Shoe rip-off

There are various things that shops and companies appear to be doing to help parents through tough economic times - admittedly, so we do our shopping with them - but a very well known chain of shoe shops does not, I am afraid, purport to be one of them.

The other weekend just before my nephew's christening, our son had a shoe emergency. Or rather we couldn't find his shoes - we'd left them at his friend's birthday party in a field while he'd returned in his Thomas the Tank Engine wellies.

To save him going to church in his smart attire with said Thomas the Tank Engine wellies, with barely an hour to go to the service, I dashed to the nearest supermarket and bought him a new pair of smart shoes for a tenner. Brilliant.

'Thank you, Daddy,' he said happily when I gave them to him. 'Next time can I have Jack Nano shoes like...'

And he reeled off three names of his classmates.

Now I have to say I didn't know what on earth he meant. He may as well have given me a title of a long lost Mozart symphony. In Italian. I would have been none the wiser.

But I thought no more about it until last week the wife called to say our daughter had needed a new pair of shoes and so she'd taken both kids to the expensive shoe shop to get their feet measured.

Shoe alert, shoe alert, I thought to myself. Then I calmed down. It's good, as my wife pointed out, to get their feet measured properly once in a while even if the shoes do end up costing - gulp - £25 a pair.

But then she mentioned something that sounded vaguely familiar. Jack Nano. Was it a title of a little known Mozart symphony? In Italian? No, shoes remember... And then I got it. It was what my son had asked for after I'd got him the supermarket shoes.

My wife explained further. They are, apparently the most popular brand of kids shoes at the moment because there's a little compartment with a toy in the back...

Yeah, yeah, I thought. Very clever. How much.

...all the kids in the playground have them...

Yeah, yeah, but how much have their parents shelled out for them?

...The kids are really pleased to be part of the shoe gang now...

Yeah, yeah, I am sure they are. BUT HOW MUCH DID THEY COST?

Finally the wife got on to mentioning the price.

'It was quite painful, actually,' she said. 'I can't bring myself to tell you. But they're happy...'

Of course she knew that would be enough to appease me where they were concerned. She also knew I could go and check our bank account online to see how much they had cost.

£28? £30? £35?

Nope. £36. For a pair of shoes with a toy in the back.

At the weekend my son proudly showed off his shoes to me and I got a glimpse of his treasured toy. It was a little figure of a man whose head came off, intentionally. The sort of toy you'd expect to find in a Kinder egg, not in the back of a shoe that has come at an £11 premium. For that price I'd have expected a game for his Nintendo DS in the back of his shoe.

Jeez.

What's more he almost left behind little headless man at another party. I had to go back to the soft play centre to retrieve him. Thank you, I said gratefully to the staff member who'd found it, nearly adding how it cost the price of two entrance fees to their venue.

It's crazy.  I just feel sorry for the parents who really can't afford to fork out this kind of money for shoes, but end up doing so because they don't want their kids to feel left out in the playground. In fact, it makes me angry that the shoe manufacturers and shops feel it is ok to charge so much extra on what are already very expensive - and what's more non-VAT qualifying - kids' shoes.

The wife reckons they are well made and will last the year.

Oh will they, will they really, I think in my best Basil Fawlty voice.

Well, I will be watching, to make sure that they do. But I am afraid I don't give the toy in the back until Christmas.