participating in that #oneforone movement

i love shoes.  i mean, who doesn't?  even when you're out shopping and can't find anything good that  you like, or when nothing else fits right, you can always find at least one pair of great shoes.  well, i suppose handbags fit that description too, but i'm not trying to talk about bags right now.

anyway, i'd heard about a toms warehouse sale happening this weekend at the fairplex, which is really just a 10-minute drive for us.  i've heard lots of great things about this sale from previous years, but i'd never made it out after seeing pictures of long lines and posts from annoyed customers about said lines.  the prices always looked pretty good from what i could tell, but i'm getting too old and crotchety to deal with crazy crowds like that for sales anymore.

but when the old lady got home from work on saturday, she suggested that we hit it up.  and after i checked out the facebook page for the sale and found lots of people reporting that the sale was much more organized and less hectic this time around, we hopped into the car and headed over.

we had to fork over $10 for parking, which is always a bummer, but there was no way around it and i really wanted to pick up some new shoes for the bean.  have i mentioned, by the way, that she and i are somehow fitting into the same shoe size these days?  yikes.

it was weird to drive through the same areas that not even a month ago had been occupied by booths and games and rides and things for the l.a. county fair.  but it was nice to get to park way up front and close to expo building 4, where the sale was being held.

and facebook didn't lie - there wasn't much of a line to get onto the sales floor at all.  we walked right in, snagged our wristbands, and headed right on in.

the prices were indeed pretty good.

we were given a 45-minute period to shop, and they would call out a wristband color over the loudspeaker when it was time to head up to the checkout lanes.  there were indeed an assload of shoppers milling about, browsing from the boxes that were arranged by size, but it was manageable.

that's not to say that it wasn't all just ever so slightly overwhelming, though.

there were women's shoes:

men's shoes:

kids' shoes:

and even itty-bitty tiny shoes.

i mean, look at how adorable these things are.  i can't even remember the bean's feet being small enough to fit into these.

they had bags and eyewear and t-shirts too, all for a fraction of the original retail prices.

when we'd loaded up our bags with the pieces that caught our eye, we headed towards the checkout area.  there was a process to this, as detailed on this sign:

and there were lots of these reminders posted everywhere.  it was on you to make sure that you had a left and a right shoe with matching sizes, and once you checked out there was no going back.

so first, a staffer went through your picks to separate them all by type, re-bag them and close it with a zip tie.  then you were handed this slip of paper to take to the registers, which were separated based on whether you were paying with cash or card.

it really was very well organized, and the wait wasn't very long to get through it all.  on the way out, we stopped for a quick photo op:

and then we happily exited expo building #4 with loot bags firmly in hand.

here's my haul - just one pair each of wedges and flats for me, a pair of slip-ons, flip-flops and lace-ups for the bean.  not pictured: a pair of slip-ons i picked up for my co-leader and a sweet pair of sparkly pink shoes for a friend's baby.

seven pairs of shoes, just under $200.  not bad.  looks like they do this every year around this time, so i'm thinking we'll most likely be back, $10 parking and all.