Our thrift store gets a new person to handle the shoes and purses department. She seems to be settling in well and she proves to be a good worker. It’s fairly common for people in one department to price things for someone in another. One day, several months in, the new person gives a half-yell in frustration.

New Coworker: “Oh, this is bulls***!”

Me: “What’s up, [New Coworker]?”

New Coworker: “Oh, [Coworker] asked me to keep an eye out for high heels for him. Do you have any idea how much that sucks?”

[Coworker] likes to crossdress and do shows.

Me: *Cautiously and a little worried* “Sucks?”

New Coworker: “Yeah, he needs a size ten. The biggest heel size I’ve ever found is a nine, and even that’s turning out to be really rare. I just can’t find any in his size! I found plenty of cute purses for him but no heels!”

Me: *Relieved* “Oh, well, don’t stress about it too much. He probably figured it would be nearly impossible to find them in his size. They probably have to be specially ordered in the store, so it’s not likely they’d be donated often. Just keeping an eye out is a big help.”

A few days later, I saw [New Coworker] with a small tub of priced purses showing them off to [Coworker]. He was overjoyed to go through them and make his choices for his next show.

I think management picked a good one for the team.

This story is part of our Feel Good roundup for October 2020!

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Read the Feel Good roundup for October 2020!

I work in a secondhand/thrift store. I’m approached by a teenage girl.

Teenager: “You work here? Come with me.” 

I don’t even get the chance to say a word before she walks past me and leads me to the furniture aisle, where her mother is waiting with a lamp in her hand.

Me: “You had a question, ma’am?”

Mother: “Yes. I want to buy this lamp along with this side table over here, but the lamp is a bit wobbly, see?”

She shakes the lamp hood which wobbles a teeny bit.

Mother: “I want a discount! Can I pay [price] for the set?”

Me: “Well, as it is a store with used and secondhand products, there can be slight imperfections. And since we already are giving you the lowest price possible, I think, we usually don’t do a lot of discounting. But I’m not the one doing the pricing on these things. You can ask my more qualified coworkers by the counter—”

The mother cuts me off and talks to her daughter.

Mother: “Honey, you dragged the wrong one here!”

Teenager: “So you are completely useless!”

They both smile as if it’s a joke. I don’t think calling someone ”useless” is a joke.

Me: “Or I could walk to the back storage and ask my supervisor. Just a second.”

I walk to the back, which is closer for me to walk to than the front counter, anyway, and go to my supervisor. I am glad I don’t have to deal with them anymore.

Me: “[Supervisor], can you go help these ladies there with a question about a lamp and a table?”

She goes out to help them while I resume my usual work in the storage. My supervisor comes back and seems pleased. 

Me: “Did you give them the discount?”

Supervisor: “Oh, yes! They were so polite about it, I thought, ‘Why not?’” 

Me: “Well, at least I’m glad they treated you politely. When I couldn’t provide them the answer they wanted, the girl called me ‘useless.’”

Supervisor: *Eyes narrowing* “They did? Oh, my… Now I regret that discount.”

Our registers are spaced along a counter, rather than at individual kiosks. A customer is at the register next to mine, chattering to my supervisor about what she’s going to do with her craft purchase. I’m not paying attention, partly because I’m not interested, but mostly because another customer has come to the tills.

I greet the next customer and start ringing them up. We’re a little way down the counter and I’m not talking loudly enough to drown her out, but apparently, the customer takes offense.

Customer #1: “Excuse me? Excuse me! HEY!”

She reaches over and raps my register monitor sharply.

Customer #1: “Are you listening to me?!”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but no. I was helping another customer.”

Customer #1: “Well, you need to remember your manners! Close your mouth and open your ears, because I’m talking and you’re supposed to be listening! I was saying that I’m going to—”

Me: “Ma’am, I have a customer to help. I cannot socialize.”

Customer #1: “You’re being very rude! I learned in elementary school that when one person talks, you’re supposed to listen!”

Customer #2: “And I learned in elementary school that when you’re at work, you do your job and don’t stand around socializing. Leave the poor cashier alone.”

Customer #1: “You stay out of this!”

The supervisor, who initially kind of froze up, speaks up.

Supervisor: “Ma’am, you were talking to me. My employee was not part of our conversation, so she was not required to listen. Now, here is your change, and you’re going to need to leave, as we have other customers to assist.”

[Customer #1] huffed but stormed off. She didn’t send in a complaint, as far as I know.

