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Well, it's been about 5 months since I started working in an op shop (thrift store to the Americans, I believe) and today was just... all the crazy, annoying and downright stupid customers were out today.
Things that happen too often:
Customer: "There's no price on this!"
Nothing to do with the giant, fluro yellow boards all over the shop with item prices listed on it, perhaps?
Item is price X.
Customer: "I only have Y dollars, is that ok?"
Totally fine, if you want to buy something Y dollars.
Customer: "Don't you think that's a bit expensive for an op shop?
What I have to say: "Management sets the prices."
What I want to say: "Go to eBay, or Etsy, or any of the 3-4 vintage shops around the city. Then come back and tell me that brand new item is too expensive at half to a third of its original price."
Customer: "No discount?" / "Any discount?"
Are there shops that do secret sales? Like, you don't find out the actual price or promotion or anything until you get to the counter? We have 50% off sales once a month, and during the sale we change all the signs in the store to reflect that. So if you don't see any signs up, then NO, NO DISCOUNT.
Our counter is for you to approach if you have questions, or to come to when you want to pay for your items. It is not a table for you to sort out what you do and don't want to buy!
At our store we have these mannequin torsos that hang - really basic, quite lightweight. We have 7 of them, mostly in the window but two hanging on pillars in the store. To be fair, only one of them says "please ask for assistance". So people feel quite free to strip the mannequins willy nilly. Annoying, but tolerable - we just try to check on them during the day to make sure they're dressed. My favourite/least favourite mannequin story involves a customer wanting the dress the mannequin was wearing, and deciding to take the dress and the mannequin into the fitting rooms with her. My co-worker and I spent about 5 minutes panicking, wondering how we could have missed somebody walking off down the street with one of our shop mannequins.
Last but not least:
We get an enormous amount of brand new items into our store, though we're technically a secondhand place. These items are ticketed to reflect that, though $25-30 is as high as they go and $10-15 is the norm for these types of items. As well as ticketing, we use gold or silver pigment pen to write the price on the actual garment tag. Why do we do this? Because a staggering amount of customers will rip off the price tag and try to get the item at a 'normal' price. I often used to let such items slide, but the amount of times I've found price tags ripped off and shoved under the bench in the fitting rooms, I always call people out on it now.
Things that happen too often:
Customer: "There's no price on this!"
Nothing to do with the giant, fluro yellow boards all over the shop with item prices listed on it, perhaps?
Item is price X.
Customer: "I only have Y dollars, is that ok?"
Totally fine, if you want to buy something Y dollars.
Customer: "Don't you think that's a bit expensive for an op shop?
What I have to say: "Management sets the prices."
What I want to say: "Go to eBay, or Etsy, or any of the 3-4 vintage shops around the city. Then come back and tell me that brand new item is too expensive at half to a third of its original price."
Customer: "No discount?" / "Any discount?"
Are there shops that do secret sales? Like, you don't find out the actual price or promotion or anything until you get to the counter? We have 50% off sales once a month, and during the sale we change all the signs in the store to reflect that. So if you don't see any signs up, then NO, NO DISCOUNT.
Our counter is for you to approach if you have questions, or to come to when you want to pay for your items. It is not a table for you to sort out what you do and don't want to buy!
At our store we have these mannequin torsos that hang - really basic, quite lightweight. We have 7 of them, mostly in the window but two hanging on pillars in the store. To be fair, only one of them says "please ask for assistance". So people feel quite free to strip the mannequins willy nilly. Annoying, but tolerable - we just try to check on them during the day to make sure they're dressed. My favourite/least favourite mannequin story involves a customer wanting the dress the mannequin was wearing, and deciding to take the dress and the mannequin into the fitting rooms with her. My co-worker and I spent about 5 minutes panicking, wondering how we could have missed somebody walking off down the street with one of our shop mannequins.
Last but not least:
We get an enormous amount of brand new items into our store, though we're technically a secondhand place. These items are ticketed to reflect that, though $25-30 is as high as they go and $10-15 is the norm for these types of items. As well as ticketing, we use gold or silver pigment pen to write the price on the actual garment tag. Why do we do this? Because a staggering amount of customers will rip off the price tag and try to get the item at a 'normal' price. I often used to let such items slide, but the amount of times I've found price tags ripped off and shoved under the bench in the fitting rooms, I always call people out on it now.
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