Fleet Feet Davis — Local services in Davis

I'm a late septuagenarian with bad feet and arthritis, and good shoes are essential for my main exercise: walking. The last pair I got at Fleet Feet seemed good enough when I bought it, but after a few days problems developed. Instead of returning it I kept wearing it thinking they will get better, until I thought it was too late to return them. I had to get another shoe if I didn't want to totally cripple myself. At the store, a young lady, named Whitney, came to help me. To make a long story short, she brought out lots of shoes for me to try on, and what impressed me most was that instead of giving me advice, she listened to me, to what my problem was with each new pair I tried on, and the next one she brought out diminished that problem, until finally she got me a pair that seemed perfect in every respect. When I told her my hesitation, worrying how the shoe will fit in a couple of weeks, she strongly encouraged me to bring it back if any problem developed. In fact, she checked on the store's computer how long ago I bought the previous shoe, and as it turned out it was still within the 90 days limit for returning them, she took them back and took off their price from the price of the new shoes. Now, a couple of weeks later, the shoes she found me feel even more comfortable, my posture, gait and speed improved, the callouses from the old shoes are healing. Thank you Whitney for your expertise...

Problems with their coordination of special order inventory.

If you have unusual feet (I wear size 15), you may be better off ordering through Zappos. I had to keep coming back to Fleet Feet because they'd misplaced part of my order, or ordered the wrong size, or ordered a substitute product without explaining to me why.

No one in the store took ownership of these repeated issues or apologized to me for them. When they ordered a substitute set of arches without notifying me beforehand, I was told flatly and unsympathetically, "They don't make the other kind in your size." Okay, that's fine, but why wasn't I notified of that before the order was placed?

They appear to have problems coordinating these special orders among all of their employees, who aren't always working in the store at the same time. They need a better way to track and verify these special orders and the communication that is being given to the customer regarding their status.

As an avid runner, I was initially excited to be supporting a local running establishment, but after having to go back to the store 4 times now, I think in the future I will go with Zappos instead; their shipping is faster and they have never...

After a very thorough scan of my feet they were determined to be statistical outliers in terms of length (quite small), width (very wide), and arch height (literally off the charts). Rather than shun me as a strange micro hobbit footed weirdo they instead brought every wide width tiny shoe they had available. This was unsuccessful (we were dealing with statistically unlikely dimensions, not exactly a shoemakers dream) but they persisted. Ultimately they ordered three different pairs in sizes they don't usually carry which arrived 2 days later. The persistence paid off. When I came in again after the shoes arrived I tried all three pairs and found a winner. Then I got to buy the most comfortable work shoes I've ever owned (technically they're running shoes, but I don't run. I do stand, walk, lift, carry, arrange and assist far too many hours a day). I've come back at least once a year every year since this first visit to buy a new pair of shoes. It is one of the few times I don't even bother trying to find a bargain somewhere. The bargain Fleet Feet offers is fewer anti-inflammatories, trips to the doctor, and less foot, ankle, knee, and back pain. I think it's...