It is just after the summer prom season. A customer (presumably a mother) is bringing back a kid’s jacket.

Customer: “I want to return this.”

Me: “What is the reason for the return.”

Customer: “Didn’t fit.”

Me: “So it wasn’t used?”

Customer: “No, it didn’t fit!”

Returning an item after you’ve (obviously) used it for the seasonal purpose it was intended for is already pretty bad, but this is a charity shop! We process the return but she’s back five minutes later:

Customer: “Did I leave £5 in the pocket?”

Related:
Refunder Blunder, Part 68
Refunder Blunder, Part 67
Refunder Blunder, Part 66
Refunder Blunder, Part 65
Refunder Blunder, Part 64

I work in a charity shop and for several months have been trying to get permission to do a Eurovision-themed window display.

We all love the spectacle, I love decorating the fun/silly holiday windows, and with an international customer base like ours, it can be fun to talk about it at work. We have just gotten three new full-body mannequins in addition to our beloved dressmakers’ dummies, and the finals are this week, so I am finally let loose!

The male mannequin, who we named George, gets dressed in a very cheap and shiny black and silver costume tracksuit and baseball cap, with one of the females, Gina, in a coordinating mini dress and holding a prop microphone. Gertie, mannequin #3, gets a very 1990s-style gold evening dress, red glitter heels, and a red feather fan held coyly over her face. I hang a sequin blazer with a tag marking it on hold for [Famous Irish Two-Time Winner], make some simple paper flags, and hang a disco ball over them all while prepping a poster in keeping with the theme. It’s not my finest work, but I’m satisfied with it, and my supervisor and my coworker (who also loves Eurovision and does our merchandising) approve.

The next day, I am working on the till with my back to the window displays. A coworker comes up to me in a rush.

Coworker: “Those ladies are undressing George! Look!”

This is less than ideal as George is very obviously presented as “masculine”, and he’s in a prominent window on a major street! I recognise them as regulars who really like sparkly clothes, and I trot around as fast as I can.

Me: “Sorry, those outfits are not for sale!”

One lady has George’s top half on the floor and his jacket on herself and is trying to pull the pants off. These mannequins are held up by a pole sticking into the back of one leg so, thankfully, she is struggling to lift his lower half off of it.

The rest of this conversation takes place over a translator app as I pull his pants back up.

Me: “Sorry, these outfits aren’t priced and are not for sale.”

Customer #1: “Why are they not for sale?”

Me: “They’re just being used for decoration.”

Customer #1: “When will they be for sale, then?”

I don’t get a chance to respond clearly that they’re Halloween costumes as I have to remove George’s arms to get him dressed again. The woman wanders off, clearly unhappy with the situation and obviously complaining about me to her friends.

My coworker and I laugh in disbelief for a minute when they leave. Even with [Major Fast Fashion Website]’s bad quality merchandise, this get-up is obviously not made for everyday wear!

Later on, as I am adding the final touches and hanging my poster, another customer walks in and stops at gold-and-red glamorous Gertie.

Customer #2: “Excuse me, I know the tag says, ‘Not for sale,’ but do you know how much this dress is?”

Me: *Flustered* “Ehm, no. I pulled it out of the rails before it was priced. I think it’s a [size], but I really won’t know about the price until my manager is in again.”

We don’t sell many evening dresses, so I didn’t even think to ask first and just grabbed the first dress that fit my idea from the back of a rail. To be honest, I didn’t expect anyone to even glance at it and assumed it’d end up either put back in storage or recycled.

Customer #2: “Will it be priced when the window gets changed? Do you know?”

Me: “Yeah, it wasn’t supposed to be going for sale yet, but I’ll pass it on to the manager next time she’s in.”

Customer #2: “Can I leave you my number or something? It’s absolutely gorgeous!”

Me: “Absolutely! If you just go around to [Supervisor] at the desk, she’ll take your details, and we’ll let you know about the size and the price as soon as we can.”

She also admired Gina’s very short-and-shiny costume dress, and we giggled over similar outfits on people we knew before walking on toward the desk. 

I always get some amused compliments on my tacky windows, but I’ve never had a customer walk in and try to strip one! But on the bright side, thanks to [Customer #2], we now have some ideas for a vintage formalwear display, too.

Several years ago, I was volunteering at a charity shop from a national cancer charity. When I started volunteering, it was late spring, around the end of April or May. I volunteered in the shop two days a week throughout the summer.

One beautiful July morning, I arrived at the shop just as the manager came in from the back room, carrying some sort of stand, which he started setting up in the area directly in front of the cash register. I watched, intrigued.

Me: “What’s that you’ve got there, [Manager]?”

