My levelheaded friends like Ellen and Susan, would think I'm crazy. So you know what? I don't tell them about my hare-brained schemes. I tell the people who I think I might be able to entice into my way of thinking. And when it comes to cheap, yellow shoes I found my perfect partner in crime. Toby.
This all started 2 months ago when I started seeing comments from those "people in the know" in the fashion section of the Dallas Morning News (boy, I wish I was friends with one of these "people in the know"! Then I wouldn't have to scheme so much!) about these $29.99 shoes that were coming to Target in April. They included pictures of some nice-looking brown wedges. I thought, "Great-looking shoes. Maybe I'll pick up a pair the next time I'm at Target." No big deal.
But then the next week's paper mentioned that the YELLOW version of these shoes were now all the rage amongst the fashionistas and included a picture of these divine pieces of heaven.
And something clicked inside of me. The FASHIONISTAS want them?! Then I've GOT TO HAVE THEM! I immediately ran down to my local Target. No shoes. I just missed the last pair. But the SuperTarget a mile away was supposed to have a few left. So I parked in the largest parking lot in Dallas at the SuperTarget and hiked into the store. I was devastated to learn that they didn't have any of the yellow shoes...and they never did! My last immediate local option was to drive to the scary Target, which can convince the staunchest anti-gun activist to carry a concealed weapon when you walk through the parking lot. Oh the sorrow! They hadn't received any of the coveted yellow shoes either. (But they had a fantastic accessories department.)
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I had run around and wasted 1/2 a day on these $29.99 shoes. Now I needed to get strategic. Because of my frequent visits to Arkansas, and the lack of . . . style . . . in some of the smaller towns, surely I could find a Target that had plenty of yellow shoes!
So began my phone-calling campaign. Calling a Target in a place like Conway, Arkansas, waiting through the initial voice mail message about hours of operation, locations, etc, pressing "0" and then asking the operator for someone who could help me with shoes. I started noticing that every operator I asked about "Cynthia Vincent for Target Yellow Wedges" would sigh and say, "We had some, but they sold pretty quickly" or they'd cut me off in mid-question and say, "The Cynthia Vincent's? We have only a size 11 left." It was pretty clear that they were getting phone calls from people just like me......and no Targets within an hour of my hometown had the shoes.
The next morning Toby called and I laughingly told her about my saga. Now Toby, she loves her fashion. She's a super-tiny beauty who always looks fabulous. She empathized with me, saying, "Cynthia Vincent? Only $29.99? Fashionistas!"
And she was hooked.
The rest of that day she texted reports of her attempts to find the shoes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We're both size 6-1/2, so whoever found the shoes was going to buy two pair in any size close to 6-1/2. No luck. Poor Toby must have called nine stores in her area and they were all sold out. Those Damn Fashionistas!!
The next morning we were commiserating and Toby had a brainstorm. We should go straight to the source and call the corporate offices of Target! They'd give us the answers we were seeking and surely tell us exactly which stores still had the shoes.
I immediately googled Target and got a number for their home office in Minnesota. What a goldmine! Their answering message even had options regarding items you were looking for. I punched the number for "shoes" and got an extremely nice customer service rep named Nancy. I explained my situation with tears in my voice so she would understand the seriousness of my plight. She told me she would do everything she could to help me, just to give her a few minutes to get more information.
While I was on hold I envisioned the glee of hearing that there were still hundreds of size 6-1/2s in Dayton, Ohio and they would be happy to ship them to me right away. Or that Cynthia Vincent (is she a real person?) was so overwhelmed by the response that she was creating more shoes, which would be in stores immediately.
Nancy got back on the line and told me that Target had posted updated information on the shoes in their customer service scripts. She read something like, "More Cynthia Vincent shoes will be available on May 16 in new styles and colors." I asked her if it indicated that yellow wedges would be part of this. She didn't know. I asked if there were any yellow wedges anywhere. She didn't know. I asked her what I should do. She said to start calling stores again on May 16. The devastation hit me then.
After I dragged myself out of the depths of despair, I went online and googled Cynthia Vincent for Target Wedges Yellow and realized there were BLOGS by women who were just as desperately trying to get their hands on these shoes as I was! And a bunch of jerks had bought up the shoes and were selling them on ebay for $80 and more.
Now Toby and I have re-started our call campaign to find out if the yellow wedges have made it back into stores. . .no luck so far, but I may resort to ebay to get my yellow wedges! If I end up with them I'll send scads of pictures of them on my lucky little tootsies!
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