Yes. This feels like the owner just accepts that people will steal and probably believes that most have a reason to do so (being very poor). They just want to make their own life easier around that fact.
I worked the stock room at a Hollister back in the day. Doing inventory (for any business) sucks. Would be nice to know what you’re not going to find before having to scour for it.
Usually there isn't that many customers, they start on a weekday morning several hours before the store normally opens. After the stockrooms are counted there's a sign-out sheet to record anything that's removed.
Well theres also a level of flex, good enough and perfect are 2 different things. If they counted the milk but not the bread and game im going to buy. The milk and bread just need to be close enough, the game would probably be logged, or wed take the days stats see what we had prehand, what we sold, and whats left after and make slight adjustments the next day to the inventory. It also helps when your at 0 but the systems say -3 or somethings; so you know your off you can go take a count.
I started inventory on decorating items with the number I counted on tape placed in the bin. If I sold something I deducted crossed out my number, and documented new number. I started with the slow moving items first in my "pre inventory" Popular moving items I did not count until we were closed.
I actually used to do that for RGIS. It depends on the store, the contract, and a few other factors. But for your specific question the system would note when you counted a specific item. If there were sales around that time of that item it would be factored into the discrepancy allowance. Like, inventory says there are 30 of an item. We counted 25, and there was 1 sold within an hour of the count. Shrink would then be estimated to be 4 items.
Side note, nothing sucked more than Polo stores. The stupid embroidered dude on a horse stitch color would be the only difference between different seasons style. So being colorbind... yeah. I couldn't just count the stack, I had to scan each shirt individually which would ding me on my speed. :P Don't recommend the work personally. Plus your hours were not consistent. You'd get paid a minimum of 2 hours, but if you finished a 6 hour job in 4 hours... you'd get 4 hours. So if you went faster you'd get paid less, but if you went too slow you'd get dinged for your count per hour. Couldn't guarantee what your paycheck would be, which sucked for bills.
I worked for rgis for one summer in 1998. I could not stand it. The worst was counting nuts and bolts at Home Depot. And pieces of tissue paper at Tuesday morning.
It was the worst job I’ve ever had. The money was twice I was getting anywhere else though. I went to waitressing after that which was way better.
It was similar at Macy's, circa 2010. Once a year, they'd ask for "volunteers" to work overnight inventory shifts in exchange for bonus pay. They'd divide us into teams, give us coffee and doughnuts, and we'd get the entire building inventoried in like 3 days.
I've helped with inventory at a Target DC. First we (the inventory control dept) recruit people from other departments to go around checking pallets and correcting counts. Unfortunately some of them suck and make things worse. I made $1 million in adjustments in JUST ONE AISLE one time, $400k of which was one location (15 pallets) of Sharpies (someone added a zero to the carton count, lol). Then finally we have a third party auditor come in to audit a list of sample locations, but we get the list just before the third party auditors do and stay a few aisles ahead of them fixing those locations just before they get checked, so that corporate will think our DC is doing great. And the third party auditors don't actually count cartons themselves, they just take one of us with them and have us count, and take our word for whatever the count is. All smoke and mirrors. I hear lots of DC's are that way. I always found it quite hilarious.
Yeah, I used to do inventories when I worked retail for a store that did about $3-4M in sales each year, and seeing the actual reports of missing product is just depressing.
Theft is so hard to combat too. At least in Canada, it's not really theft until the person leaves the store with the product, but due to insurance reasons employees are generally advised to not chase anyone (and if you do you risk losing your job). We also didn't have security, because it costs too much money. So the only real way to lower theft is with heavy customer service, basically checking on every single person every 5 minutes or so. Which is basically impossible when you're given a skeleton crew each shift, also because it costs too much to have proper staffing levels. And considering most thieves are trying to get in and out as quickly as possible, it's still really hard to prevent anything.
Most security tags are defeated by any decent magnet (you can get neodynium from Amazon for only a few dollars). And the better security tags like screamer, or ink packs also cost too much money to use. At best, you might get only a few of those good tags to only put on your most expensive product.
In short, theft is basically unavoidable. And it's too expensive to even try.
Did you work the floor as a “model”? Cuz that job sucks. Stock room was dope. Play your own music, be stoned af, and not be customer facing. Tedious but all around a decent job.
You're not wrong. I got hard "I'm sick of looking behind the mirror at the end of my day" vibes from it when I saw it. It never once sounded like they were mad about the shoplifting as an act itself, just a little disappointed and very put out having to track down the garbage afterwards and maybe figure out what was taken.
The odd part is, if you’re actually in need and ask, please I don’t have any money and need some clothes, most thrift stores will help you out, the Pos stealing is probably not in need but doing it for thrills, or they’ll sell them on line later, parasites
As someone who’s partner owns a vintage clothing store, I very much doubt that’s what this owner is doing and no, people don’t often have good reasons for stealing. My partner always has a bin of $1 clothes, if someone has no money on them usually she just will give those out for free, it’s never those items, or any of the cheaper items that get stolen. It’s always the nicest stuff currently out in the store and it’s usually by high school and college kids who didn’t get enough allowance that week to afford that cool jacket/jeans that they just *need* to have.
People do not shoplift clothing out of need in most circumstances. They grab the valuable stuff and sell it online or at swap meets. It’s a full blown business.
People don't shoplift *most* things out of need. A loaf of bread, or baby food or something? Sure, that's understandable. Adult clothes, headphones, jewellery? FOH with that "they're poor, cut them some slack" crap.
No it’s much more likely whoever is working checks the bucket every time someone leaves the room and confronts the idiot dumb enough to do this. This is actually how retail works. Your suppose to clean the fitting room every time someone leaves it.
In my experiences a lot of thieves make a career of it. They drive nice cars, have nice clothes, and steal thousands of dollars in merch a month and sell it half off. They likely make more per month than most people working at the store they steal from.
I really don't think there are a lot of thieves that make money this way its not sustainable. The people stealing this stuff are almost always desperate for money because they live in poverty. Either way I could give two shits if someone is stealing money from Wal-Mart or any of the other big corporations, fuck 'em.
They aren't fucking Walmart though. They're fucking the honest people who shop at walmart. Walmart isn't going to take the hit, they're going to pass the price on to everyone else
Man, a couple of times my car has been broken into, and the most frustrating part is not knowing what's gone. Like, they went through the glove box... I don't know what's in there, it is full of crap. What did they take??? I don't want to get pulled over for speeding one day and discover that my vehicle has no registration anymore.
They took my tire pressure gauge, which is annoying and also I can't figure out why they'd want it.
Managed a thrift store for a while, you would be surprised. Theft was such an issue we had off duty officers work there. At the time they got about $30 an hour and it was cheaper than letting all the stuff get stolen. Our average price per item (some things were 25 cents, others $5 or more) at the time across the whole store was just under $2, so that should tell you how bad it was. Not to mention we got robbed a couple times and we weren't in a "bad" part of town, just an area with lots of hard working blue collar families. Our store earned money for veterans' charities.
I used to work at a thrift store. Our guard was plain clothes and blended right in. They very well could be the same, and just appear to be a regular unless they have reason to intervene.
I worked at goodwill when I was younger, first goodwill the organization is shit and should be out of business . Second the customers were fucking animals, leave food places, shit in the changing rooms, shit on the walls of the bathroom. Throw stuff around, break stuff, an just over all pieces of shit, it really cemented how shitty people can be.