At my thrift store, each department uses secondhand selling websites — eBay, for one — to find out what a particular item seems to be going for in the market, and prices items that way. As such, anyone who tries to haggle is told that we simply don’t do that.

A customer comes in and sees a picnic basket for two behind the counter and asks so see it. It comes with two of each utensil, as well as space for a nice lunch and a bottle of wine to be stored.

Customer: “Wow, I really like that item… but not for [our low price].”

Me: “Sorry, sir, the price is as marked. Housewares determined they’re going for that price when used. We cannot haggle.”

Customer: “Hmm. You know, I bought a new one for [$5 higher than our price], retail price.”

Me: “Uh-huh.”

The customer is silent for a beat as he almost obsessively checks and rechecks every inch of the item.

Customer: “Wow. I really do like that. It’s really cool. But not for [our price]… Maybe [half our asking price]. But not [our price].”

Me: “Sorry, sir, we still don’t haggle here.”

He is silent for another beat, obviously waiting to see if I’ll throw in a “but…” in there. When I remain quiet, as well…

Customer: “Well, I really like it, but not for [our price].”

He waits again.

Me: “…”

He finally heaves a very long, very exaggerated sigh and does a full-body sag of epic disappointment and dejection before he reluctantly stops fiddling with the basket:

Customer: “Well, I guess I’ll have to think about it.”

I put it behind the counter once more and say in a falsely cheerful voice:

Me: “Thank you for your interest, sir! If you decide that you really do like it enough to pay our asking price, you just ask me to bring it out for you.”

Customer: “Well, I really do like it. Just not for that price.”

Me: “Have a good day! Bye-bye now!”

I mutter under my breath:

Me: “You don’t actually like it… you just want it cheaper, you cheapskate haggling jerk.”

He comes back the next day, and I can see that he is preparing to sigh over the item again. He oh-so-casually asks if I have talked to Housewares to see if they’d be willing to part with it for his offer, reiterating yet again how MUCH he likes it, and how he just needs us to come down a little on the price.

Me: *Smiling sweetly* “Oh, I’m so sorry, sir! A young gentleman came in two hours ago and bought it already. He said he was going to take a date out for a picnic lunch as soon as the weather turned nice.”

It was a pleasure to see the man’s face fall when he realized how he had missed out. 

It’s actually very common for someone to try wrangling discounts out of us. Some even threaten that no one else would “pay so much money” for the item they want. Almost every single time that happens, someone else will come along and snatch the item up for the asking price without batting an eye.

In our store, you snooze, you lose!

I used to work in a thrift store. And without a doubt, the very worst part of working there was the hagglers. Customers always assumed they knew how much something was really worth, especially in the collectibles section. I never bothered to count how many customers gave me grief about the prices, even though I had no control over the prices whatsoever.

At least once or twice, somebody had the gall to tell me to go to the back and tell the people who put on the price stickers that their prices were much too high, and one old man told me to my face that God didn’t love me because I was robbing the customers of their hard-earned money.

I especially dreaded when the workers put two different stickers on the same item by mistake, because the customer would demand the lower price every time. 

We had a few regular hagglers and my stomach would sink to my shoes every time I saw them. My most memorable moment was when a regular came by like usual, and I dreaded her the most because she was the “my way or the highway” kind of person. While she never got physically aggressive or anything, I could just tell she was a woman who knew what she wanted and wouldn’t take no for an answer. 

I can’t remember what item it was, but she was very adamant about purchasing a particular collectible that day while being just as adamant about not buying it for full price. As usual, she tried everything possible to get us to knock the price down, and she hung around the area for at least an hour. 

When she walked away for a bit, a man came to collectibles, saw that same item, and decided to buy it. He didn’t say anything about how much it cost; he just wanted it. How could I refuse? I wrote him the sales ticket, he came back with his receipt in good time, and he left with his little prize fair and square. 

You guessed it: the same lady came back — I swear my heart skipped a beat or two — and saw that the item was gone, and all I can tell you is that she was not a happy camper.

It was all I could do to refrain from telling her, “Well, gee, lady, maybe if you weren’t so picky about the price, you could have gotten your hands on it first. And you wouldn’t have saved that much money, anyway.”

I totally understand people who must stick to a strict budget, and I understand the need to save. Even so, as I witnessed there, and still witness from time to time at my current job, the lengths some people will go to save a measly two or three bucks are simply astounding.