Best deal of 2008!

I can safely say that this was my best shopping find for 2008!!! A pair of "cnu" rubber clogs for $1 at Claire's. I have been looking to buy a new pair for my daughter who had outgrown her size 12/13 "cnu" rubber clogs. I haven't been able to bring myself to pay $29.99 for a pair of Crocs for my kids yet, but I do like these plastic shoes, so I stick with the imitations.

I had discovered the "cnu" brand of rubber clogs (you can see the logo at the back of the heel) at Winner's, a Canadian TJ Maxx, last year in Vancouver. At the time, I bought them for $9.99/pair and I thought I got a great deal. My kids wore these on our Alaskan cruise and then everywhere they went afterwards, except to school and on raining days.

These "cnu" rubber clogs lasted a whole year. I've been looking to replace them until I came across the same "cnu" brand at Claire's. Claire's is an accessories store frequented by tweens and young girls. http://claires.com/index.asp.

This Claire's had 2 rack full of $10 for 10 items sale. On one of the racks were these "cnu" rubber clogs. I had to double check with the sales clerk to verify that these "cnu" clogs were indeed $1 per pair. Needless to say, I bought a pair for every child in my family (and extended families). Now, my son wears an army-green pair and my daughter wears a purple version of the pink clogs shown above.

Claire's sells these croc-imitations for $8.50 regular price and they do get marked down to $4.25 eventually. The $1/pair price was a special markdown.

Except for the Croc insignia at the strap juncture, the cnu rubber clogs look identical to the basic Crocs.

Crocs and other similar plastic sandals are made from a material called polyethylene (PE) resin. At this point, it probably makes more sense (and more profitable) to buy shares of stocks of companies that makes PE resin than to buy Crocs.