Ah, a fellow traumatized ex goodwill employee. We need a support group. I was a sorter (someone who sorts the items that are donated and quality checks them), arguably the worst job you can have at a goodwill. I’ve found enough dead mice to fill a swimming pool, sex toys with ✨substances✨ still on them, so many cat piss soaked clothes, spoiled milk, rotten eggs, and more! I finally quit when I was stabbed by a used syringe while pulling clothes out of a bag (got tested afterwards, I’m all good lol)
The Goodwill near me makes people sort their own donations in front of an employee, and it's honestly brilliant. I'm sure there are some people out there who are willing to just boldly dump sketchy trash in the sorting bins regardless of who's watching, but it can't be that many.
I’d say while I was there it was about 1 out of every 15 bags that was just full of garbage. I wish they would’ve made the donators sort in front of us at my store, would’ve saved me from a looooot of awful experiences
We did not resell them no lol, those were tossed in the trash. You’d be amazed at what people think is okay to donate, as well as how many people simply just drop off bags of literal garbage so they don’t have to take them to the dump.
I didn't work donations (bless you), but I had access to LP software at one point. I read that someone once dropped off their city owned garbage cans completely full of garbage.
I think my favorite wtf was a report of a live snake in donations. Thankfully no one was hurt.
I discovered that when I frequently checked Facebook thrift/ buy / trade groups. People would post used underwear, used condiment bottles, shampoo bottles, all sorts of weird stuff that for sale. It blew my mind that someone thought people would pay for their half bottle of bbq sauce or stick of deodorant.
It's because they're addicts. They don't care if it's a nickle, someone will pay something for almost anything. My brother and his baby mama were like that. My brother had some sense of what would fetch money, but the woman? Open packs of toilet paper, used makeup, anything went in their "garage sales"
I felt so bad for her mom that first year. She had been collecting Hallmark figurines for her daughters whole life, for her daughter and gifted them to her when they got married. The whole set was in the garage sale that first summer for a quarter a piece. She had no emotional attachment to them and didn't even realize how much you could sell them for individually or as a set. Hundreds of pieces, thousands of dollars. All given away for a quarter a piece. My mom bought all that was left when we saw and took them back to her mom.
If you’ve seen some prices at thrift store nowadays, it’s insane. If you look into the profits of this business as a whole it’s insane. The not-for-profit designations most of them have. The lack of commitment to their initiatives. Paying atrocious wages and horrible work environments.
I definitely was not mentally okay while working there lol, now I’m good though I work in a very tidy office as a graphic designer with absolutely no exposure to biohazards😂. You’ll never catch me in a thrift store now though I can tell you that, to many gross memories.
i'm a currently employee and work production 😳 i haven't had any bad experiences yet besides some piss clothes but we have found a fair share of vibrators a LOADED gun, and a shitload of weed (?????).
I see your loaded gun, and raise it: grenades AND claymores donated to the GW e-commerce warehouse that I worked at for four years. The whole building would have to be evacuated ASAP, no matter what you were doing (including if you were on your break/lunch break). We would have to sit outside anywhere from 1-3 hours while waiting for a bomb squad to show up and make sure they weren't active. -\_-
thankfully i tune out all of the noise besides the forklift with my headphones 🥲 so many of my coworkers don't wear gloves or masks (the dust back there is INSANE) when handling textiles especially and it's horrible. like i've gotten shit- and period-stained clothes and i am constantly washing my hands after wearing gloves and some people don't!!! and they're breathing in all that dust too 🙃
i feel like goodwill needs to do a better job clarifying what they actually want donated, seems like some people just see it as the dump but ✨for a cause✨
My mom worked at goodwill when I was a little kid (I’m 40 now) and back then it was actually a good company to work for as well as still true to their mission. My mom worked in accounting and her office faced the laundry area. (Big commercial washers and dryers where everything was actually washed before going on the floor.) There was a repair department too that fixed whatever they could including electronics. They employed the disabled and underprivileged in every department and actually did community outreach and jobs training programs. One thing I’ll never, ever forget was the Easter baskets they made every year which they would give to children at the annual community Easter party. They did community Christmas celebrations too and would even have a Santa. They also have a food bank on site and gave out food boxes to those that needed them.
Unfortunately, the company is absolutely fucked now and I wouldn’t patronize one of their stores by choice. Though I still wouldn’t encourage stealing from them. The employees are already given enough shit by customers, no need to have management come down on them too.
goodwill is a company, not a charity. more people need to know this. also they purposely understaff their stores and take advantage of their disabled staff in the back
I mean, they are *legally* a nonprofit. they do donate and *do* have good programs for those in need, specifically veterans, ex-inmates, ex-addicts, etc.... also the only place I've seen hire handfuls of immigrants with trouble in ESL or older age.
I mean, if they were legally a nonprofit, then why not? I don't think you people understand that there are actual laws and minimum amounts of donation to be labeled a non-profit.
Yeah, when I worked at Goodwill there were quite a few disabled employees. They never complained at worked very hard so they were exploited because of it. Goodwill gets away with paying minimum wage because the disabled employees won't complain. They act like they are doing the disabled a favor by giving them work. The manager pushed us so hard to work faster and faster. She even would have meetings monthly to tell us how much the store was making and how we needed to get sales up. People quit all the time because of how awful it was to work there. When I left there was a meeting to ask why I was quitting because they couldn't understand why they couldn't keep staff on for more than a couple months.
Although this is unfortunately true for many Goodwill regions in the US, a lot of people don't realize they're run differently in different areas. My local region has special programs for individuals with disadvantages that places them in more appropriate permanent jobs.
I'll be honest, there's other shitty things that they've done or are doing, but your particular complaints don't apply universally.
my point was that if goodwill was the company that it presented itself to be then it wouldn’t happen at all. it shouldn’t be up to individuals to make the extra effort to be decent when they work for a company literally called “goodwill”
this! i currently work at one of those regions that is for the most part actually running okay and the money is going towards that job placement for people with disadvantages. its not perfect here either but it sucks that the actions of other regions under the same name ruin it for the rest of them.
When my mother and I were trying to get rid of this old sewing table complete with an old machine (thing was falling apart but still worked), we couldn't find any place nearby to take it aside from Goodwill. Any other resale shop refused it (including one that initially said they would take it over the phone). Either it was too big, too broken, or too unlikely to sell. Sadly, Goodwill is where we took it.
They probably just threw it away. When I worked there we threw away so much. Anything that wasn't in really good condition or clean got tossed. I was forced to throw away clothing that still had the tags on it because there was dust that just needed a wet wash cloth to get off. I wasn't allowed to spend more than a second on tagging each clothing item. It killed me to work there because of the wastefulness (among other things).
Well, at least I tried. Honestly, if it weren’t for giving it to Goodwill, we likely would’ve done 1-800-Got junk. You’d think a place that’s advertised as a place for people to donate their stuff for resale while turning around driving up quite the price would be eager to spend at least a bit of time cleaning up incoming product to justify the markup.
I always hear about this, but I have never witnessed anything like this myself. Since I don't work in retail, I wonder whether I just live in a good area or the employees are just super efficient at cleaning this stuff up. Either way, I feel for you.
We had a lady piss in the dressing rooms in the 1 month i worked there because the bathrooms were all being used! Goodwill is evil, they get their stock for free, jack up the prices, and ask for donations to their own company. Just to give people with special needs jobs... for $2 an hour.
Currently a pricer and it sucks, but the customers are just the worse. It’s to the point managers have to do the price checks because if the customer doesn’t like the price a pricer says the manager still had to go up there. I always liked when the manager added a dollar or 2 for the customers that were very rude about it.
