MISFIT
Old A
fter a lifetime spent messing about with shoes old Misfit thought he knew every nook and cranny of the shoe business until he went to visit someone in an old peoples’ home and found himself in a shoe shop. Not quite a shoe shop as we understand it, with display fittings, a
stock room, a carefully dressed window and other things that go with a retail unit, no, this was much more basic. A row of trestle tables stretched across the lounge on which were displayed an extensive collection of soft, comfortable, adjustable shoes and sandals of the sort which would appeal to old people who spend much of the day sitting down but have trouble with their feet when they stand up. Most of the styles on show were more suitable for indoor use than outdoor. About a third of the offering consisted of slippers. As for the stockroom, this was a collection of plastic crates lined up behind the tables full of which appeared to me to be a jumble of shoes, none of them in boxes, with no discernible organisation. As I sat talking to the old gentleman I had gone to visit I kept hearing a
refrain which went “No, you can’t have that one. That’s my sample, but I’ll have a pair in the office for you to collect by next week.” A very steady trade indeed was being done, and when my friend went off
to have his lunch I went over to talk to the “shopkeeper”. He had taken a break and was eating his lunch, which seemed to be supplied by the old peoples’ home, as well.. He was obviously an honoured guest in the establishment, and on learning that I was a fellow sufferer from shoe disease was happy to talk about his business. It consisted of visiting similar homes and institutions where the inhabitants rarely went on shopping expeditions on account of age or infirmity, so he had a captive clientele, for whom, as I had noticed, he had laid out his stall. He called on each home about twice a year and seemed to be making a fair profit. When I asked how he knew where everything was in the jumble in his crates he told me he just knew. I suppose when you have been carrying the same stock around for months you get to know it. I remarked that he must have a great deal of stock to back up what I could see, and supply all those orders which he was taking. Again I was wrong. He did have a small back-up stock at home, but if that did not include what had been ordered he could usually get it quickly from his wholesaler. I had noticed that nearly all his stock bore the same brand, and he
met him, lunch and a steady supply of mugs of tea. I enviously reflected that the taxman won’t let me charge my mid-day sandwich as a legitimate expense. I am most likely being unfair – every institution he visits may not be so hospitable. For all that it seemed a pleasant enough way of making a living. The only
drawback I could see was that by its nature it was a one-man business. If he tried to employ someone and expand the business the supervisory problems were self-evident. And then I remembered the owner of a small wholesale business I knew
years ago who did much the same thing, only his speciality was golf shoes. He was a golfer, of course, and paid for his hobby by going round golf clubs selling his wares in the morning and playing a round in the afternoon, or so he told me. Come to think of it, talking of golf, I came across a gent years ago who had
an even neater business. He had invented and patented some sort of spike for golf shoes and his working day consisted of coming into his office mid- morning, opening his post to collect his royalty cheques, paying them in and then going off for a long and liquid lunch, followed by a snooze. When he woke up he would toddle off to catch the train home before the rush hour.
He even had got the old peoples’ home in on the act, since he sent the shoes that had been ordered to them which they distributed to the customers and collected the money. Whether the Home benefited financially I forbore to ask.
I have always been interested in niche markets and as I drove away it
explained he worked closely with one wholesaler, who was happy to supply him with single pairs. Judging from the sales he was making, both sides seemed to be doing rather well out of the arrangement. He even had got the old peoples’ home in on the act, since he sent the shoes that had been ordered to them which they distributed to the customers and collected the money. Whether the Home benefited financially I forbore to ask. I went away thinking I was a mug to put up with the yoke of rent, rates,
staff, stock, insurance and all the other overheads and expenses on my shoulders. Here was a guy with none of these things except for the cost of his van and, I imagine, a room in his home. Heat and light, an ever-increasing cost, was provided by the places he visited, as well as, in the place where I
12 • FOOTWEAR TODAY • JUNE/JULY 2011
struck me that with the advent of the internet developing these small out of the way bits of the trade has got a lot easier. You don’t even need a shop, or in some cases any stock. If you decide to go for, for instance, the air steward market, you no longer
have to send people to places like Gatwick to accost likely punters, or even write to airlines. You just put your wares on the internet, e-mail airlines inviting them to tell their staff to check out the link to your website and wait for the orders and the money to roll in. Then you get your suppliers to send the goods direct to your customers. Simples! as Aleksandr the meerkat who sells insurance says.
A man can dream.
www.footweartoday.co.uk
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