Carrie Jernigan was doing some last-minute shopping before her trip with her children at a Payless ShoeSource near their home in Alma, Arkansas, and she just realized she’d soon take home more than 1,500 pairs of footwear.
“What have I done?” the lawyer of 37, mom of three, tells us she was initially thinking to herself.
It was possible because Payless ShoeSource announced it was closing all its stores throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico at the beginning of February. This happened twice in the two years that the company had filed for bankruptcy, the latest casualty of what’s been described over time as the “retail apocalypse.”
Sales
Jernigan was enjoying the massive sales in May when her 9-year-old daughter asked if they could purchase Avengers tennis footwear for a friend who required an upgrade. Inspired by the gesture of generosity, Jernigan jokingly asked the store clerk what the cost would be to purchase the whole shop. A few hours later, she bought over 350 shoes to donate.
“We made a deal to buy almost all [that] was left on the shelves,” she declares.
When she returned to pick up her shoes, she discovered that a new shipment was arriving days before the store was scheduled to close. When her children asked to have them, she advised them that they could check to see if they had any shoes for children.
“Of course, the first box I opened was JoJo Siwa shoes,” she mentions, referring to the hugely popular Nickelodeon star. “Pink glitter was everywhere.”
When all was completed and dusted, Jernigan was able to take home almost $21,000 worth of items, which she snatched from the retailer’s sale blowout. She’s planning to donate approximately 1,100 pairs of shoes to children and local schools and then present the rest of her boots to those in need.
The local school board’s president Jernigan is aware of how many parents struggle to pay for school supplies, not to mention new shoes, to provide their youngsters with shoes. When she realized she was carrying way more than she needed for school and decided to put them off for a couple of months and plan a back-to-school fundraiser.
“I wanted these kids to have brand new shoes for the start of school,” she says.
The church of the community and local companies have offered to be involved and donate money to the Kickstarter she launched, aiming to supply a range of back-to-school equipment for families.
“It’s just becoming a huge community effort,” she declares.
Jernigan hopes that in addition to helping families in need, the event will increase awareness of how expensive school supplies can be and encourage others to donate.
