It might be a staple in American retail, but Goodwill has had its fair share of controversies. Numerous times, customers have felt scammed by the store—whether it be through selling used Starbucks cups or reselling $6 Target items for $15. However, for TikToker @reddingrevealed, the red tag sale ended up being the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“I’m turning into a Goodwill hater,” she said in a viral video. The creator began by explaining how she specifically went into the store for “red tag day,” only to find that there wasn’t a single red tag on the shop floor. As she vented her frustrations, the video showed an assortment of Goodwill items lacking that all-important red tag. The lack of red tags reportedly led to the TikToker asking the security guard what happened. She said he urged her to “look harder” before admitting that nobody had found a “single red tag” that day.
“Total ramble,” she added in the caption, “but I don’t understand how they’re allowed to say sale — and it literally not be anywhere on the floor.”
Commenters on the video, which amassed 57,500 views, shared their own theories about the absence of red tag items.
“They hide all the tags that are on sale,” one claimed. “They purposely tell their employees to remove them from the floor,” another alleged. A purported former Goodwill employee also added weight to these claims, noting: “Can confirm we would pull sale colors off the floor. they’d get boxed up and shipped off somewhere else.”
The TikToker didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via TikTok comment.
@reddingrevealed Total ramble, but i dont understand how they’re allowed to say sale- and it litterally not be anywhere on the floor?? #goodwill #thrifitng #thrift ♬ original sound – Odd Duck Clothing
What is the Goodwill red tag sale?
Every five weeks, Goodwill stores rotate their stock. The outlet uses red, green, yellow, blue, and orange tags to indicate how long an item has been on the sales floor. Each week, most Goodwill stores will have a color tag sale, wherein all tags of a particular color will have a certain percentage off. The most infamous of these is the red tag sale, where, usually, all Goodwill items with the red tag will be marked as being 50 percent off.
However, finding items in the color tag sale isn’t always that simple. Previously, TikToker Sarah (@sarahisbored) went viral after asking a Goodwill employee what color tag had an extra sale on that day. “[The employee] was like, ‘It’s orange. But just so you know, we pull all the orange stuff, basically, off the floor, because we need to make our quotas,’” the TikToker said.
She continued, “I knew Goodwill was shady because all of the prices were going up and stuff, but I didn’t know it was like that. Every time I go in, I can’t find the color tag for … the discount of the day. So that makes so much sense.”
Goodwill didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via email.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
