Why is he special? He’s retiring at the age of 90 after spending the last 60 years running Browns Shoe Store. What a great story and inspiration. Arts’ generation is full of great people; I’m jealous and hope that someday I can provide the same inspiration for folks younger than me. You’ll pretty much know what kind of person Art is when you read the first paragraph of the story.

A lifetime of unlocking the same door each morning, turning on the same lights and starting the coffee for visitors sure to drop by ended officially Sunday as Art Brown closed his shoe store.

Starting the coffee, ah that’s called hospitality and you rarely find it in today’s faced paced profit driven business world unless you’re getting schmoozed.

Congratulations Art and enjoy the Christmas Trees.

Zappos had enjoyed a phenominal run at the top of the online footwear space with the likes of onlineshoes.com and shoes.com and they’re still at the top but Endless and Piperlime have to be eating into their market share in addition to Zappos’ profitability by offering aggressive 2 way free shipping programs and innovative offers such as paying the customer to choose overnight shipping.  Let’s face it, shipping is a cost center and companies can’t give away overnight shipping unless they’ve got very aggressive plans to eat someone’s market share big time.

Last week, Zappos took a step to protect their turf with the aquisition of 6PM.com which is another top footwear web site. I wonder if this aquisition is going to be the start of a race to see which online footwear retailer is going to take 1, 2 and 3.

The next 8-12 Months is going to be an interesting ride.

 Especially discounted are the shoes for Fall. Big savings.  I noticed in the sale, top of the line current New Balance, Nike, Ecco, Puma, Timberland… for Men. 

Franco, BCBGirls, UGG…for Women. 

Savings is $60.00 off on some of these models.  I also have to mention there is only a $5.00 shipping charge for entire order.  This is the kind of sale that I like to see, good sales on new merchandise, not summer clearance!

• Women’s Shoes on Sale
• Men’s Shoes on Sale
• Boy’s Shoes on Sale
• Girl’s Shoes on Sale

 Visit CPSC site for details.

Free Overnight Shipping at Zappos.com! What will they do next?

Where else can you shop where they have free shipping both ways, yes even returns are free. 

A return policy of 365 days! Have you ever heard of such a thing?

And a 110% Price Protection. What does that mean? It means if you find an item for a lower price on another web site or in a retail store, they will refund you 110% of the difference between the lower price and our price.

On Zappos site, there is a banner, Why shop at Zappos? Do they really need to explain that to you?

Here’s a quote from the report regarding the May retail numbers:

“Apparently, we were all buying stuff at the smaller stores and not spending money at the big retail chains,” said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s, pointing out the disparity between the large companies reporting same-store sales and the broader Commerce figures.

Me personally, I like the small store 9 times out of 10. You get a personal touch and usually someone much more knowledgeable about their profession and the product.

Consumers certainly cannot walk into a Target store and ask for a footwear recommendation based on conditions such as arthritis or pronation right? How about hammer toe or perhaps shin splints? Think you can get help at that big retail store with those issues? I don’t think you will, that’s where the small store has em beat!

• 30% off all spring and summer merchandise
• Starts today
• online only so don’t go to the store
• your coupon code to enter at checkout to receive your 30% off is “SECRETSALE”