[El Diablo]

Chip: Exactly. I'll often have a pair or two of shoes that I don't care about and trash pretty good. It's when I wear these shoes into the store that these guys often take that condescending attitude about shoe treatment. They are oh so polite and nice and helpful, but I know what they are thinking. I'm good at reading people like that.

Al: Actually, the woman was not a bitch, she was quite nice and just being helpful with the sanding shoe trees comment, I just stuck that in there cuz I thought the very thought of sanding shoe trees was hilarious. It was another salesperson who clearly had some issues w/ my devil-may-care attitude regarding shoe care. Anyway, go in w/ some torn up or crappy shoes and you'll find out how snobby people can be. Or go in wearing some cheap clothes into the high-end designer section.

Boris: It's not about upselling. It's about some salespeople feeling like they are better and more deserving of wearing this sort of stuff than their customers. This is not really an issue for me these days, but when I was younger it was quite common.

dj: See above, that part was mainly just comic relief. The saleswoman was actually quite nice and very helpful, resulting in a nice sale for her.

td and others: I agree 100% re: treating service people just like any other people, and I definitely believe in the old adage that you can tell a lot about people by how they treat service staff. I always get tons of great stuff like free upgrades on planes, at hotels, lots of extra service at bars/restaurants, etc., just because I am friendly and treat people with respect. It's pretty common that I'll be jumped to the front of the line by a bellman at a casino or hotel if I've stayed there a couple of times just because I naturally do stuff like say "Thank you" when someone opens a door for me. Stuff like that gets remembered a lot more than a couple extra bucks in tips (I do tip well as well, though).

turnip: Seeing that specific thing occur relatively recently is what actually had me generally irritated about this stuff. I really, really can't stand it when people who are paying what is really a lot of money for them to have a certain type of experience are patronized, sometimes seemingly looked down upon, by staff.

tbg: Exactly!

phb: I think that "first time here" question is valid at places where there's some non-standard thing, like everything is family style or you can opt to do either entrees or shared small plates or whatever. At many restaurants, I agree, it is just plain stupid.

ytf: OK, here are the shoes I currently own that I can think of (I'll probably miss a couple):

Nike running shoes - for running
Nike tennis shoes - for playing tennis
2 pairs Nike cross-training generic sneakers - just for walking around, going to the park, going to the gym, whatever.
Adidas sambas - for indoor soccer and walking around
Adidas copas - cleats for soccer
Nike soccer cleats - gift I don't really use
Adidas sandals - mainly for before/after soccer, also pool, etc.

Brown shoes (Rockports or something) - just standard nice casual brown shoes
Brown hiking boots - generally for snowboarding trips plus of course the occassional hike

Onitsuka Tigers - casual sneakers that are appropriate for going out in
Adidas casual "walking around" shoes - same function as Tigers

Rugged Black boots (Kenneth Cole or some other mid-range brand) - good for crap bars, concerts, etc., where they are likely to get beer spilled on them and crap.

To Boot New York laceup black dress shoes - nice pair of business/dress black shoes
Allen Edmonds black slip on dress shoes - another nice pair of business/dress black shoes
To Boot New York laceup black dress shoes - third pair of standard business/dress black shoes

Mezlan patent leather shoes - generally worn w/ tux

So, that's 17 pairs I can think of. There are probably another couple of pairs that I don't really wear. Guess that makes me 100% gay in your book. I, however, don't think it's weird at all that I have multiple pairs in three distinct categories of shoes - athletic shoes, casual shoes, and dressy shoes. In fact, come to think of it, I could probably use a pair of nice brown dress shoes.