At a certain point in life, a man reaches a deeper understanding. A viewpoint that permanently alters his worldview, and makes him question all that came before. This can happen slowly, as experience and knowledge grows, and ultimately crystalizes around a kernel of this new perspective. Or it can happen suddenly, in an epiphany of recognition that forces a foundational frame of reference adjustment. Yesterday I experienced the latter, and I wanted to share it in case any of you have yet to reach a similar point. As enter the fall of life, I feel compelled to offer this new personal world order in the hope that you may benefit longer than I will likely enjoy. While this change thunder-struck me suddenly yesterday, some background will help put the revelation in proper context. It all started with the bankruptcy of Sears. Sears engaged in a foolhardy acquisition strategy during the 1980's of retail and non-retail businesses that would be completely undercut by the digital revolution of the 1990's. The debt accumulated from these various acquisitions would drag on company financial statements for decades as revenues slowly eroded to online shopping alternatives. Finally, in the face of an unmanageable October 2018 debt payment of $134 million, Sears declared Chapter 11. Eddie Lampert made several attempts to secure funding for a reorganization strategy, but they would all ultimately fail. None of this impacted me until the end of 2019 when the last Sears in Jacksonville closed. At that point I had a shoe problem. For decades I had purchased brown four-hole lace-up suede loafers from Sears. They were a store brand that sold for $30 or $40. I had probably purchased a dozen or more pair of these. I would often buy two or three pair at a time so I wouldn't need to return to the store so often as they wore out. But now Sears and my default shoe choice were gone! Panic ensued. I started searching the internet for the manufacturer of this shoe which I had enjoyed for so many years. The hope was that another distribution channel would emerge, or that a transition to online sales could be found. No luck. So at the dawn of COVID-19, I was facing an existential shoe crisis. It was about March 2020 when my last trusty Sears loafers were at end-of-life. Most real world retail was shuttered, and supply chain disruption was in full force. There were no shoes to buy. Finally, a local Rack Room reopened and I scoured the shelves for a suitable replacement. I eventually settled for a deck style shoe that was only mildly stylistically objectionable, but seemed acceptably comfortable as one of the very few models offered in wide width. For nearly two and a half years this daily worn (weekday) pair of shoes sustained me. Last week I was forced back to the retail experience for a hopefully improved selection of casual shoe options. Did I find an improved post-COVID selection? Hell no, I did not! It was WAY worse. There were no wide offerings at all! Three shoe store visits left me cursing the pathetic state of IRL retail, and the stupid business people who were essentially forcing me to shop online. So home to Amazon I went, with the name of an untried shoe brand and model seen in a store. It was a pleasing looking set of footwear that I was going to gamble might be suitable. And the size variety available on Amazon was breathtaking. All the sizes I was familiar with, that were completely missing from any store, were available with a click. I don't know when stores decided that they couldn't offer size selection. They certainly did in the 1970's! How did they lose that ability? Anyway, shoes selected and ordered online with delivery anticipated in a couple days. Fine. Ladies and gentleman, this is it. These Rockport Oxford Eureka Walking Shoes are THE most comfortable shoes I have ever owned...bar none. I am gobsmacked by how comfortable these shoes are. Eureka is right! I think back to pre-Rockport me and shake my head in sorrow. Poor fella. Stuck in a rut of frugally driven brick-and-mortar retail based consumption resulting in the bare minimum of utility. Not even guessing about the possibility that such a paradigm shift could be out there. Who knows what might have been if that version of me had found these shoes earlier? Years of an improved outlook on life is the most obvious missed opportunity. Perhaps he would have turned to philanthropy? Trying to engineer life improvements for those around him in an effort to induce similar outlook-altering reactions in society's less fortunate? I literally skipped around the house yesterday sharing the good news with my family. I haven't skipped since a 1973 visit to Cedar Point with my Aunt Fran. Eureka my friends. Eureka indeed. If you're in need, I beg you to give these shoes a try. If I can convince just one of you, then this lunchtime prose will have been worth it.
