The Monumental First Purchase, AKA Why Pay More?

(Aren't these cute??? Aren't they NECESSARY?)

I came up with the idea for this economic/sociological experiment at the Payless in West Saint Paul. Why had I hauled my cookies all the way out there? (By the way, for those of you NOT from the St. Paul area, WSP is not even remotely west of St. Paul. It's actually southeast. My people are directionaly challenged.) Apparently, all the size 6.5 shoes in the world live at that Payless and no other. Thus, off I went.

I was there to try on two pairs of slip-on white sneaker clogs. I have been looking for the perfect pair all summer to no avail. Last year, the stores were lousy with them, but I didn't WANT them last year. I want them NOW. Sigh.

One of the pairs was $6, the other was $22.99. Guess which one looked cuter? And it hit me while I was vacillating between the two - I can't buy the cuter ones and still only spend $20 per item. What to do?

When I told the cute shopkeepers my dilemma, in true Payless tradition, they had THE perfect solution. Buy two pairs. Why? Because it's BOGO y'all! Buy one pair (or purse, or whatever) and get the second pair HALF OFF. So, with the second pair being dramatically less than $20, I would reduce the overall cost of both pairs to the $20 or less marker.

They are geniuses at Payless, truly.

So, I bought two pairs. Now, common sense tells us that it would have been better and cheaper for me to buy just the one pair at $22.99, instead of two pairs at $34.48, but sense be damned! I got two pairs of cute shoes for less than $20 a pair! I RULE at this! Or maybe I just have a shoe fetish.