Why it is two weeks in October and four days in June

Every autumn the same thing happens. The first cold morning arrives, half the county goes to the back of the wardrobe, and everybody discovers at once that last year’s boots need heels. Nine hundred pairs of shoes do not care that they were all remembered on the same Tuesday.

So the times below are seasonal and they are honest. The number on your paper ticket is the one we expect to hit, not the one that gets you out of the door happy.

Belts, holes, small stitching

while you wait

Heel tips and top pieces

2 days

Rubber half sole and heel

4 days, June · 9 days, October

Full leather sole, welted

9 days, June · 3 weeks, October

Zips, boot or bag

1 week, plus ordering

Bag straps in matched leather

2 weeks

Anything we have to talk about first

we ring you before starting

What the ticket actually promises

It promises that the work will be finished on or before that date, and that if it will not be, you hear from us beforehand rather than when you turn up. That second half is the part most shops skip and it is the part that matters, because a wasted drive is worse than a slow repair.

It does not promise that we started it the day you left it. Work goes in the order it came in, with two exceptions: a job that is genuinely quick gets slotted between the slow ones, and anyone who tells us they are travelling on a specific date gets moved. Say so at the counter and it costs nothing.

Rushing

There is no rush charge, because there is no rush service. Leather glue takes the time it takes and a sole that goes on wet lifts in a month, which we know because we have done it. If a wedding is on Saturday, ring on the Monday and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.

Collecting

Finished work sits on the shelf for ninety days with your ticket on it. After that it moves to the back, and after a year it goes to whoever will wear it, which is the arrangement written on the ticket itself. In eighty years the shop has never thrown away a repaired pair of shoes, but the shelf is only so long.

Not sure where yours is up to? Ring 816 555 0162 with the number off the ticket. It takes about twenty seconds to look at the rack.

Last & Awl is an invented shop made to show a page design. Every time, price and figure above is illustrative and describes no real business.