Recently, I went shopping for my friend to get a pair
of sandals. She couldn’t make it to Abuja on time and she needed quite urgently.
After some cajoling (not so much- I am a gooooood friend :)), I went off to check
for the kind of pumps she wanted and my oh my! The kind of shoes, sandals and
footwear that beheld my eyes. I won’t get ahead of myself so I’ll backtrack a
little.
She wanted black six inch heeled sling back sandals with a
sexy flowery pattern up front. This was what she wanted:
Or at least something close to it. So I went to the blue and green plaza at wuse 2 to start my
search. I searched all the boutiques and shoe shops from top to bottom at the plaza. What did I get? Nothing.
Besides ludicrous prices, most of the shoes were not so appealing;especially
the kind I was looking for. This was the only one worth photographing:
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| Forgive the picture quality of all the pictures in this post. |
But my friend said no.
So I left the blue and green plaza and with hope still
resounding in my insides proceeded to Banex and scouted most of the shops
there. At least, I got sandals that looked almost like my “prototype” but still
not what I wanted.
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| She didn't mind this one but it was a size small. |
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| Front view |
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This was a perfect size but not exactly what she wanted.
|
I put a lock down on one of them and then proceeded to the
mother of all markets- Wuse Market.
I
think I went to 50 stalls or a hundred, seriously. And this was the most
dramatic and tiring part of my day. In all of that market, I didn’t see any
sandal that looked a little like what I was showing them. And this was the amazing
part! I would show them the picture of the sandal, and my igbo brother (no vex o;they were the people I met) would say, “Sister,
chill. I get this shoe. Just wait” then he would bring like 10 shoes or sandals that did
not in any way look like what I had showed him.
Still trying to make a sale, he
would say, “Ok, wait, make I show you another one. My brother get am”. So I
would wait and he would bring different sets of shoes that did not remotely look
like what I had showed him. One desperate seller took me to about 5 shoes
alone. At that point, I began taking the pictures of the shoes and sending them
to my friend just so she could see what I was seeing. I deleted most but here are
some of the pictures I took of the different shoes and sandals my eyes were
forced to devour:
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| Does this look like what was I had showed them? |
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| Front view |
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| Not bad but not what was wanted! |
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| The guy said, "This na mature shoe;na only children dey wear shoe with flower" |
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| Ok o...Front view |
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| "Sister, this one get flower na" |
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| "You too black sef to wear black, this one go bring out your colour." really? |
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| The MOTHER of all shoes! Spikes ooo! |
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| I just have to put in a second picture to emphasize the MOTHER of all shoes. Spikeyshoezilla! I felt like destroying this one- on Sight! |
After saying , “Never!”, “What
is this?”, “No!”, “People actually sell this?”, she commanded me to leave the
market. I think I spent 3 hours in the market scouting for those sandals. Those people had succeeded in draining me of all my energy. I couldn't even check other places; I just went home and we settled on the black sandals with a lace sole and heel. We got that at Banex and it was quite affordable.
Feel free to share you annoying or frustrating shopping experiences!
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