A reseller is raising questions related to gender bias after she says Plato’s Closet purchased items from her husband that they wouldn’t buy from her.
“I buy things for a dollar at my Amazon bin store to sell to Plato’s Closet,” Amanda (@amanda.commonthreads) explains in a video that’s been viewed over 74,000 times. “Today we’re sending my husband in with a bunch of stuff that we’ve already tried to sell to them, as well as a few new things, to see if they are going to pay a man more than they’ve paid me.”
By the time her husband had wrapped up the transaction 20 minutes later, he’d returned with $70 for his troubles.
“$70 is more than they paid me the past four or five times that I’ve gone,” Amanda says.
Have other resellers experienced gender bias?
This isn’t the first time a TikToker has suggested their husband got a better deal on selling used clothing to a resale store. A video went viral back in March when another woman pulled the same experiment with Once Upon a Child, claiming her husband made $48 for clothing they had previously refused to take from her.
In an email to the Daily Dot, Amanda said, “In many of my previous videos, people were telling me that [buy sell trade stores] are known to take more from men than women & now that I have posted this video, even more people have said they experience the same thing.”
Sure enough, comments on this particular video backed that up.
“I always have my husband go,” wrote one commenter. “I went from 15 dollars to 50/60.”
“Yes!!!! Once upon a child took several things from my bf vs me,” another user agreed.
“I always have my husband go because I am lazy, and I always get $80-$100,” a third admitted. “Now I have a real reason.”
Other factors at play
That said, individual anecdotes don’t exactly prove a bias issue, and some viewers pointed out there are so many other factors at play when reselling clothes to stores.
“As a plato’s employee i def don’t pay out more when it comes to gender but time of day definitely comes into play, as well as if they are freshly washed, neatly folded etc!” one commenter explained.
Another viewer suggested that some places might “give more money your first time to keep you coming back! At least that’s what I’ve experienced selling at kid to kid,” they added.
Another person claiming to be an employee at Plato’s Closet said, “Prices are based on a set system (our computers do the math & although what we take slightly varies depending on the buyer, it’s all based on condition & inventory needs!”
In Amanda’s case, the items had a lot of overlap with things she had previously sold, but there were new things mixed in. Her husband got to the store first thing in the morning. She admitted that she didn’t know if the same employee she had tried to sell to before was the one who ultimately bought from him.
@amanda.commonthreads Replying to @melbell Does Platos Closet take more from men than they do from women? What do you think?? 🤨#platoscloset #platos #platosclosethaul #buyselltrade #consignment #platosclosettips ♬ original sound – Amanda.commonthreads
Gender bias on a wider scale
Of course, gender bias is still a critical problem in all walks of life. Just last year, a United Nations report showed that nine out of 10 people still have a bias against women on a startlingly wide variety of issues.
“There really is no hate towards buy sell trade stores like Plato’s Closet, Uptown Cheapskate or Buffalo Exchange,” Amanda emphasized to the Daily Dot. “This truly was just a social experiment to see if internalized misogyny or patriarchy plays a role in their buying process. Even if it is more subconscious than they might think.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Plato’s Closet via email.
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