Would you buy shoes in a department store?

I visited the department store today. I won't say which one. I won't say which country. I don't need to because they are all the same, it seems.

Being a serial shoe voyeur I can never resist walking past any place selling shoes. So I snuck a peak. Depression oozed into my consciousness. An empty feeling started in my gut sapped any enthusiasm I had towards the shoes. Why?

No body here cares about the shoes. They are strewn around the place in rows. No one wants to talk to me. Is there even anyone on this floor? The prices are clearly marked but no one wants to explain to me why shoes similar in appearance have vastly different prices. There is no information to digest. There are no stories. There aren't even many photographs to look at. Just labels, and prices and shoes.

It is so obvious that no one around here really cares about shoes that I don't even want to ask an assistant for more information about particular styles. I know she won't know, and worse, I know she won't care. She just wants me to serve myself to some "stuff".

If I was going to buy shoes, beautiful shoes, shoes that make me feel like a million bucks...I wouldn't buy them in a department store. Even if I could. Would you?