The cruelty of fate!
Also, if you want to shop for shoes elsewhere, there's also Internet shopping. A lot of stores don't carry the unpopular sizes much (like men's <8 and women's >11), but that doesn't mean they're not being made. Sometimes, especially for sports shoes, there's a much wider selection available from the manufacturer's (or some online retailer's) website. Sometimes there's even width variations, too.
Of course, that means you can't try them on, but some sites have very precise measurements, and you can also gauge by trying on other sizes in a store. That'll tell you how proportionally wide, high and long the shoe is.
When I was despaired for shoes, maybe 2-3 years ago, a clerk told me to go to the shoe brand's website, because there I could find shoes that would fit my very thick feet and not be too long (men's 7 Wide). I never did because then I changed to women's shoes and they just so happened to have a pair of women's 9 Wide (a tiny bit too long, but nothing compared to when I had to buy men's 8's or even 9's), and then when I replaced those shoes with what I have now, I got lucky again. 9 Wide, again.