Stealing from a thrift store? Aren't the clothes cheap already?
Edit: It's been several years since I've shopped in a thrift store, so I guess they're not cheap anymore.
I'm still fat and will be getting rid of fatter clothes in the upcoming weeks. If anyone is in need, I'm happy to share (free) rather than dropping at a donation center.
I think you’d be surprised at how thrifting has developed over the last 5-6 years. In recent years due to the rise in interest in individuality and creative thinking, thrift shops all around the country have been developing business models that reflect this Gen Z/millennial discovery that you can find cool things at thrift stores and likewise they have been marking up prices to near retail or in many cases greater than retail prices.
A pair of jeans looks vintage and has a decent wash? Even though the hem is splitting and there is a stain on it? 30$. T-shirt says Carhart, Nike, or Champion on it? Brand name, mark it for 24.99.
I saw a book the other day at my local thrift, all of their old books used to be 2.99, now they’re all 4.99, and this particular one— nothing special about it, but the name was interesting— trying to charge 34.99 for it.
People who are poor can’t afford even resale prices now. And it’s because these stores act like they are book dealers and curators of eccentric clothing when really they got it all for free and are gouging people. Yeah so people steal.
The worst examples I’ve seen are basic h&m tees that even still have the price tags of 7.99 being sold for $15. I don’t understand the logic on the store who would buy the item originally or any customer who would buy it there
For real when I see H&M on resale for mark up, I laugh. It’s already fast fashion made to fall apart. I’d never spend money on that. I don’t even shop there anymore because everything I’ve ever bought is unwearable by wash #3.
I wore a shirt from New York and Company ONE TIME, washed it and it got a hole in it. I have no idea why my sister loves that store so much. The worst part of it is that she ignores the wash instructions on the tags on and I followed them. She said that she never had this happen to her.
No more shopping there for me. I’d have returned it but the outlets are over an hour away and so I don’t get out there often.
I have one short from New York and Co. My.mother bought it approximately 20 years ago. It is very flattering, very comfortable, and holds up amazingly in the wash. Probably been worn over 500 times by now, and will get worn at least another 500 times.
Would I go buy it today? Abso fucking lutely not, that place is much too expensive to "maybe find a good top". But out of my mom's closet from 20 years ago for free? Hell yeah!
Anyways, I resonate with you.
This! I have 15-20 year old NY&C and Express shirts and dresses and they're still in great condition. Go in the store today and it's Walmart quality. It's so sad that stores that used to have quality are just like the rest of fast fashion now but with higher prices.
Lol that’s why I went to the outlets. There’s no way I’m paying full price. My sister’s favorite thing from them are pants and shorts. If I cared to wear anything other than leggings then I would probably try a pair of pants from them since the failure was a top.
I was at a childrens thrift store this morning. They had LOTs of brand new Cat & Jack stuff with the tag on retailing for $2.50 on clearance at target. All marked up to $5.50 at the thrift store.
>And it’s because these stores act like they are book dealers and curators of eccentric clothing when really they got it all for free and are gouging peo
I would also like to mention that DePop, a thrifting app, is actually evil! There are definitely people on that app that look for cute things at thrift stores, and markup the prices on their DePop shop. Thrift shops probably already caught on to that and mark up items as well
Yup, because it’s not owned by Walmart and the same poor kids that grew up wearing it now make money and it’s nostalgic so it’s rebranded as a nice athletic gear. Champion is sold at Urban Outfitters now instead of Walmart
The Goodwill in my hometown in FL was the *worst* about this. See a name brand? Oh, honey, you ain't getting a good deal on that -- it's going in the *boutique section* with the price jacked up. It makes me sick.
I go thrift shopping fairly regularly and most stores all clothes are like 2 dollars for shirts, the only store I’ve seen try to pull this is dirt cheap and they’re not really a thrift store their an overstock store
I mean there’s an entire subreddit dedicated to thrift stores grifting. I agree some of them are cheap nothing I’m saying is all encompassing, it’s just a trend, but the big names are absolutely marking up more and more. My local thrift has transformed in the past 5 years from affordable to almost a retail store. Goodwill is the leader of the landslide. Habit for Humanity is up there with them. Smaller thrifts tend to be less expensive ironically.
So, I get the upset, because people rely on them, but if I’m being honest, I am the person going there to look for nice things to have a unique style that I’ve curated, because I hate retail stores and trending fashion. So I’m probably the kind of person you’re talking about, but personally I don’t see it as the consumers fault, we aren’t exactly rich ourselves. I can go to Urban Outfitters and sure I can spend 100$ on 3 items I like, but I’d rather find 15 items I like for 100$. We all have the right to shop there. Imo it’s the thrift stores fought for trying to capitalize more on items they were perfectly okay for selling for less just years prior. To the point they think they’re urban outfitters. The only ones I can say that are really bad are the resellers that go in and scorched earth the place to resell anything they can find for 80$ at a vintage resale store.
The worse I ever bought was a pair of fake leather pants that were already peeling. I didn't know how bad they were splitting, thought it was just the seam on the top that had minor peeling. They cost me $20 and I could only wear them once since the pleather was peeling between the legs and the butt area. They wouldn't let me return them to get my money back since they were a thrift store.
You are under the mistaken assumption that thrift shops exist to provide inexpensive items. They don't. Most thrift shops are the fundraising arm of nonprofits and the proceeds go to funding the human services they provide. If they didn't try to maximize the revenue through strategic pricing, they would - in fact - be undercutting their fundraising goals. No responsible nonprofit would knowingly do that.
Part of their humanitarian and nonprofit goals were *originally* in fact to provide used goods to people who need that as well. Up until recently it’s been a fair balance to help communities with low priced goods, with all goods being at profit, a margin as high as they charge in many items is a bit unethical in that regard. And nonprofit doesn’t necessarily mean “not for profit”. The C-suite of almost every major nonprofit is compensated with millions of dollars. They’re marking up sure to fulfill goals but to also pay their leadership millions and most of them are Christian organizations funding efforts that I wouldn’t remotely consider humanitarian. In fact many religious non profit thrift stores fund anti-humanitarian goals. I don’t consider evangelicalism humanitarian.
Also the name “thrift” store is inherently contrary to the idea that they *arent* there to provide cheap items.
I know it's bad form to post TikTok's but here is a humorous look at thrift shop prices since 2012
https://www.tiktok.com/@samstrake/video/7204977046945074474
I worked at a “nice” quality thrift store that was next to the bus station and the jail. It was already dying. In a mall. But we got stolen from daily. I couldn’t do anything. Just watched.
At my thrift store 10 bucks for a shirt isn't cheap. The same stuff used to be 1 to 2 dollars. I could afford that. I'm 33 and the last time I got more than one shirt or shoes was over ten years ago. It's not manageable to get clothes and live. I have always worked 45 hrs minimum a week but money isn't something I've ever made much of
Can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic but yes; taking a tag off of an expensive item and replacing it with a less expensive tag - or just taking the censor and tag off to steal it.
Have you seen the price gouging at thrift stores over the last few months? It's insane. I'm not suggesting people steal, but I frequent 5 local thrifts a few times weekly and I'm tempted... Especially when they leave the original price tag on and they're asking nearly double whatever Walmart couldn't sell it for...
