I've edited the above to clarify the issue in GP's shoes example was meant to be about the previous return being stained with socks in the box, not just that it was shoes in general.

> Due to having extremely wide feet, in shoes that don't specifically have a wide option, my shoes can be anywhere from an 8.5 to a 10, depending on the manufacturer and style.

As someone with wide feet, I don’t buy shoes unless they specifically have width options. It’s not particularly easy to do unless you really like traditional men’s leather shoes and boots, but there are some athletic shoe makers that offer wide width shoes (NB and Hoka for sure).

Even given all of the above, I still own shoes in 3-4 different sizes because shoe sizes are not standardized between makers, like you said.