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I had a crappy experience at a thrift store that I like to go to occasionally. I found a nice jacket, but the price tag was missing. I looked underneath the rack and there was the price the tag (the tag said $20, which was a little above average but acceptable). I picked it up and continued shopping. When I went to go check out. I told the cashier that the jacket didn’t have a tag and I thought the tag that I found underneath it was probably it. This other lady behind the counter (not the cashier), grabs the jacket and the tag and says she cannot sell it to me. She said that it needed to be repriced. She refused to reprice it on the spot and walked off with the jacket. I decided to check back the next morning because it was a good find and there was $30-40 to be made. I see the jacket, see the new price tag, and it now says $43, so I leave it on the rack. I knew this was going to happen, but I was still peeved about it. I told the cashier working that morning what had happened and she told me the lady who took the jacket was the district manager of the thrift store chain.
I am not sure what the incentive was for that district manager to more than double the price of the jacket, but I wish I knew.
Whenever I find something nice at a garage sale, thrift store, auction, or estate sale, it’s funny how what was once junk moments ago is now something of value because I want it or see value in it. I have even had people decide not to sell something at the very last moment as I handed them the money. It never ceases to amaze me, greed is a complicated human emotion. The district manager is no different, she priced that jacket significantly higher because she saw that I thought it had value.
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In my experience, it’s not unusual for thrift stores, antique shops, etc, to have a policy of “no tag, no purchase”. Some will re-price on the spot, others will insist that the item go back into the pricing queue.
You probably just got unlucky….District Manager wanted to show some authority. I’ve had items re-priced on the spot at shops that have the no tag, no sale rule…but that’s always been a clerk who recognizes me as a regular.
Thing is, you didn’t buy it at $43, but someone else might, and the DM will crow about that for days if it happens
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When I’ve had garage sales, I’ve occasionally refused to sell an item to someone because I realized it should’ve never been out at the sale in the first place. Sometimes people get into a mode of “get rid of all of it!” as they clear things out and realize during the sale they never fully meant what they originally thought and would really like to keep a couple of the things.
For the thrift store, it sounds like the district manager got upset that an item didn’t get priced. Maybe it’s a recurring problem at that store? That’s it. It’s not greed. Most employees make minimum wage and don’t care about working there. They’re just putting in their 8 hours to get a paycheck.
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Unfortunately, thrift store customers often remove tags, in hopes of getting the item repriced lower. To discourage tag removal, most chain thrift stores (Goodwill, Savers, etc.) have one specific person who is permitted to reprice the inventory.
Like all scavengers, you were engaging in a form of retail arbitrage. You knew you could resell that jacket for more than $20.00. When the coat was initially priced, it was probably lumped together with a bunch of other items, and no one had time to check it’s value. Once it was singled out, the price checker probably looked it up on eBay and realized the jacket was worth more than $20.00.
Is that greedy? If you had purchased the coat for $20.00, would you resell it for a modest mark-up, or would you research the maximum value of the jacket and charge accordingly?
The price checker was (probably) unaware of your interest in the coat. It was just placed in front of her to price, and at that moment, she had the time to do a little more research. She could, of course, be wrong. She may have overpriced the jacket, and it will sit in their inventory, waiting for a buyer who will never come, but that is the store’s prerogative.
I guess I am saying – don’t blame the price checker, blame the person who removed the tag in the first place.
It’s always disapointing when a good deal slips through our fingers, but you can hardly fault the thrift store for trying to wring the maximum amount of profit for their inventory.
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I understand your points and think they are valid. I was trying to be honest and pay what I thought was the right price tag, because I wanted it. I could have approached them without the tag as well in hopes it would have been priced lower, which would have been unethical.
For being a thrift store and the area where I live, I think $20 was an above average price for the coat. At $43, it won’t sell until there is a 50% off sale. When it comes to researching pricing and achieving maximum profit, theres a fine line of reasonable and unreasonable pricing that thrift stores walk. I think sometimes stores forget that they do not offer any guarantee or return policy on their items. A quick eBay search does not equal a cash final sale type of transaction.
It is what it is, I have moved on and someone else will hopefully get a deal on the coat. The money to be made wasn’t that significant, it was just the principal of it all. There is a layer to the story that I can’t convey in writing on how the whole interaction went down. I was polite and let go of the issue quickly, whereas the manager seemed to have it out against me for no reason. It just sucked to put it short.
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Just for a bit of fun- I won this lot today. What’s the most valuable item in this tray?
(I’m basing my appraisal on a similar item which, although broken, sold for £80 after I bought it for £1 in a thrift store)
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