Size 5 Feet - Sometimes It Pays to Be Small

I almost never walk into a Kenneth Cole because the prices are just high - even on sale. But I promised to meet a friend at Grand Central this past weekend and needed to kill some time before he arrived. Actually, I took a wrong turn (sorry, I'm not a Grand Central navigation pro yet!) and thought I was going into the Banana Republic, but stuck around in Kenneth Cole when I noticed that there was a 70% off the sale prices sale.

Well! That makes a huge difference. I went through the clothes for a few minutes but realized that nothing would fit me. If you're a normal sized person, those items were downright inexpensive, so you should give it a shot! As an example, I picked up 2 men's button down shirts for a friend for $18 each instead of the full price of $79.50.

For me, what I really noticed was the shoe section. Most of the shoes were the random assortment of large sizes or left over ugly shoes. But more importantly, I realized that Kenneth Cole actually carries size 5 and 5 1/2 shoes in its retail store! If you have small feet like me, you realize that finding a pair of shoes smaller than a 6 is a nightmare, as a lot of stores only carry the smaller sizes online.

Lately, I've stuck to the Zenswa style that Reebok makes, with a split sole. They're very light and very comfortable - but the outer toe area tends to wear out quickly. I've been meaning to replace them for a while, and finally found my opportunity here. I found a whole stack of size 5 sneakers called Sneak a Boo II that were rather nice and I tried them on. Talk about a sweet deal - they were originally $125, but I paid $24. When I left the store, I had 2 pairs of shoes and 2 men's dress shirts. The total bill? $83.98.

For the small footed, it seems crazy is that stores no longer typically carry size 5's or 5 1/2's - even though they're still in the standard non-specialty size range. In places like Manhattan you'd think that they'd sell well, but I guess that's the way it goes. I've always had an issue with the seemingly unfathomable size allocations for stores (how many of what size is carried on a location to location basis), but there's not much I can do about that.

Now, for those of you out there that live in suburbia, be thankful that stores still stock rather inefficiently because if you're in the upper or lower ranges of sizing, sale days are fabulous. I should know - I'm from Long Island! (No jokes, please - or at least make it original!) Roosevelt Field Mall, the 10th largest in the country, was (and probably still is) this pristine field of too many size 0P's and size 5 shoes during sale season. So for all you guys and gals out there that are too small - try hitting up the nearest suburbs for a great deal!