How to buy high heels you can actually walk in!

I'm a kitten heel fan myself, but I have to admit, higher heels are sexy and fun to wear every now and then. They're also trendy, and pretty much all you'll see in shoe departments this coming fall season. So the other day, when I hit a blow-out, 70-percent-off, shoe sale in a local department store, I couldn't resist trying on a few cute pairs of three-to-four inches (anything over three inches can cause back and other problems, so these are not for everyday wear!).
When I asked the shoe salesman for the mates to those I pulled off the rack, he gave me some great tips that helped me make some surprisingly comfy choices:

Take a hike. He encouraged me to walk around the shoe department—but not just on the cushy carpeting. He told me to go to the harder marble floor surrounding the shoe area because that would be a truer test of the shoe's comfort. For every pair I tried on, I hiked off the rug and all around the hard surface floor. It made a huge difference in how the shoe felt on my foot.

Skip the stilettos. He steered me away from the thin-heeled stiletto pumps I had clutched in my hand, and encouraged me to try on some heels with chunkier heels and wedges, which offer more stability. Again, he was right. I wobbled around the floor in the skinny-heeled pumps, but found those with thicker heels to be more fluid and "floatier" to walk in.

Wiggle your  toes. One key to good fit for any shoe  is having enough room in the toe box. He told me that if I couldn't wiggle my toes, to put the shoes back on the rack.

Save the heels. Living in New York City, I do a lot of walking, which is hard on high heels. The pair I bought came with heel replacements. You can also buy these little plastic heel savers online and do it yourself, or have your shoemaker put them on for you.  

Cut them down. Too high a heel can be trimmed down to a more comfortable height by a good shoemaker. You can’t turn a four-incher into a kitten heel, but a pro can trim off about a half inch to make a heel slightly shorter.

Make them comfier.  If your new shoes feel a little snug once you get them home, my helpful shoe salesman suggested this DIY shoe stretcher: Dampen—don't soak—some athletic socks, pull them on, then put on your new shoes and spend a few hours in them watching TV or reading a book. Take them off, let them dry out, and the shoe should widen a bit. If still not comfy enough, repeat the same steps another night.