If you’re still a little confused about the forms of payment accepted at this shoe repair shop, Kate in Seattle says that while she could only capture four signs in this picture, there’s a fifth sign further to the right as well. (That’s the one that clears it up.)
related: as Davy Crockett once said…
196 responses so far ↓
#1
Harry
That’s like today, I saw a couple try to push open some sliding doors(????) and look inside with cupped hands at a store that had a huge CLOSED sign on its door.
Some people…
May 31, 2009 at 11:23 pm rating: 2
#2
Dianne
As silly as five signs sound, I can tell you people don’t read signs. When I worked for Xerox, I’d put huge signs on a dead machine, using “Pulsar Pink” paper (very bright) and people would flip it over, and punch buttons, then aggressively say “WHY DOESN’T THIS WORK!?!” (I would have loved to say “because you’re an idiot?”) but instead I would flip the sign back over and read it to them.
Unfortunately that didn’t go over very well either.
I can can still hear it “What sign?”….
May 31, 2009 at 11:27 pm rating: 33
#3
park rose
Someone should have told Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac about this concept.
May 31, 2009 at 11:28 pm rating: 11
#4
fluffy8u
While others will be focusing on the CASH and CHECKS ONLY signs, Fluffy will be wondering how many signs are posted with the store’s hours. She counts two. Was one missed?
May 31, 2009 at 11:37 pm rating: 4
#5
Canthz_B
DAMN! I need to pay in cash and write a check?!
May 31, 2009 at 11:38 pm rating: 8
#6
TheOldSchool
I’m wondering what days and hours this shop is open.
May 31, 2009 at 11:40 pm rating: 2
#7
fluffy8u
Wait! I can’t read the one top right corner! What does it say?!
May 31, 2009 at 11:42 pm rating: 0
#8
Thanks!
I don’t think they’re truly sorry for any inconveniences they may have caused …
May 31, 2009 at 11:43 pm rating: 2
#9
fluffy8u
You know, I go to a Repeater’s Anonymous every Saturday at noon, they are welcome to come too, if they wish.
May 31, 2009 at 11:47 pm rating: 0
#10
TheOldSchool
What about travelers’ checks? Out of state checks? Third part checks? Cross checks? Body checks?
Houndstooth checks?
May 31, 2009 at 11:52 pm rating: 7
#11
Alie
These signs are probably necessary, at least in southern California I don’t know about other places. A shop is in the stone age if it only accepts cash or check and it’s really infuriating, so to have a giant heads up is nice.
Jun 1, 2009 at 12:00 am rating: 3
#12
Canthz_B
So, what are you trying to say?
Jun 1, 2009 at 12:01 am rating: 3
#13
gretal
I would SO have to buy something and ask “Can I use my credit card? How about my debit card?”
Jun 1, 2009 at 12:06 am rating: 8
#14
Canthz_B
Yes, because new shoes are so expensive that we still frequent the cobbler’s shoppe!
Jun 1, 2009 at 12:10 am rating: 2
#15
TheOldSchool
These shoe repair guys know what they’re doing. It’s one of the oldest retailing tricks.
Make your store look as dumpy as possible. (Like a “mom and pop operation” where mom and pop don’t know a thing about making money — their lives are devoted “solely” to repairing shoes.
You put crude, hand-made signs everywhere. You keep hours that make no sense to a sane person. And you offer NOTHING whatsoever in the way of customer convenience.
And then bilk the suckers who’ve bought into your scheme for whatever amount you feel like charging them.
Jun 1, 2009 at 12:12 am rating: 3
#16
Sarcastraphe
Um… will you guys accept the last chicken from my wife’s dowry in payment for my soy chai?
Jun 1, 2009 at 12:13 am rating: 6
#17
fluffy8u
It’s a shame that we can’t see the 5th sign. Does it very much from the others?
And what’s this 1 picture only thing? Does Kate still live in the age of film rolls and can only spare 1 click? I know they have digital cameras in Seattle.
Jun 1, 2009 at 12:16 am rating: 1
#18
Freddie
And I bet they still get people asking if they take credit/debit cards. People just don’t read.
Jun 1, 2009 at 12:25 am rating: 1
#19
TheOldSchool
Sin taxes should be strangled, mangled, folded, spindled, mutilated, and then served piping hot on toasted prison buns.
(It goes without saying that they should always be placed properly.)
Jun 1, 2009 at 12:38 am rating: 2
#20
booge
I’m guessing this place is a front. You come in, make a joke about paying in “wampum,” “beads,” or “skins,” depending on what you’re interested in, and they show you their other goods. They don’t take plastic to keep the riff raff out.
Jun 1, 2009 at 1:21 am rating: 3
#21
park rose
What a right load of old cobblers.
Jun 1, 2009 at 8:20 am rating: 3
#22
Joe
“…at this time.” WTF? Like their machine is down? And yet they have taken a fair bit of care to protect the signs, implying they will be/have been around for a while?
It’s time this shop joined the freaking 20th century. Then it will only be one behind!
Jun 1, 2009 at 8:45 am rating: 2
#23
claw71
Shoe repair? Sorry but if my chosen vocation is something that lost its relevance 50 years ago I’m taking payment anyway I can get it. That includes raw gemstones, mineral rights, livestock…even Diners Club.
Jun 1, 2009 at 8:46 am rating: 9
#24
Joe
Vibram sounds like a company that makes adult toys.