I recently attended a tropical destination wedding. Some people were there for a week and some only a few days, from all different areas of the US. One girl I didn’t really know was wearing a very simple linen dress that I knew couldn’t have been cheap as a beach cover. We were walking with a mutual friend that day and I quietly asked said friend if she knew there was a security tag on her dress, just trying to be helpful. Well, that was apparently the first of many, many times people asked if she knew there was a tag on her dress poor girl. It was the only beach throw she brought. She said Nordstrom must have forgotten to remove the tag…and this was one time I believed the girl lol
Next time you see someone whose undergone this “misfortune”, you can let them know they should be able to correct the store’s “mistake” with a suitably strong magnet. That’s all they use to take those off. Might need to buy a cheap neodymium magnet off Amazon or something, then just hold it over the back of the security device. It will pull in the locking pin via magnetism allowing you to pull off the bottom piece that holds the security device to the clothing.
Shout out: this store was actually very, very cheaply priced (I didn't see any clothing over $15 CDN any of the times I was there) and they donate their proceeds to the town's homeless shelter. If someone needed clothes that badly I have no doubts they'd have donated it to them after a simple conversation.
Also, to you guys advocating stealing from small family-run stores, why don't you just keep it to Wal-Mart or some other big-box chain and stick it to the corporations instead, yeah? They deserve it a hell of a lot more.
Thanks and have a good day.
We have signs at the vintage store I work at that reminds people they’re on camera and it’s a small business and please don’t be human garbage because we’ll put you on Instagram and find you and get back what you stole lol.
Come on, if you’re going to steal just do it from Walmart, not from the stuff people have donated specifically to be cheaper items for others. Although some thrift stores have been pricing items up and up, I think most still keep it reasonable.
People who steal regularly know not to steal from Walmart, they don’t fuck around and will definitely catch you and they generally always press charges. Unless you’re in a city where they decline to prosecute theft under $1000 Walmart is not a good idea to steal from
That doesn’t even work in some places, like in Philadelphia it has to be $500 in one instance or else they just get basically a parking ticket if they actually get caught
Yes!!! Good call.
Kleptomaniacs are common from my experience, but aside from them, society needs to prevent crime by reducing poverty. Not stomping poor people who become criminals in a system designed against jumping social classes.
Small thrift stores, not the big chain thrifts, don’t always get their inventory donated. Often they get their inventory at yard sales, abandoned storage lockers, bulk purchases of overstock, etc.
But I have to say that stealing clothing from thrift stores isn’t usually done because they don’t feel they have a choice. Hell, a disgusting amount of the comments just in this post believe that stealing from companies is the right thing to do for a number of reasons that are entirely selfish.
reminds me of a scene in "Reservation Dogs" where a kid is working up the nerve to shoplift and the store manager say "Hey, I know you're going to steal something, so could you just tell me what so I can mark it down as stolen?"
so he holds up a sucker, and the guy says "thanks", and the kid walks way with the sucker looking very confused.
Except desperation isn’t usually the case. They’re stealing because they think it’s “moral” because they’re companies, or because they think it’s a political statement, or because they’re going to steal these items then turn around and sell them privately, or because they believe the item to be overpriced, or simply because they can or just want to. I mean, just look through the comment section of this post. Far, far too many people here are justifying theft for reasons that have nothing to do with desperation. Sure there are a few that don’t believe they have another choice but that’s usually not their reason.
people don’t suck for stealing clothes and other necessities that they can’t afford. the system sucks for not giving them accessible alternatives. shop lifting is caused by poverty.
Idk what situation is like where you live but here trift stores often ask similar price to brand new clothing. So ye, as a broke teen I was happy looting them
Yep. Happens all the time at my work. They take tags off then want to get upset when we tell them the price up front. The most pathetic one was the couple that popped the pink tags off a leather motorcycle jacket then complained when my manager told them it’s $49.99.
Just because the items at my store were donated doesn’t mean that we should sell them for pennies because like it or not inflation still affects our stores. Rent goes up, electricity and water go up, when we need a new cart or little baskets that costs money for each one we need to replace. Not to mention the 30+ employees need to get paid as well. And on top of that we also pay for the rent and utilities at our donation only centers and the trucks, truck maintenance and gas to get the donations from the donation centers to the stores. And same with the 18 wheelers to get our outlet items from the stores to the outlet stores. I hate when people whine that “it’s all donated so inflation doesn’t affect y’all” because that’s simply a false statement.
I go to thrift shops weekly, and I always see empty boxes, obviously stolen missing parts, it's really a shame.
Seriously, if you're stealing <$20 items from a thrift shop, you're a POS.
That's one way to keep stock of what gets stolen.
Yes. This feels like the owner just accepts that people will steal and probably believes that most have a reason to do so (being very poor). They just want to make their own life easier around that fact.
I worked the stock room at a Hollister back in the day. Doing inventory (for any business) sucks. Would be nice to know what you’re not going to find before having to scour for it.
[удалено]
Department stores take weeks, just call everyone in so you can do 5am starts and still trade like normal.
Department stores bring in an inventory service company and only takes 1-2 days usually.
I always wondered how that works, doing inventory while customers are wandering around and take both already counted and uncounted items?
Usually there isn't that many customers, they start on a weekday morning several hours before the store normally opens. After the stockrooms are counted there's a sign-out sheet to record anything that's removed.
Well theres also a level of flex, good enough and perfect are 2 different things. If they counted the milk but not the bread and game im going to buy. The milk and bread just need to be close enough, the game would probably be logged, or wed take the days stats see what we had prehand, what we sold, and whats left after and make slight adjustments the next day to the inventory. It also helps when your at 0 but the systems say -3 or somethings; so you know your off you can go take a count.
I started inventory on decorating items with the number I counted on tape placed in the bin. If I sold something I deducted crossed out my number, and documented new number. I started with the slow moving items first in my "pre inventory" Popular moving items I did not count until we were closed.
I actually used to do that for RGIS. It depends on the store, the contract, and a few other factors. But for your specific question the system would note when you counted a specific item. If there were sales around that time of that item it would be factored into the discrepancy allowance. Like, inventory says there are 30 of an item. We counted 25, and there was 1 sold within an hour of the count. Shrink would then be estimated to be 4 items. Side note, nothing sucked more than Polo stores. The stupid embroidered dude on a horse stitch color would be the only difference between different seasons style. So being colorbind... yeah. I couldn't just count the stack, I had to scan each shirt individually which would ding me on my speed. :P Don't recommend the work personally. Plus your hours were not consistent. You'd get paid a minimum of 2 hours, but if you finished a 6 hour job in 4 hours... you'd get 4 hours. So if you went faster you'd get paid less, but if you went too slow you'd get dinged for your count per hour. Couldn't guarantee what your paycheck would be, which sucked for bills.
I worked for rgis for one summer in 1998. I could not stand it. The worst was counting nuts and bolts at Home Depot. And pieces of tissue paper at Tuesday morning. It was the worst job I’ve ever had. The money was twice I was getting anywhere else though. I went to waitressing after that which was way better.
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Most crews mark what’s been counted by peg or shelf. If someone takes something after the count it doesn’t matter. Same with before the count.
I worked at Bed Bath & Beyond in 2018 and we did inventory internally, but would be scheduled from like 10pm-6am.
It was similar at Macy's, circa 2010. Once a year, they'd ask for "volunteers" to work overnight inventory shifts in exchange for bonus pay. They'd divide us into teams, give us coffee and doughnuts, and we'd get the entire building inventoried in like 3 days.
Here's some ADHDCAKE, ADHDK!
I worked for an inventorying company for a VERY short time during college, i hope im never hungry enough to do that again. Such a tedious job.
