She knew that there was a backstory, because every shopper has  a backstory

This is a tale of two shoppers.

The first shopper is Me.

Me needed shoes. For Me’s kids. Me has been needing shoes for her kids at least twice a year for enough years to know that this need is no simple need. Me fantasized and fretted, calculated and dreaded.

Me knew what she was in for, and Me made many phone calls, clipped many ads, peeked in many store windows, and browsed many websites as the season of Buying New Shoes dawned. Me was determined to get shoe shopping done with the least necessary time wasted, headache inflicted, and money spent.

Me started the process. She ordered shoes from Amazon and returned them. She listened closely to the experiences of fellow shoe shoppers, gleaned nuggets of insight about which stores carried what and for how much. Me even made pilot trips to shoe stores — solo pilot trips — to scout the turf. In short, Me did everything in the effort to acquire the many pairs of shoes she needed to acquire, everything but the obvious: take the kids to the shoe store.

But as the season advanced — not the season in which the shoes were meant to be worn, obviously; the season of purchasing, which is totally unrelated — Me’s shoe shopping anxiety got the better of her and she took the first real, tentative (last-season-shoe-clad) step toward acquiring shoes.

Me went to a shoe store. With one kid. A baby. During school hours, when there was no line. Me was out the door in under eight minutes, feeling smug.