What?!?!?!? A SHOPPING Post?????
I shopped. I shopped in MADISON!!!! We may all breathe a collective sigh of relief. No small animals will be harmed due to my shopping frustrations.
This shopping trip was actually born out of true and sincere necessity. I'm planning ahead and preparing for the onslaught of my first Madison winter. I thought a winter coat was in order. So I picked this up:
this thing has enough bells and whistles on it to choke a horse. plus it has the dramatic faux fur (I specifically asked) trim on the hood.
I picked up the jacket at Context (www.contextclothing.com). it's the ONLY place in Madison to shop for me. I made a point of chatting up the owner whenever I go in. He's VERY cool and a really great merchant. Super knowledgeable about merchandising and marketing in general. Has a great point of view. Humble, yet confident. He really knows all about every garment in his store and he's great about letting you know all the features and benefits of anything in the place. While we were chatting, I asked him about shoe stores. He called it - nothing in town. While we were chatting about how it's so risky to carry shoes, he mentioned that he'd brought in a line about a year ago and it just didn't do that well. He knew I was shopping in preparation for winter and told me that the shoes he had brought in were specifically for cold weather as they were waterproof - perfect for the snow. He ran to the back and brought them out to me. I saw them, I loved them, I bought them.
groooooovy. I bought them partly because of the beautiful leather box they came in. DEE-LISH.
As he was ringing me up, he said, "Oh, I'm giving you the Context discount - gotta take care of the people who take care of us." Just like the boys at Gimme Shoes used to give me a discount in SF!!!
It's starting to feel a little more like home out here.
This shopping trip was actually born out of true and sincere necessity. I'm planning ahead and preparing for the onslaught of my first Madison winter. I thought a winter coat was in order. So I picked this up:
this thing has enough bells and whistles on it to choke a horse. plus it has the dramatic faux fur (I specifically asked) trim on the hood.
I picked up the jacket at Context (www.contextclothing.com). it's the ONLY place in Madison to shop for me. I made a point of chatting up the owner whenever I go in. He's VERY cool and a really great merchant. Super knowledgeable about merchandising and marketing in general. Has a great point of view. Humble, yet confident. He really knows all about every garment in his store and he's great about letting you know all the features and benefits of anything in the place. While we were chatting, I asked him about shoe stores. He called it - nothing in town. While we were chatting about how it's so risky to carry shoes, he mentioned that he'd brought in a line about a year ago and it just didn't do that well. He knew I was shopping in preparation for winter and told me that the shoes he had brought in were specifically for cold weather as they were waterproof - perfect for the snow. He ran to the back and brought them out to me. I saw them, I loved them, I bought them.
groooooovy. I bought them partly because of the beautiful leather box they came in. DEE-LISH.
As he was ringing me up, he said, "Oh, I'm giving you the Context discount - gotta take care of the people who take care of us." Just like the boys at Gimme Shoes used to give me a discount in SF!!!
It's starting to feel a little more like home out here.
posted by Shuboy at 3:15 PM
2 Comments:
Those are pretty slick.
I think a place that carried shoes that fall somewhere in between Jack's (on State, if you haven't been there yet, the back of the store is worth a peek for the occasional sneaker fix) and Context would kill in Madison, if it got good word of mouth. Some of the classier New Balance, Puma, Adidas, Gravis, Diesel, that kind of stuff. Soulman (also on State) would be awesome if they had any kind of substantial inventory. But every other damn men's shoe selection is brown leather on top of more brown leather. Blech.
Hey there...just had to check in since I didn't get to see you when you were out. Lots to catch up on...I miss you. SB (Those shoes are great!)
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