feel the distinct lack of width

Despite the assistance of a very helpful shoe-vending-shop employee at lunchtime and a slightly less helpful shoe-vending shop employee slightly later at lunchtime and the complete disinterest of a couple more shoe-vending shop employees on the way home which didn't matter as their poxy shop didn't have anything useful in anyway I am no further forward in achieving trainer-replacement than I was on Sunday afternoon. It's almost enough to make you want to stop looking at price tags and grip patterns before asking if they have something in the right size, though not quite; half the problem is the speed with which grip is worn away so if something appears to have a sole made from rubber of roughly the same firmness as a pencil eraser it's not going to last long, especially when the bit in the middle of the heel-grip area is taken up not by grip but by some stupid easily-puncturable thing indicating the stupid name given to the particular bubble-incorporation system employed by that manufacturer. Whatever I end up with, one of my current pair is getting sent back to the manufacturer with a load of bits of string tied to luggage labels attached to the fault areas pointing out the few persistent flaws in their otherwise comfortable and wide-enough design, and apologising for the smell.