One shopper shared her shock at a local thrift store’s exorbitant price markup on a Target item in a viral video.
“Very few things shock me now at the thrift store—AKA: the prices,” TikTok user Taylor Beagle (@drab.to.dreamy) began, filming in the middle of her local thrift store.
“I am not at Goodwill,” she confirms. “I know everyone always says, ‘Oh, Goodwill’s the worst, their CEO makes billions of dollars.’ I am at a local thrift store in my town, and at the front, by the cashier, you can see they have these glass displays—you are not going to believe what I just saw in there. And the price? One second.”
The video cuts to show a glass case filled with keepsakes.
“OK, so I’m at the front,” Beagle states. She focuses the camera on a pink and white bottle. “Do you see that body spray? Do you know what this is?”
“This is the Frenshe body spray that is at Target for $14.99,” Beagle whispers. She explains that she’s trying to remain quiet because she’s so close to the cash register.
“Let me show you how much this is, you’re going to lose your mind.” When Beagle zooms in, the price tag reveals that the bottle is $12.99.
“Do you see that?” Beagle asks. “Are we joking? I’m sorry, what?”
“That body spray, brand new in the store, is $14.99,” she says, then repeats herself for emphasis. “That body spray, brand new in the store, is $14.99.”
“What’re we gonna do?” She asks. “What’re we gonna do?”
It’s not the first time this has happened
Beagle has posted about finding overpriced items at the thrift store before. Last April, she spotted a $6 Target purse for $9.99 at Goodwill. Other thrifters have reported markups as high as $10 more than the original price at their local Goodwill stores.
Commenters were equally shocked, and some shared similar experiences they’d had at their own local thrift stores.
“Goodwill was selling Lululemon FREE shopping bags for $29.99,” one of the top comments read.
“I see things at the thrift store for $5 when it was bought from the dollar tree. Brand new would be $1,” another user added.
One commenter discussed her own experience working at a thrift store. “I worked at a thrift store for two and a half years…” she said. “I priced miscellaneous items, and the higher ups pressured us to overprice to make more profit and wouldn’t let us price below a certain amount…”
Why are thrift stores marking up their goods?
Shoppers across the country have witnessed a rise in thrift store prices over the past few years. Maddie Duley at Yahoo Finance wrote a piece last August that compared reported Goodwill prices to retail prices at Walmart. She concluded that in some cases, it’s actually cheaper for people to buy from Walmart.
People often blame the online reselling market for the recent price hike at thrift stores. Apps like Depop and ThredUp have created an internet community of people who buy and sell fashionable thrift store finds for an upcharge.
While it can be tempting to blame individual resellers for the rising prices at thrift stores, Michigan Daily columnist Olivia Mouradian urges people to focus on the corporations setting the prices instead.
“Considering only about 20% of the clothing Americans donate ends up being sold to consumers, the argument that resellers create scarcity within thrift stores is a limited one,” Mouradian writes in a 2021 article on the subject.
@drab.to.dreamy My jaw is on the actual floor…..this isnt even GW. This is a LOCAL THRIFT STPRE 😳 #thrift #thrifted #thriftstore #thriftwithme #thriftfinds #thriftfail #goodwill #goodwillfinds #goodwillhaul #thrifthaul #wtf #fyp ♬ original sound – drab.to.dreamy
She points out that many thrift stores, despite being nonprofits, abide by corporate practices. A new one of these corporate practices is the Goodwill Marketplace, Goodwill’s online storefront that is available on eBay, Amazon, and their website.
Some online users have reported that Goodwill saves high-end items to sell on their online storefront, using eBay to price them similarly to other eBay or Amazon resellers So, reselling might be behind thrift store upcharging, just not in the way most people think.
The Daily Dot reached out to Taylor Beagle for comment via TikTok and Instagram direct message.
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