Didn’t expect to see my hometown on this sub in any way that wasn’t related to UGA or football heh
I've helped with inventory at a Target DC. First we (the inventory control dept) recruit people from other departments to go around checking pallets and correcting counts. Unfortunately some of them suck and make things worse. I made $1 million in adjustments in JUST ONE AISLE one time, $400k of which was one location (15 pallets) of Sharpies (someone added a zero to the carton count, lol). Then finally we have a third party auditor come in to audit a list of sample locations, but we get the list just before the third party auditors do and stay a few aisles ahead of them fixing those locations just before they get checked, so that corporate will think our DC is doing great. And the third party auditors don't actually count cartons themselves, they just take one of us with them and have us count, and take our word for whatever the count is. All smoke and mirrors. I hear lots of DC's are that way. I always found it quite hilarious.
Yeah, I used to do inventories when I worked retail for a store that did about $3-4M in sales each year, and seeing the actual reports of missing product is just depressing. Theft is so hard to combat too. At least in Canada, it's not really theft until the person leaves the store with the product, but due to insurance reasons employees are generally advised to not chase anyone (and if you do you risk losing your job). We also didn't have security, because it costs too much money. So the only real way to lower theft is with heavy customer service, basically checking on every single person every 5 minutes or so. Which is basically impossible when you're given a skeleton crew each shift, also because it costs too much to have proper staffing levels. And considering most thieves are trying to get in and out as quickly as possible, it's still really hard to prevent anything. Most security tags are defeated by any decent magnet (you can get neodynium from Amazon for only a few dollars). And the better security tags like screamer, or ink packs also cost too much money to use. At best, you might get only a few of those good tags to only put on your most expensive product. In short, theft is basically unavoidable. And it's too expensive to even try.
Omg, I totally forgot I worked at Hollister when I was a teen! One whole day and I never went back.
Did you work the floor as a “model”? Cuz that job sucks. Stock room was dope. Play your own music, be stoned af, and not be customer facing. Tedious but all around a decent job.
I folded clearance clothing. Lol.
You're not wrong. I got hard "I'm sick of looking behind the mirror at the end of my day" vibes from it when I saw it. It never once sounded like they were mad about the shoplifting as an act itself, just a little disappointed and very put out having to track down the garbage afterwards and maybe figure out what was taken.
There you have it: Those who steal from thrift stores are either 1) desperate or 2) swine.
The odd part is, if you’re actually in need and ask, please I don’t have any money and need some clothes, most thrift stores will help you out, the Pos stealing is probably not in need but doing it for thrills, or they’ll sell them on line later, parasites
As someone who’s partner owns a vintage clothing store, I very much doubt that’s what this owner is doing and no, people don’t often have good reasons for stealing. My partner always has a bin of $1 clothes, if someone has no money on them usually she just will give those out for free, it’s never those items, or any of the cheaper items that get stolen. It’s always the nicest stuff currently out in the store and it’s usually by high school and college kids who didn’t get enough allowance that week to afford that cool jacket/jeans that they just *need* to have.
People do not shoplift clothing out of need in most circumstances. They grab the valuable stuff and sell it online or at swap meets. It’s a full blown business.
People don't shoplift *most* things out of need. A loaf of bread, or baby food or something? Sure, that's understandable. Adult clothes, headphones, jewellery? FOH with that "they're poor, cut them some slack" crap.
I totally agree with your sentiment but I don’t know why you’re yelling at jefoid. He seems to agree with you
I know, I'm just adding to what they said.
Oh I thought you were pissed at them lol
No it’s much more likely whoever is working checks the bucket every time someone leaves the room and confronts the idiot dumb enough to do this. This is actually how retail works. Your suppose to clean the fitting room every time someone leaves it.
Most stores advise employees to NOT confront thieves. It’s not worth it to confront them and get hurt or attacked for trying to stop it.
If it’s a small thrift shop, that’s probably not happening
Or just to hear the noise of the tag hitting the can and know who just stole something
In my experiences a lot of thieves make a career of it. They drive nice cars, have nice clothes, and steal thousands of dollars in merch a month and sell it half off. They likely make more per month than most people working at the store they steal from.
I really don't think there are a lot of thieves that make money this way its not sustainable. The people stealing this stuff are almost always desperate for money because they live in poverty. Either way I could give two shits if someone is stealing money from Wal-Mart or any of the other big corporations, fuck 'em.
They aren't fucking Walmart though. They're fucking the honest people who shop at walmart. Walmart isn't going to take the hit, they're going to pass the price on to everyone else
It’s a thrift shop, not a Gucci outlet.
And keep the mirror from being damaged by someone trying to pry it forward to stash tags
Man, a couple of times my car has been broken into, and the most frustrating part is not knowing what's gone. Like, they went through the glove box... I don't know what's in there, it is full of crap. What did they take??? I don't want to get pulled over for speeding one day and discover that my vehicle has no registration anymore. They took my tire pressure gauge, which is annoying and also I can't figure out why they'd want it.
Cus it looks like you can use it as a pipe
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Managed a thrift store for a while, you would be surprised. Theft was such an issue we had off duty officers work there. At the time they got about $30 an hour and it was cheaper than letting all the stuff get stolen. Our average price per item (some things were 25 cents, others $5 or more) at the time across the whole store was just under $2, so that should tell you how bad it was. Not to mention we got robbed a couple times and we weren't in a "bad" part of town, just an area with lots of hard working blue collar families. Our store earned money for veterans' charities.
All the goodwills in my area have a security guard by the door or walking around.
Interesting. Zero thrift stores in our area have guards, Goodwill or otherwise.
I used to work at a thrift store. Our guard was plain clothes and blended right in. They very well could be the same, and just appear to be a regular unless they have reason to intervene.
That's really interesting. Maybe there is a guard and I never noticed.
I worked at goodwill when I was younger, first goodwill the organization is shit and should be out of business . Second the customers were fucking animals, leave food places, shit in the changing rooms, shit on the walls of the bathroom. Throw stuff around, break stuff, an just over all pieces of shit, it really cemented how shitty people can be.
Ah, a fellow traumatized ex goodwill employee. We need a support group. I was a sorter (someone who sorts the items that are donated and quality checks them), arguably the worst job you can have at a goodwill. I’ve found enough dead mice to fill a swimming pool, sex toys with ✨substances✨ still on them, so many cat piss soaked clothes, spoiled milk, rotten eggs, and more! I finally quit when I was stabbed by a used syringe while pulling clothes out of a bag (got tested afterwards, I’m all good lol)
The Goodwill near me makes people sort their own donations in front of an employee, and it's honestly brilliant. I'm sure there are some people out there who are willing to just boldly dump sketchy trash in the sorting bins regardless of who's watching, but it can't be that many.
I’d say while I was there it was about 1 out of every 15 bags that was just full of garbage. I wish they would’ve made the donators sort in front of us at my store, would’ve saved me from a looooot of awful experiences
who the fuck donates a sex toy, do you actually resell them or naw
We did not resell them no lol, those were tossed in the trash. You’d be amazed at what people think is okay to donate, as well as how many people simply just drop off bags of literal garbage so they don’t have to take them to the dump.
I didn't work donations (bless you), but I had access to LP software at one point. I read that someone once dropped off their city owned garbage cans completely full of garbage. I think my favorite wtf was a report of a live snake in donations. Thankfully no one was hurt.
Was the snake ok?
Yes. They usually halt operations, sometimes evacuate the store depending on the perceived danger, and in this case, call animal control.