Jun 1, 2009 at 8:48 am rating: 4
#25
Mishee™
An even better sign from the Quik-Stop in Clerks…
“If you plan to shoplift, please let us know”
Jun 1, 2009 at 8:53 am rating: 6
#26
Meesh
Maybe instead of printing and posting all those signs the owners should just start accepting credit and debit. The girl scout troop in my neighborhood accepts credit cards for crying out loud.
Jun 1, 2009 at 8:55 am rating: 1
#27
aaa
Y’know, I’d believe them more if they used rainbow font and cutesy clipart. I’m not gonna believe that I can’t wheedle my way into using my Visa card until they use a formatting that says that they mean business. I think even some inconsistent justification would cut my number of requests to use credit or debit by half.
Jun 1, 2009 at 11:21 am rating: 3
#28
oi!
Even though you can buy a new pair of shoes at target at half price than we charge you for repairing, we won’t accept cash. NO! We won’t succumb to tyranny of credit card companies and give away even penny from our profit to them. We will file bankruptcy just like GM but we refuse to see current market trends! This is a matter of principle after all.
Jun 1, 2009 at 11:50 am rating: 2
#29
GhostWriter
I’ve loaded the pic into my image interpolation device (a la Blade Runner) and located the 5th sign; to the right, behind a half-filled box of grommets.
“Congratulations – You have just discovered the secret message! Century Bank Cards are OK…”
…but you have to hold a mirror up to the sign to decipher this.
Jun 1, 2009 at 12:43 pm rating: 4
#30
octavius
Well I’m with the cobblers. The times I’ve got stuck behind some dimwit paying a chump change bill with plastic are inumerable. Just carry the cash around, hand it over and get your change FFS. I’m going to have a freaking embolism next time some joker pulls out a concertina size wad of cards, gets their PIN wrong, has to get another card, etc. Either that or go postal, so if this were my local cobbler he’d be doing everyone a favor.
Jun 1, 2009 at 1:45 pm rating: 1
#31
oi!
PAN is getting too popular. People are refraining from writing a PAN worthy note and Kerry has to resort to mediocre note like this.
Jun 1, 2009 at 2:40 pm rating: 2
#32
Delurker
So, I’m confused, will they take my check card?
Jun 1, 2009 at 4:59 pm rating: 0
#33
SARAH
Mmmm… cobbler sounds yummy, especially if it’s a grammatically correct PAN cobbler.
Jun 1, 2009 at 6:51 pm rating: 0
#34
MKAT
Okay, someone had to say it:
“I saw the sign.
And it opened up my eyes,
I saw the sign!”
Jun 1, 2009 at 6:56 pm rating: 2
#35
Kaitertot
Who gets their shoes repaired?
This is America. After the tenth time we’ve worn the same pair, we simply throw them away and buy new ones. With credit cards.
A shoe repair shop, hahaha…
Jun 2, 2009 at 2:14 am rating: 0
#36
raiseyourglass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujXN_jNSwKg
Jun 2, 2009 at 5:29 pm rating: 0
#37
Laumie
Dude. Having worked in retail, and having having had our credit machines go down for a week once, I can safely say that they needed at least four more signs to get the point across.
And even then, people would still ask if they took credit/debit cards.
Jun 3, 2009 at 12:45 am rating: 0
#38
Alien8
Dude, so you will accept this postdated, two-party out of state check, and not my debit/credit card? Then I need twice as much fireworks/whippets/etc
Jun 4, 2009 at 12:40 am rating: 0
#39
skekzok
Inorite? Where I work we have our hours of operation along with what cards we take displayed in no less than seven places! In some cases, right next to each other. We have had the same hours for years. No one has a clue what cards we take or what our hours are.
Jun 4, 2009 at 1:13 pm rating: 0
#40
Jinx
Ok… They don’t take credit cards or debit cards, but checks they take? I wonder how many bounced checks they recieve? I don’t even know any stores that take checks anymore.
Jun 8, 2009 at 2:14 pm rating: 0
#41
George the Girl
Where I work we have lots of big neon signs stating the same thing and people still try to hand us cards…very sad to imagine people that blind and unobservant driving!
Jun 17, 2009 at 3:58 pm rating: 0
#42
Jackie
There have been many of time where I just wanted to put the same sign up, all over the place at work.
And to label where to order, and where to pick up your order.
We have a second register, that is RARELY used, that always says closed on it. People would still line up behind this register, so we put a very large sign over the register, saying it was closed, and to move down to the other one.
We constantly get people lining up at the pick up counter, and the closed register with a huge sign over it.
I constantly just want to shake the shit out of every dumb ass who lines up where signs tell them not to.
So I understand why the have 5 signs up.
Jun 18, 2009 at 4:41 pm rating: 0
#43
tom
I know this place, and let me tell you that that guy is an AMAZING asshole. He used to have only one of the signs up, and it was hard to see when he was behind the counter standing in front of the thing. A friend of mine had a repair done, attempted to pay with a card and was told he took cash only. There were no other customers anywhere near the place and it was early afternoon- well before closing time. She excused herself to literally cross the street and get cash from an ATM, and a couple of minutes later, when she returned, he told her the price had gone up five dollars for “wasting his time”. He’s called “The Shoe Nazi” around here and I tell everyone to go to another repair shop the next town over. Once they hear this and a couple of other anecdotes about this bastard, they thank me.
Jun 26, 2009 at 7:37 pm rating: 1
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