This is a cross post from my other blog, Uncommon Cents, which is about personal finance:

I’m a runner. I’m not great at it by any means, but I do it. In fact, I just finished my third race of the year, the Great Aloha Run, even though I didn’t do as well in it as I hoped.

When you’re a runner, you need to change shoes pretty frequently. Shoes can be pretty expensive; my running partner at work spends about $90 when the Asics she likes are on sale. Changing two to three times a year is an expensive proposition.

I settled on Avia for running shoes awhile back, although lots of my friends are liking Asics. My Avias are about on their last legs, so it was time for a new pair–and in fact, my work shoes, a pair of black Nike high tops, are also about to give out.

So off I went to Ross Dress for Less, where I was lucky to find a new pair of Avias as well as a pair of Asics in my size; I bought both, and the Asics will be my new work shoes (I find it useful to have work shoes I can run in if necessary). The two pair were about $50.

A lot less than the close to $200 they’d be otherwise.

Granted, the folks at Ross are not experts on running–in fact, they’re probably not expert on any of their merchandise at all, since they are often liquidating items they may never see again. But as usual, careful shoppers who know what they’re looking for can do quite well at a discount store.

I’m really happy with my new Avias. Went for one run with them already and will do another on Sunday.