By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Men's night at Red Shoe Jewelry &Apparel is a result of Meg Truesdell helping her father Christmas shop.
For years, Meg said her dad, Terry, would walk into The Peacock in Eastgate Shopping Center and allow the women at the store to pick out gifts for his wife, Judy.
"They knew what she liked, they knew her sizes and they just gave him what she wanted," Meg said. "When they closed he was paralyzed, and so he recruited me."
Since that time, and for about the last 15 years, Meg said she has accompanied her dad to pick gifts out for her mother. And, as a result of those holiday shopping trips, Meg said she figured there had to be a better way for men and young boys to buy gifts for their wives, girlfriends and mothers.
Men's night can't work without the women, who come in weeks before a holiday and make a gift list of items they would like from Red Shoe Jewelry &Apparel, 216 E. Main St. Then, on the Thursdays before Christmas and Valentine's Day, the men visit the store and munch on shrimp and meatballs and enjoy refreshments while picking items off their lady's gift list. And, they can also wait while the presents are gift wrapped for free.
"I just wait to see it advertised," said Ken Working of Niles, a returning men's night shopper at Red Shoe, and who, like Meg's dad, used to let the women at The Peacock do the shopping for his wife.
A series of men's nights will be held before Valentine's Day, and Meg said she will have a kid's night leading up to Mother's Day.