Shoe Sales, Shoe Sales

First, I must state the obvious. This is the only time in four years that a blog post will have this date on it. Happy Leap Year! Also, I had to move to Brazil to actually meet someone who has a birthday on this day, one of my husband’s coworkers. Okay, on to the post…

I often read travel reviews online before heading off to someplace new. Recently I read one for a city in Brazil that we were planning to visit. Within the review a woman wrote, “Around the corner were more shoe stores than you have ever seen in your life.”

As soon as I read that my first thought was - yep, that sums up shopping in Brazil. Shoes, shoes, shoes. Brazilians, especially the women, love their shoes.

They are everywhere and the displays are huge. Store window upon store window is devoted to shoes and only shoes. Even some of the stores who also sell clothes only have shoes in the windows. They are stacked far and wide for all to see the popular styles. Most are sparkling with high heels and lots of straps. They blow away any Shoe Carnival or Famous Footwear window display I’ve every seen.

I am definitely a shoe person, but I think I need to clarify. I am a bargain person as well. You will not open my closet to find 50 pairs of designer boots. What you will find is about 50 pairs of sandals and flip-flops ranging from about $3 - $20 a pair, most closer to that $3 end.

I love me some Steve Madden's and a few other known brands, but they would have to be on mega-sale for me to buy them. Not being a designer girl means I get to travel a lot and that is just fine with me. I’d rather see lots of places than wear lots of things.

With all the heat here comes lots and lots of sandals. This is bad news for me and I do have to practice some self-control. Especially right now when the season is changing to fall and they are all on sale – very on sale.

Benefiting me is the fact that I have never actually gone into the stores to shop for the shoes. This makes the window displays extra helpful. I know my size here, but I’ve never gone in alone to try on a pair. I’m not sure I could communicate what I needed. A perfect example of how the language barrier works in my (and our bank accounts) favor.

So if you are interested in shoes, visit Brazil. They are everywhere, in every city I’ve been to so far. I’m convinced they are the reason that Brazilian women need the excessively big, 2-3 suitcases when they are traveling through Sao Paulo’s airport. I’m sure if one were to be opened it would be overflowing with shoes.