Manager: “This… is the stand for the official [Cancer Charity] Christmas cards. They go on sale today.”

Me: “Christmas cards?”

Manager: “That’s right. Christmas cards. The head office has instructed us to put them on sale today.”

Me: “But… it’s July!”

[Manager] smiled and sighed. I could tell that he was really not happy about having to put Christmas cards on sale in July, but he clearly had no say in the matter.

Manager: “Yes, [My Name]. It is July. But the head office has decided that they should go on sale today, so they go on sale today.”

Clearly unhappy, he set about unboxing the Christmas cards and putting them into the display. He had even been sent a PHOTOGRAPH from the head office, showing which cards went where in the display. I decided to make myself useful and help him put everything out.

Over the next few weeks, the display of Christmas cards sat there untouched. Nobody even looked at them. All our customers were either looking for lightweight summer clothing (July had been particularly warm for Belfast this year), DVDs (which always sold like hotcakes), or books (which also tended to sell pretty quickly).

In September of that year, I left the shop because I’d been accepted onto a new full-time college course, and by the time my last day came around, we hadn’t sold a single card.

In October, I had a few days off for half-term, so I popped into the shop to see everyone and say hi. After chatting with the woman at the cash register for a few minutes, I went into the back room, where I found [Manager] helping a couple of women steam some clothes ready for putting out onto racks.

Me: “Hi, [Manager]!”

He looked over his shoulder.

Manager: “Oh, hi, [My Name]! Great to see you!”

We spent a couple of minutes chatting, and he introduced me to one of the two women, who had only just started volunteering. I asked how things were going in the shop, and then I dropped this line.

Me: “I see those Christmas cards are selling well!”

[Manager] rolled his eyes and laughed.

Manager: “Oh, stop it. We haven’t sold even one of those bloody things. And we won’t. At least not until after Halloween!”

I’ve often wondered about who exactly in the head office made the decision that Christmas cards “had” to go on sale in mid-July, and I’ve had to conclude that it was someone who’d never actually WORKED in a retail environment — or they had, but it was so many years ago that they’d forgotten what it was like.

We have a regular customer who is very short-sighted and buys the most random items possible, so it’s hard to predict what he will want on any day. He’s not the nicest person, but he pays without complaining and usually spends quite a bit, so we tolerate his habits.

Even before the world situation, we kept the shop and our donations as clean and sanitized as possible. It’s normal to see a few old cloths behind the till so we can grab one and spot-clean items or wipe the counter down between customers.

I had a clean-but-ancient tea towel at the counter ready to dry off whatever I was cleaning. [Regular] came up to the till and grabbed it. He proceeded to examine it closely.

Regular: “What’s this?”

Me: *Confused but speaking clearly* “It’s my cleaning cloth.”

Regular: “Whaaaat?”

Me: *Louder* “It’s my cleaning cloth, for cleaning the counter!”

Regular: *Turning it around to find a price tag* “How much is it?”

Thankfully, my manager overheard and stepped in; [Regular] seems more willing to listen to her.

Manager: “It’s for cleaning the shop, [Regular]. It’s not for sale!”

He tossed it back down with a grunt and walked off to scrutinize something else.

He has done this three more times in the last four months and with worse cloths each time. It’s now a staff joke to put any of our shop supplies or personal items back in their right place before [Regular] tries to buy them.

I work in a charity bookshop. We accept donations of books, sort them, and set them out for sale. We have many regular customers who buy a few books, read them, return them, and buy more; our books are very cheap. An elderly gentleman I don’t recognise comes in and browses for a few minutes, chooses three books, and approaches the desk.

Me: “Hi. Just these three?”

Customer: “Yes, hold on…”

He hands them to me and rummages in his bag. He pulls out three books that have our price stickers on. I know they are from a few weeks ago as we have a date code on them.

Customer: “I’ve got these to give back to you.”

Me: “Oh, thank you! Okay, your total is £2.25.”

Customer: “I gave you those books back.”

Me: “Yes, thank you. I’ll add them to the donations.”

Customer: “So, we’re okay, then?”

He picks up the three books he chose.

Me: “Um, yeah. Okay, £2.25, please.”

Customer: “No, I gave you three books.”

Me: “Yes, and we appreciate the donation. Did you want to buy these ones?”

Customer: “I gave you three; I’m taking three. Why do you want money?”

Me: “I’m sorry, we’re a bookshop. We raise money for our charity. We do appreciate all donations, but we don’t give books away; we sell them.”

Customer: “So, I can’t take these?”

Me: “You can if you pay £2.25.”

Customer: “I paid for the other three!”

Me: “Yes, but if we just swapped books for free, we’d be a library. Do you want to pay for these or not?”

Customer: “Not!”

And out he stomped.