Loss of Equity

At the risk of going all reachoutandtouchthescreen on you, I'm going to blog about shoes now.

Some time ago I realised I really really needed to replace the boring navy office shoes that I'd had re-heeled twice since I decided they needed replacing. I located a stockist of similar shoes in Didsbury - not the closest, but a small shop, which I preferred to support in this economic climate.

I can highly recommend Arnout's family shoes, both for the excellent customer service and their stock of quality shoes.

Much of their stock comes from Equity, who employ about 150 skilled people in Leicester. All their office shoes are manufactured in England, and I'm told by Mr and Mrs Arnout that it's a workers co-operative. Well, it was, but the reason the subject came up is that they say it's going to cease trading, not because it doesn't sell a million high quality british-made shoes a year, but because their pension deficit is increasing, partly because Flash Gordon: saviour of the world quietly removed the tax credit on pension dividends a few years ago, and partly because the credit crunch has made their investments shrink.

So there you have it, discover an excellent source of wide-fitting shoes, lose it all at the same time. 

During the course of the conversation, Mrs Arnout mentioned that another plus point to Equity was that their ladies boots were also built for real women. Now, I gave up even bothering to try on knee-high boots many years ago, after I worked out that all such boots were made for people with the legs of an anorexic twelve-year old. And, if the company's not going to be making them in the future, it would be daft not to even try them on, wouldn't it?

I have gorgeous boots. They make me happy. And they're doubly precious, since they will most likely be completely irreplaceable.