I went out this lunchtime to buy some new laces for my trainers. I visited a sports shoe shop, along with three high street named sports stores. Not one of them sold laces. They sold lots, and mean ltos of trainers, but when I asked for laces I was told no.
When I stood their looking bemused that a shop that sells pretty much nothing but shoes and trainers didn't sell laces, I was the one who then received funny looks. Is this a sign of New Britain under New Labour, where no one buys laces and just buys new shoes instead because they don't know how to lace up shoes anymore?
Cut options for suicide under this miserable and hateful regime?
ReplyDeleteYou'll need to go to the Pound Shop
ReplyDeleteBest not to go out really. Especially to the High Street. It only serves to depress.
ReplyDeleteSupermarkets seem to be the only place I've found that reliably sell laces.
ReplyDeletePossibly something to do with the fashionable nature of trainers? By the time the laces have worn out, the trainers are so out of fashion that no-one would be seen dead in them?
Velcro?
ReplyDeleteTimpson's is your friend.
ReplyDeleteHow the hell do you wear laces out anyway? My trainers are usually shagged long before the laces could ever wear out. I bet if you did a survey, there is no demand for training shoe laces: well there will always be one or two I suppose. Incidentally, where can I buy a train spotters coat?
ReplyDeleteAren't most shoes secured by velco nowadays after kids stopped being taught how to tie laces?
ReplyDeleteI have problems several times getting the correct laces for shoes so now try to remember to ask for a couple of spare pairs when buy the shoes. If they do not have any in stock then there is little chance of them having some in a year or so.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience recently but managed to find some laces in the local fishing/hunting shop :S
ReplyDeleteCobblers
ReplyDeleteWoolworths sell them
ReplyDeleteA few months ago I wasted a relatively large chunk of my life looking for a table cloth.
ReplyDeleteOkay I'm a single chap so its not in my genes to know how to go about locating such an item. However I'd say I'm fairly smart and tried all those places that looked like they'd stock a simple square of cloth. You'd think I was asking for a gram of coke or a hooker judging by the dismissive looks I got!
After many hours, my search was rewarded by those jolly nice people at ASDA... which was also fortunate as it was now after 11pm at night.
I swear, next Christmas, dinner is going to be served on newspapers. To hell with it all.
duffessmonplume I haven't worn laces out, I just have blue Airwalks with blue laces and want a set of white/cream laces for them because I am vain.
ReplyDeleteFor God's sake, Dizzy, go to John Lewis. Not only do they have laces and other useful things but they also have staff who are polite, competent and helpful. Leave the shops staffed by 12 year olds for 12 year olds.
ReplyDeleteTry Woolworth's, or a sports shop.
ReplyDeleteAlternatively move to a town that still has old-fashioned cobblers.
Oxbridge Prat said...
ReplyDelete"Timpson's is your friend."
As there's a by-election on, you are now required by law to list the goods or services available from the other 9 candidates. ;-)
You know what this really shows?
ReplyDelete11 years of Labour and children leave school unable to tie their shoelaces. All along Gordon's Vision was Velcro.
I don't know where you can get laces, but if you need some replacement holes I can sell you several sets quite cheaply.
ReplyDeletetry buying a corkscrew from a wine shop
ReplyDeleteCertainly feels like goods variety is getting homogeonised. I've noticed a lot of items disappearing from my local supermarket shelves very recently - typically items that I would normally buy. Give it another few years, I suspect, and all that'll be available is gruel.
ReplyDeleteJohn Lewis. They do laces, tablecloths, and a magical razor tool thing for removing bobbles from cashmere. We are the middle classes, and by our purchases ye shall know us.
ReplyDeleteLots of cobblers where I live but I'm not going to tell. Haven't seen a cordwainer for many years (my grandfather was one, but he was long gone before I arrived).
ReplyDeleteDizzy I'm not sure you can blame Labour for a lack of lace stockists in the high street.
ReplyDeleteThe dumbing down of the high street has been happening for a long time.
The argument would be that we now live in a disposable society so why would you need laces. Buy new trainers instead.
About two years ago I needed some shoes with decent support. Tried all the local shoe shops including Clarks. Not only did they not stock the shoes, they didn't even have a member of staff with any specialist knowledge.
I eventually bought the shoes from a specialist for a small fortune. They are still as good as new and I may soon be faced with the 'laces issue'.
It also easy to suggest going to a local cobblers or middle class department store like John Lewis. But the reality is most of the population are forced to go down the disposable route because they can't afford to go to a specialist. Can't see the Conservatives solving the problem.
My Nikes (which I bought basically to taunt my hippie friends since the shoes were probably made by children or slaves or something) came with two sets of laces in different colours. All the more pointless given that the tongue is attached to the shoe with elastic so the laces are redundant anyway. No student discount, but they gave me a hat.
ReplyDeleteJohnny73 - I was taken the piss!
ReplyDeleteTrainers? Get some proper shoes, you scruffy oik.
ReplyDeleteGo fuck yourself
ReplyDeletePlease refer this query to E. Timpson, Esq. & Son, cobblers to the stars. It has the double benefit of funding the inheritance of a Tory PPC, and who could complain at that?
ReplyDeleteJohn Lewis are superb. And never knowingly undersold which is probably true because often they're the only place that sells the thing you are looking for. Especially if what you're looking for is haberdashery. (cotton and shit, dizzy)
ReplyDeleteWow 30 comments, you have really hit a hot-spot with the spare laces issue.
ReplyDelete