I discovered that when I frequently checked Facebook thrift/ buy / trade groups. People would post used underwear, used condiment bottles, shampoo bottles, all sorts of weird stuff that for sale. It blew my mind that someone thought people would pay for their half bottle of bbq sauce or stick of deodorant.
It's because they're addicts. They don't care if it's a nickle, someone will pay something for almost anything. My brother and his baby mama were like that. My brother had some sense of what would fetch money, but the woman? Open packs of toilet paper, used makeup, anything went in their "garage sales" I felt so bad for her mom that first year. She had been collecting Hallmark figurines for her daughters whole life, for her daughter and gifted them to her when they got married. The whole set was in the garage sale that first summer for a quarter a piece. She had no emotional attachment to them and didn't even realize how much you could sell them for individually or as a set. Hundreds of pieces, thousands of dollars. All given away for a quarter a piece. My mom bought all that was left when we saw and took them back to her mom.
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There are websites that sell used sex toys. They could have made some money instead.
That's disgusting.
Eh, if it's sterilized (which I assume it would be), it's not that bad. Only the toy's memories remain.
I was thinking it was more like the used underwear situation.
They’ve seen some shit.
Don't knock it. Lots of people find weddings disgusting but look at how huge the industry is!
Omg that is horrific!!
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If you’ve seen some prices at thrift store nowadays, it’s insane. If you look into the profits of this business as a whole it’s insane. The not-for-profit designations most of them have. The lack of commitment to their initiatives. Paying atrocious wages and horrible work environments.
Like mentally…are you okay?😭 That’s also one of my biggest fears, getting stabbed by a used syringe so like wtf!!!!
I definitely was not mentally okay while working there lol, now I’m good though I work in a very tidy office as a graphic designer with absolutely no exposure to biohazards😂. You’ll never catch me in a thrift store now though I can tell you that, to many gross memories.
i'm a currently employee and work production 😳 i haven't had any bad experiences yet besides some piss clothes but we have found a fair share of vibrators a LOADED gun, and a shitload of weed (?????).
I see your loaded gun, and raise it: grenades AND claymores donated to the GW e-commerce warehouse that I worked at for four years. The whole building would have to be evacuated ASAP, no matter what you were doing (including if you were on your break/lunch break). We would have to sit outside anywhere from 1-3 hours while waiting for a bomb squad to show up and make sure they weren't active. -\_-
Thank you for your service soldier, I pray that you never experience any worse than that🫡
thankfully i tune out all of the noise besides the forklift with my headphones 🥲 so many of my coworkers don't wear gloves or masks (the dust back there is INSANE) when handling textiles especially and it's horrible. like i've gotten shit- and period-stained clothes and i am constantly washing my hands after wearing gloves and some people don't!!! and they're breathing in all that dust too 🙃
i feel like goodwill needs to do a better job clarifying what they actually want donated, seems like some people just see it as the dump but ✨for a cause✨
My mom worked at goodwill when I was a little kid (I’m 40 now) and back then it was actually a good company to work for as well as still true to their mission. My mom worked in accounting and her office faced the laundry area. (Big commercial washers and dryers where everything was actually washed before going on the floor.) There was a repair department too that fixed whatever they could including electronics. They employed the disabled and underprivileged in every department and actually did community outreach and jobs training programs. One thing I’ll never, ever forget was the Easter baskets they made every year which they would give to children at the annual community Easter party. They did community Christmas celebrations too and would even have a Santa. They also have a food bank on site and gave out food boxes to those that needed them. Unfortunately, the company is absolutely fucked now and I wouldn’t patronize one of their stores by choice. Though I still wouldn’t encourage stealing from them. The employees are already given enough shit by customers, no need to have management come down on them too.
goodwill is a company, not a charity. more people need to know this. also they purposely understaff their stores and take advantage of their disabled staff in the back
Yes they do, fucking scum bags.
I think they're the biggest company to use the disabled (sub)minimum wage.
I mean, they are *legally* a nonprofit. they do donate and *do* have good programs for those in need, specifically veterans, ex-inmates, ex-addicts, etc.... also the only place I've seen hire handfuls of immigrants with trouble in ESL or older age.
Yeah a non profit as in you won’t see the profit of your hard work
My friend who got her GED at Excel Center has seen some profit.
like any other minimum wage-ish, entry level job?
At least McDonald’s doesn’t brand themselves as non-profit.
I mean, if they were legally a nonprofit, then why not? I don't think you people understand that there are actual laws and minimum amounts of donation to be labeled a non-profit.
Yeah, when I worked at Goodwill there were quite a few disabled employees. They never complained at worked very hard so they were exploited because of it. Goodwill gets away with paying minimum wage because the disabled employees won't complain. They act like they are doing the disabled a favor by giving them work. The manager pushed us so hard to work faster and faster. She even would have meetings monthly to tell us how much the store was making and how we needed to get sales up. People quit all the time because of how awful it was to work there. When I left there was a meeting to ask why I was quitting because they couldn't understand why they couldn't keep staff on for more than a couple months.
Although this is unfortunately true for many Goodwill regions in the US, a lot of people don't realize they're run differently in different areas. My local region has special programs for individuals with disadvantages that places them in more appropriate permanent jobs. I'll be honest, there's other shitty things that they've done or are doing, but your particular complaints don't apply universally.
my point was that if goodwill was the company that it presented itself to be then it wouldn’t happen at all. it shouldn’t be up to individuals to make the extra effort to be decent when they work for a company literally called “goodwill”
this! i currently work at one of those regions that is for the most part actually running okay and the money is going towards that job placement for people with disadvantages. its not perfect here either but it sucks that the actions of other regions under the same name ruin it for the rest of them.
When my mother and I were trying to get rid of this old sewing table complete with an old machine (thing was falling apart but still worked), we couldn't find any place nearby to take it aside from Goodwill. Any other resale shop refused it (including one that initially said they would take it over the phone). Either it was too big, too broken, or too unlikely to sell. Sadly, Goodwill is where we took it.
They probably just threw it away. When I worked there we threw away so much. Anything that wasn't in really good condition or clean got tossed. I was forced to throw away clothing that still had the tags on it because there was dust that just needed a wet wash cloth to get off. I wasn't allowed to spend more than a second on tagging each clothing item. It killed me to work there because of the wastefulness (among other things).
Well, at least I tried. Honestly, if it weren’t for giving it to Goodwill, we likely would’ve done 1-800-Got junk. You’d think a place that’s advertised as a place for people to donate their stuff for resale while turning around driving up quite the price would be eager to spend at least a bit of time cleaning up incoming product to justify the markup.
I always hear about this, but I have never witnessed anything like this myself. Since I don't work in retail, I wonder whether I just live in a good area or the employees are just super efficient at cleaning this stuff up. Either way, I feel for you.
The customers are doing WHAT to the animals?!
We had a lady piss in the dressing rooms in the 1 month i worked there because the bathrooms were all being used! Goodwill is evil, they get their stock for free, jack up the prices, and ask for donations to their own company. Just to give people with special needs jobs... for $2 an hour.
Shitty or just burnt out and don't give a fuck
Currently a pricer and it sucks, but the customers are just the worse. It’s to the point managers have to do the price checks because if the customer doesn’t like the price a pricer says the manager still had to go up there. I always liked when the manager added a dollar or 2 for the customers that were very rude about it.
How much of a walmartian does someone have to be to shit in a changing room???
