got leveled, a new building was placed there and that was a few years ago. I still have the damn sandals. I wore them yesterday.

I tried moving on from them around 2012 using a pair of sandals from DSW and those went to tatters so I went into my closet and brought the old clarks back out and now years later they still work.

I should go and hunt out another pair.

There should be a review website with an incredibly high barrier to entry that is designed to make sure there's completely unsolicited reviews for products. Avoiding abuse and spam is definitely hand-waving here but that site would be great.

Re: The Looming End of Payless ShoeSource

#47

Post by dunnevens »

bdcravens wrote: post #11
debatem1 wrote: post #9

The point about both helping create the race to the bottom and also catering to those it leaves behind is, I think, an important and often overlooked one. It's why Walmart is beloved in many of the small southern towns where I grew up. Sure it relentlessly exploited poor people elsewhere, but when you're poor yourself you can't help but be grateful for its low prices. And the belief that finally, finally someone is g…

This sums up well Trump's ascension: there are a lot of people who have real needs and real opinions, and whose votes count as much as someone's in California or New York. An environment where we insist on leaving those voices unheard is what enables someone to have extreme influence.

Those voices are far from unheard. If anything, they've been the dominant political voices for the past 40 years. Sure, California and NYC's cultural output is the loudest voice in the country. But, politically speaking, they're largely ignored. Obviously ignored by Republicans, but the timid national Democratic leadership will also ignore them in their relentless centrism.

The political system makes it pretty easy to ignore the liberal coastal areas. Republicans benefit enormously from the unevenness of the Senate, House seat allocations, and the Electoral College. And then in the states they control, they put their finger on the scale via gerrymandering. Democrats can ignore the coasts too because who else are they going to vote for?

Though the greatest irony of all is that those rural and poor voters in the flyover states are also ignored in terms of their real needs. Their party tosses them cultural red meat regularly, but defunds the things they need: schools, roads, and various safety net programs which are often the only thing keeping the rural poor afloat.

Re: The Looming End of Payless ShoeSource

#48

Post by op00to »

pard68 wrote: post #39
Spooky23 wrote: post #33

The missing factor is that when shoe production was completely sourced to a few companies in China (70% of US market), nearly all shoes turned to shit. So Payless wasn’t really differentiated itself from any other value brand. The end of Payless is just another private equity story, and poor kids will just get a smaller variety of shitty shoes from WalMart, TJMaxx, or Dollar General. The majority of us get screwed in…

Never been to PayLess, is it any good, or rather was it? Also, should mention TJMaxx has decent stuff. Never bought shoes there but I get pants, shirts, and random stuff for the house. My wife gets plenty of clothes there though.

Every time I bought PayLess shoes, they were destroyed in weeks. I haven't been in 10 years, but fuck that place.

Re: The Looming End of Payless ShoeSource

#49

Post by Kluny »

pard68 wrote: post #39
Spooky23 wrote: post #33

The missing factor is that when shoe production was completely sourced to a few companies in China (70% of US market), nearly all shoes turned to shit. So Payless wasn’t really differentiated itself from any other value brand. The end of Payless is just another private equity story, and poor kids will just get a smaller variety of shitty shoes from WalMart, TJMaxx, or Dollar General. The majority of us get screwed in…

Never been to PayLess, is it any good, or rather was it? Also, should mention TJMaxx has decent stuff. Never bought shoes there but I get pants, shirts, and random stuff for the house. My wife gets plenty of clothes there though.

They were very heavy shoes, made of low quality materials, glued together with cheap glue that often peeled before the soles wore out.

Re: The Looming End of Payless ShoeSource

#50

Post by shpx »

jdavis703 wrote: post #27
pascalxus wrote: post #17

Shoes is one of those things I almost never need to buy, now that I'm an adult and fully grown. Even the very cheapest ones can last me 10 years or more without wearing out. Actually, it's the Nikes that wear out much faster, it seems. PS:(edit) I walk around a decent amount and even go running 6 to 9 miles per week. Even a super cheap pair of running shoes won't show any holes in it for 4+ years at least. The Nike o…

I'm guessing the OP doesn't use their shoes for much more than walking around indoors. On the other hand when I skateboarded to work I'd go through a pair of shoes about every 3 months (that's what happens when your brake is your shoe). It was still cheaper than gas and faster than public transit though.

You should learn to break by "stomping" the ground instead of sanding down your shoes. Dragging your foot on the ground to brake should happen quite rarely, when it would be dangerous or really tiring not to.

Although if you live in a place with tons of really steep hills like San Francisco, 3 months is probably par for the course.

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