Troubled discount footwear chain Payless Shoesource may want to change its name.

The privately held Topeka, Kansas-based shoe seller executed the reverse of a bait-and-switch operation recently with a luxury influencer event held in Santa Monica, California.

Payless took over a former Armani store, renamed the retail location as "Palessi" and stocked the outlet with its discount-priced boots, heels, tennis and leisure shoes. Then, it invited a flock of partygoers and sold them the shoes, typically priced at $20 to $40 in Payless stores, at inflated designer price tags of $200 to $600.

"Palessi" sold about $3,000 worth of shoes within a few hours and, after the shoppers paid, staffers told them that the shoes were actually from Payless, according to AdWeek, which reported on the event Wednesday. "They are elegant (and) sophisticated," one shopper described her purchase as, in a Payless video posted on YouTube.

Then, the woman, who Payless says is a real person not an actor, was told the shoes actually were the handiwork of Payless. "You’ve got to be kidding me," she said.

Another shopper, this one a man, said about his purchase, "I could tell it's made with high-quality material."

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Payless refunded the shoppers their purchase prices and plans to use the video testimonials, already available on YouTube, as commercials on social media and TV.

“The campaign plays off of the enormous discrepancy and aims to remind consumers we are still a relevant place to shop for affordable fashion,” Payless CMO Sarah Couch told AdWeek.

Responses online ranged from congratulatory to accusatory. One person on Twitter called the project "creative," while another pointed out the potentially faulty discernment "among fashion influencers."

Payless “wanted to push the social experiment genre to new extremes while simultaneously using it to make a cultural statement,” Doug Cameron, chief creative officer of New York ad company DCX Growth Accelerator, told AdWeek. DCX Growth Accelerator assisted Payless in the event. “Payless customers share a pragmatist point of view, and we thought it would be provocative to use this ideology to challenge today’s image-conscious fashion influencer culture.”

The discount footwear chain emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2017, having closed more than 670 stores. It currently operates an online store and about 2,750 stores in North America and more than 3,500 worldwide.

More:Why retailers are filing for bankruptcy when they aren't yet broke

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.