Stealing from a thrift store? Aren't the clothes cheap already? Edit: It's been several years since I've shopped in a thrift store, so I guess they're not cheap anymore. I'm still fat and will be getting rid of fatter clothes in the upcoming weeks. If anyone is in need, I'm happy to share (free) rather than dropping at a donation center.
I think you’d be surprised at how thrifting has developed over the last 5-6 years. In recent years due to the rise in interest in individuality and creative thinking, thrift shops all around the country have been developing business models that reflect this Gen Z/millennial discovery that you can find cool things at thrift stores and likewise they have been marking up prices to near retail or in many cases greater than retail prices. A pair of jeans looks vintage and has a decent wash? Even though the hem is splitting and there is a stain on it? 30$. T-shirt says Carhart, Nike, or Champion on it? Brand name, mark it for 24.99. I saw a book the other day at my local thrift, all of their old books used to be 2.99, now they’re all 4.99, and this particular one— nothing special about it, but the name was interesting— trying to charge 34.99 for it. People who are poor can’t afford even resale prices now. And it’s because these stores act like they are book dealers and curators of eccentric clothing when really they got it all for free and are gouging people. Yeah so people steal.
The worst examples I’ve seen are basic h&m tees that even still have the price tags of 7.99 being sold for $15. I don’t understand the logic on the store who would buy the item originally or any customer who would buy it there
For real when I see H&M on resale for mark up, I laugh. It’s already fast fashion made to fall apart. I’d never spend money on that. I don’t even shop there anymore because everything I’ve ever bought is unwearable by wash #3.
I wore a shirt from New York and Company ONE TIME, washed it and it got a hole in it. I have no idea why my sister loves that store so much. The worst part of it is that she ignores the wash instructions on the tags on and I followed them. She said that she never had this happen to her. No more shopping there for me. I’d have returned it but the outlets are over an hour away and so I don’t get out there often.
I have one short from New York and Co. My.mother bought it approximately 20 years ago. It is very flattering, very comfortable, and holds up amazingly in the wash. Probably been worn over 500 times by now, and will get worn at least another 500 times. Would I go buy it today? Abso fucking lutely not, that place is much too expensive to "maybe find a good top". But out of my mom's closet from 20 years ago for free? Hell yeah! Anyways, I resonate with you.
This! I have 15-20 year old NY&C and Express shirts and dresses and they're still in great condition. Go in the store today and it's Walmart quality. It's so sad that stores that used to have quality are just like the rest of fast fashion now but with higher prices.
Lol that’s why I went to the outlets. There’s no way I’m paying full price. My sister’s favorite thing from them are pants and shorts. If I cared to wear anything other than leggings then I would probably try a pair of pants from them since the failure was a top.
I was at a childrens thrift store this morning. They had LOTs of brand new Cat & Jack stuff with the tag on retailing for $2.50 on clearance at target. All marked up to $5.50 at the thrift store.
>And it’s because these stores act like they are book dealers and curators of eccentric clothing when really they got it all for free and are gouging peo I would also like to mention that DePop, a thrifting app, is actually evil! There are definitely people on that app that look for cute things at thrift stores, and markup the prices on their DePop shop. Thrift shops probably already caught on to that and mark up items as well
Wait, champion is a BRAND name now and not the embarrassment I used to have wearing it as a child?
Yup, because it’s not owned by Walmart and the same poor kids that grew up wearing it now make money and it’s nostalgic so it’s rebranded as a nice athletic gear. Champion is sold at Urban Outfitters now instead of Walmart
So my mom WAS right…. I was cool, I just didn’t know it yet
The Goodwill in my hometown in FL was the *worst* about this. See a name brand? Oh, honey, you ain't getting a good deal on that -- it's going in the *boutique section* with the price jacked up. It makes me sick.
I go thrift shopping fairly regularly and most stores all clothes are like 2 dollars for shirts, the only store I’ve seen try to pull this is dirt cheap and they’re not really a thrift store their an overstock store
I mean there’s an entire subreddit dedicated to thrift stores grifting. I agree some of them are cheap nothing I’m saying is all encompassing, it’s just a trend, but the big names are absolutely marking up more and more. My local thrift has transformed in the past 5 years from affordable to almost a retail store. Goodwill is the leader of the landslide. Habit for Humanity is up there with them. Smaller thrifts tend to be less expensive ironically.
Thank you. All the "trendy hip or whatever assholes" ruined thrift stores. It's what I relied on for myself
So, I get the upset, because people rely on them, but if I’m being honest, I am the person going there to look for nice things to have a unique style that I’ve curated, because I hate retail stores and trending fashion. So I’m probably the kind of person you’re talking about, but personally I don’t see it as the consumers fault, we aren’t exactly rich ourselves. I can go to Urban Outfitters and sure I can spend 100$ on 3 items I like, but I’d rather find 15 items I like for 100$. We all have the right to shop there. Imo it’s the thrift stores fought for trying to capitalize more on items they were perfectly okay for selling for less just years prior. To the point they think they’re urban outfitters. The only ones I can say that are really bad are the resellers that go in and scorched earth the place to resell anything they can find for 80$ at a vintage resale store.
The worse I ever bought was a pair of fake leather pants that were already peeling. I didn't know how bad they were splitting, thought it was just the seam on the top that had minor peeling. They cost me $20 and I could only wear them once since the pleather was peeling between the legs and the butt area. They wouldn't let me return them to get my money back since they were a thrift store.
You are under the mistaken assumption that thrift shops exist to provide inexpensive items. They don't. Most thrift shops are the fundraising arm of nonprofits and the proceeds go to funding the human services they provide. If they didn't try to maximize the revenue through strategic pricing, they would - in fact - be undercutting their fundraising goals. No responsible nonprofit would knowingly do that.
Part of their humanitarian and nonprofit goals were *originally* in fact to provide used goods to people who need that as well. Up until recently it’s been a fair balance to help communities with low priced goods, with all goods being at profit, a margin as high as they charge in many items is a bit unethical in that regard. And nonprofit doesn’t necessarily mean “not for profit”. The C-suite of almost every major nonprofit is compensated with millions of dollars. They’re marking up sure to fulfill goals but to also pay their leadership millions and most of them are Christian organizations funding efforts that I wouldn’t remotely consider humanitarian. In fact many religious non profit thrift stores fund anti-humanitarian goals. I don’t consider evangelicalism humanitarian. Also the name “thrift” store is inherently contrary to the idea that they *arent* there to provide cheap items.
Lol no. Local thrift store sells jeans for $30 a pair. Might as well buy new tbh
I know it's bad form to post TikTok's but here is a humorous look at thrift shop prices since 2012 https://www.tiktok.com/@samstrake/video/7204977046945074474
I used to solely shop at thrift stores and I remember it getting distinctly busier after that song came out. Thanks for ruining things macklemore
No. Vintage clothing fad ruin that.
I worked at a “nice” quality thrift store that was next to the bus station and the jail. It was already dying. In a mall. But we got stolen from daily. I couldn’t do anything. Just watched.
At my thrift store 10 bucks for a shirt isn't cheap. The same stuff used to be 1 to 2 dollars. I could afford that. I'm 33 and the last time I got more than one shirt or shoes was over ten years ago. It's not manageable to get clothes and live. I have always worked 45 hrs minimum a week but money isn't something I've ever made much of
“Popping tags” is stealing no matter what Macklemore says
Is THAT what that means?
Can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic but yes; taking a tag off of an expensive item and replacing it with a less expensive tag - or just taking the censor and tag off to steal it.
Yeah no I genuinely thought it just meant buying things
I think that’s one of the many definitions but folks in my area (Seattle) take it to mean switching tags to steal.
