Footprints the Birkenstock, Dansko, Sanita, Keen, Papillio, Patagonia, Cydwoq Store

Huge Selection - Great Service

10,000 Birkenstocks in stock
Our retail store and mail order business are both operated out of the same building, an old grocery storefront built of limestone in the 1870s. We think this is the best place to buy Birkenstocks in the entire country. We have more than 10,000 pair in stock. We are experts at fitting and have a complete repair shop. We invite you to come in and see our selection. Take your time trying on as many pairs as you would like. Choose the pair that is perfect for you.

Since our mail order customers don't get to try on their purchase, we have a different return policy for them (see test walk). All in store returns must be made within 60 days and accompanied with the receipt. Sale items are for exchange only. When we sell our worn mail order returns at big discounts in the store, they are not returnable.

Humanizing Experience

When I first started in business, my mentor/silent partner, Bill, bless his heart, had three simple rules:

• Love your customer

• Don't worry about your competition: focus on your customer.

• Never get a private office

His basic common sense belied his 4th grade education.

His method of doing business was personal -- a humanizing experience. If you looked after your customers, they would look after you. It was that simple. He passed on some time ago, but his presence is still felt here.

Retailing should be a humanizing experience. It rarely is in what we wishfully call our service economy.Chain stores and big-box discounters dominate. Mom and Pop operations, like ours, are an endangered species in this retail environment.These national chains are flat-out more efficient. Bright management teams create the most cost-efficient methods of selling things. They work the kinks out of their operation and then clone them nationwide. For what the chains lack in genuine personality or humanity, they make up with slick advertising campaigns which create a synthetic familiarity that is somehow more effective than the personal familiarity you have with your locally owned store.

Shopping in these big chain stores is about as personal as a vending machine. Employees can't help but have an "I only work here" attitude. For cost savings (service is expensive), employees are asked to wait on too many people. Customers are processed rather than served. It is dehumanizing to both employees and customers. No one seems responsible. Management is not very accountable to stockholders and distant from its employees. Most stockholders are not committed to the company. They will sell their stock whenever it is in their financial interest.

There is little distance between customers, ownership, and co-workers at Footprints. We are small. We want to enjoy our work. Processing people is taking people for granted. We don't want to lose the human quality of interaction that makes it fun for us to serve you. We don't want to wake up one morning and discover that we have become one of them.

For human relationships to work, everyone needs to take personal responsibility for his or her actions. We have outlined our responsibilities to you throughout this website and our catalog. It is our contract with you. Thank you! It is a joy to serve you.