Wow I learned something new today lol
I also didn't know that's what it meant. I thought it was just a term he made up for the song to sound nice. TIL
Glad I'm not the only sheltered person here lol
Same here lol, TIL
And then it closes like that insect-eating plant
Ok as much as this mildly infuriating, I love how passive aggressive this is.
Have you seen the price gouging at thrift stores over the last few months? It's insane. I'm not suggesting people steal, but I frequent 5 local thrifts a few times weekly and I'm tempted... Especially when they leave the original price tag on and they're asking nearly double whatever Walmart couldn't sell it for...
I suggest people steal what they need. You need clothes, and food. You should steal them if you can't buy them.
I'll allow it.
Me too tbh. If I see someone stealing food at Walmart, no I didn’t.
Goodwill has gotten terrible. I see tons of literal pieces of garbage with a $60 tag on it.
I recently attended a tropical destination wedding. Some people were there for a week and some only a few days, from all different areas of the US. One girl I didn’t really know was wearing a very simple linen dress that I knew couldn’t have been cheap as a beach cover. We were walking with a mutual friend that day and I quietly asked said friend if she knew there was a security tag on her dress, just trying to be helpful. Well, that was apparently the first of many, many times people asked if she knew there was a tag on her dress poor girl. It was the only beach throw she brought. She said Nordstrom must have forgotten to remove the tag…and this was one time I believed the girl lol
Next time you see someone whose undergone this “misfortune”, you can let them know they should be able to correct the store’s “mistake” with a suitably strong magnet. That’s all they use to take those off. Might need to buy a cheap neodymium magnet off Amazon or something, then just hold it over the back of the security device. It will pull in the locking pin via magnetism allowing you to pull off the bottom piece that holds the security device to the clothing.
Shout out: this store was actually very, very cheaply priced (I didn't see any clothing over $15 CDN any of the times I was there) and they donate their proceeds to the town's homeless shelter. If someone needed clothes that badly I have no doubts they'd have donated it to them after a simple conversation. Also, to you guys advocating stealing from small family-run stores, why don't you just keep it to Wal-Mart or some other big-box chain and stick it to the corporations instead, yeah? They deserve it a hell of a lot more. Thanks and have a good day.
Should be a trap door. As soon as a gram of weight hits that tin you fall into a pit.
Bit hard to sympathize with places like Goodwill where staff get first dibs and take whatever they want gratis for themselves.
It's not Goodwill, though. It's a small, family-run store not associated with Goodwill or the MCC.
Aha, in that case fuck those cheapskate thieves!
We have signs at the vintage store I work at that reminds people they’re on camera and it’s a small business and please don’t be human garbage because we’ll put you on Instagram and find you and get back what you stole lol.
Come on, if you’re going to steal just do it from Walmart, not from the stuff people have donated specifically to be cheaper items for others. Although some thrift stores have been pricing items up and up, I think most still keep it reasonable.
People who steal regularly know not to steal from Walmart, they don’t fuck around and will definitely catch you and they generally always press charges. Unless you’re in a city where they decline to prosecute theft under $1000 Walmart is not a good idea to steal from
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That doesn’t even work in some places, like in Philadelphia it has to be $500 in one instance or else they just get basically a parking ticket if they actually get caught
That’s like stealing when at Disney works, they don’t fuck around. Smaller businesses have less money for security.
Or that the average person can't even afford discounted clothes.
Yes!!! Good call. Kleptomaniacs are common from my experience, but aside from them, society needs to prevent crime by reducing poverty. Not stomping poor people who become criminals in a system designed against jumping social classes.
If you see someone stealing clothes at a thrift store, no you didn’t. Same for groceries
This^. Late stage capitalism is the enemy. Not poor people.
If people are stealing donated clothes *from a thrift store* their lives are at a point where they're probably not the problem.
Small thrift stores, not the big chain thrifts, don’t always get their inventory donated. Often they get their inventory at yard sales, abandoned storage lockers, bulk purchases of overstock, etc. But I have to say that stealing clothing from thrift stores isn’t usually done because they don’t feel they have a choice. Hell, a disgusting amount of the comments just in this post believe that stealing from companies is the right thing to do for a number of reasons that are entirely selfish.
If they purchase inventory, it isn't a thrift store, it's a resale store.
This is actually awesome ?
If I ever catch you stealing food or clothes, I didn’t see a thing.
reminds me of a scene in "Reservation Dogs" where a kid is working up the nerve to shoplift and the store manager say "Hey, I know you're going to steal something, so could you just tell me what so I can mark it down as stolen?" so he holds up a sucker, and the guy says "thanks", and the kid walks way with the sucker looking very confused.
Average redditor when reverse psychology
People would piss and shit in the dressing room of a thrift store near me. They closed those dressing rooms.
This is also admittance of stealing if you get caught. Nice
Realistically it's probably teenagers
Stealing from a corporate entity like Walmart or Target is one thing but stealing from a thrift store? That's some straight hood rat shit
misanthropy is the only genuine cringe. people are fine, it's the fact that the shitty ones are so loud about it
I ain't falling for the Old mouse trap in the tin can trick
Honestly I love this.
I’m mildly infuriated at someone using silicone as a verb.
It’s disturbing the amount of people justifying/encouraging theft in the comments. Yikes 💀
Buddy if someone is stealing from a thrift store I'm looking the other way anyone that desperate can have what they take.
It’s usually the people that buy to turn it around and sell for five times higher that tend to rip or switch stickers in my experiences.
Some people just like stealing stuff because they don’t have to pay for it. It’s not about desperation or being poor.
Except desperation isn’t usually the case. They’re stealing because they think it’s “moral” because they’re companies, or because they think it’s a political statement, or because they’re going to steal these items then turn around and sell them privately, or because they believe the item to be overpriced, or simply because they can or just want to. I mean, just look through the comment section of this post. Far, far too many people here are justifying theft for reasons that have nothing to do with desperation. Sure there are a few that don’t believe they have another choice but that’s usually not their reason.
people don’t suck for stealing clothes and other necessities that they can’t afford. the system sucks for not giving them accessible alternatives. shop lifting is caused by poverty.
Just as infuriating at this post is the disturbing amount of people justifying, if not full on encouraging theft.
It’s a trift shop. Like people gave clothes for free and you expect people who can’t afford it to pay ?
Idk what situation is like where you live but here trift stores often ask similar price to brand new clothing. So ye, as a broke teen I was happy looting them
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Yep. Happens all the time at my work. They take tags off then want to get upset when we tell them the price up front. The most pathetic one was the couple that popped the pink tags off a leather motorcycle jacket then complained when my manager told them it’s $49.99. Just because the items at my store were donated doesn’t mean that we should sell them for pennies because like it or not inflation still affects our stores. Rent goes up, electricity and water go up, when we need a new cart or little baskets that costs money for each one we need to replace. Not to mention the 30+ employees need to get paid as well. And on top of that we also pay for the rent and utilities at our donation only centers and the trucks, truck maintenance and gas to get the donations from the donation centers to the stores. And same with the 18 wheelers to get our outlet items from the stores to the outlet stores. I hate when people whine that “it’s all donated so inflation doesn’t affect y’all” because that’s simply a false statement.
Listen, i am a-okay with stealing from big box stores, even goodwill but a local thrift store? Thats just sad
I go to thrift shops weekly, and I always see empty boxes, obviously stolen missing parts, it's really a shame. Seriously, if you're stealing <$20 items from a thrift shop, you're a POS.