Is This The Norm?

[AnaKhouri]

I am wondering if this happens to anyone else, or if it was specific to the store I worked at...

Back in high school and for a while in college I worked at T.J. Maxx. We had regular customers that came in every couple days, like any business. But there were a few that were...special.

These women (they were all women) would come in and purchase enormous quantities of stuff. Then, a couple days later, they would return it ALL. They did this on a regular basis. Clothes, home goods, toys...they brought it all back. And they did this over and over, at least once a week or every couple weeks. There were 3 or 4 women I recall doing this on a regular basis. I don't think they actually used the stuff and then returned it; there was just too much for anyone to use in a couple days. I wonder if it was some sort of psychological compulsion.

These were the same women who put huge quantities of stuff on layaway and never picked it up. I think we kept things for 90 days before putting them back on the floor, and we refunded any money paid on the layaway if the customer came back in, except for a $5 service fee. I swear some of these women spent $20 a month in unrefunded layaway service fees (but I don't recall any of them complaining about the fee either).

It was very strange. I have never seen this at any other store I have worked at, and I wondered if anyone else has had similar experiences.

[BarbieGirl]

Well I know my mom's friend can never fully make up her mind. She bought a tv from walmart and then hemmed and hawed over it, did I spend too much, is it the right size, do I really need it. I think she returned it twice before buying it and finally keeping it. She does this with almost everything that would be considered a 'big purchase' I think she even did it with ice cream once.

[hefegrande]

sounds like these women are getting a free wardrobe from you every week

[Hyndis]

My mother is prone to this. She'll buy all sorts of stuff she doesn't need or isn't quite sure she needs, then she ends up returning most of it. She does this mostly with clothes.

I don't understand her shopping habits. When I go shopping, I figure out within minutes what I want to buy. Rarely am I in a store for longer than 15 minutes, and its extremely rare that I return anything. The only time I will do returns is when the product is defective, such as getting home and finding out that a food package was ripped open in a way I didn't notice, or my software has a shattered DVD.

The funny thing is when I was younger, going clothes shopping with her was an absolute nightmare. I was able to decide if I wanted something right on the spot, but nooooo...I decided "too quickly" and thus we wouldn't leave until I picked something out, nevermind that I didn't want anything in the store, nor do I need to try on every single item of clothing in the entire store "just to be sure." Often times we'd spend 4-5 hours.

And this is a woman who can't even figure out what she wants on a restaurant menu without consulting everyone else at the table!


Its sooo nice being all grown up and able to do my own clothes shopping with my own money. I wouldn't quite put her in the SC category, but with all of her returns, she's definitely annoying.

[ShadedWings]

I vaguely remember something about this... from what I understand, people who do that are basically shopaholics, can't control their shopping habits, but realize they can't actually afford to keep the stuff. So, they buy things to satisfy their needs and then return it to get the money back. At least, that's how I understand it.

[draftermatt]

The funny thing is when I was younger, going clothes shopping with her was an absolute nightmare. I was able to decide if I wanted something right on the spot, but nooooo...I decided "too quickly" and thus we wouldn't leave until I picked something out, nevermind that I didn't want anything in the store, nor do I need to try on every single item of clothing in the entire store "just to be sure." Often times we'd spend 4-5 hours.

My mother would always say "well if you buy that now what if you decide you want something else later? Then you won't have the money to get it"

Which would lead us to walking the rest of the mall/store/flea market what have you until I decided that no I wanted the first thing I saw, and then trying to convince my mother to walk back to that place with me so I could get it.

I vaguely remember something about this... from what I understand, people who do that are basically shopaholics, can't control their shopping habits, but realize they can't actually afford to keep the stuff. So, they buy things to satisfy their needs and then return it to get the money back. At least, that's how I understand it.

That's what I was thinking.

[Music Mo-Gal]

These were the same women who put huge quantities of stuff on layaway and never picked it up. I think we kept things for 90 days before putting them back on the floor, and we refunded any money paid on the layaway if the customer came back in, except for a $5 service fee. I swear some of these women spent $20 a month in unrefunded layaway service fees (but I don't recall any of them complaining about the fee either).

It was very strange. I have never seen this at any other store I have worked at, and I wondered if anyone else has had similar experiences.

Yes, I am familiar with this phenomenon. When I worked at the mall back in the '80s there was a young woman named Peaches (how could I ever forget that name?) who was notorious for putting items on layaway in various mall stores. She would put down $5 to hold the item but would never come back.

[rerant]

My mother would always say "well if you buy that now what if you decide you want something else later? Then you won't have the money to get it"

Which would lead us to walking the rest of the mall/store/flea market what have you until I decided that no I wanted the first thing I saw, and then trying to convince my mother to walk back to that place with me so I could get it.

This is how I shop. I'll see something in a store and if I like it I'll make note of it, continue looking around to see if I like anything better or if I can find something just as good for a cheaper price.
I make mental notes all day, comparing them, then I finally make my decision and go back to the store of my choice.


I also often shop alone, so rarely is anyone forced to endure my insanity.

[Miyon]

My mom does this but in a slightly different way.

She will go to a store, buy tons of stuff, cloths, furniture, bath supplies etc. Then one or two days later she will realize she doesnt like most of the stuff.

So she does one of two things, returns the items or she calls me and says stuff like "I just bought this table and I dont like it, you want it?" This gets funny when its big things, like one time she bought all new furniture for her sun room, a week passes, I get the call "You want it?"

Im not complaining, I havent bought myself any furniture in about 10 years.

But she does return more then she gives away, I think Shadewings is right, she is a shopaholic and cant help but buy things.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

These women (they were all women) would come in and purchase enormous quantities of stuff. Then, a couple days later, they would return it ALL. They did this on a regular basis. Clothes, home goods, toys...they brought it all back. And they did this over and over, at least once a week or every couple weeks. There were 3 or 4 women I recall doing this on a regular basis. I don't think they actually used the stuff and then returned it; there was just too much for anyone to use in a couple days. I wonder if it was some sort of psychological compulsion.

These were the same women who put huge quantities of stuff on layaway and never picked it up. I think we kept things for 90 days before putting them back on the floor, and we refunded any money paid on the layaway if the customer came back in, except for a $5 service fee. I swear some of these women spent $20 a month in unrefunded layaway service fees (but I don't recall any of them complaining about the fee either).

1. Evidently, it is normal enough that Norm Feuti, in his wonderful wonderful book Pretending You Care, gives these customers their own nickname: Boomerang Buyers.

They're addicted to the cathartic effects of retail therapy, but lack the wherewithal to keep the items they purchase every time.

The way you deal with these people is to become an uber-salesperson and try to convince them to hang onto the items they're returning. Urge them to reconsider, point out every possible benefit of the items they're trying to return, suggest all kinds of add-on sales, etc. They're shopping for the thrill and enjoyment of just shopping; if you take out the joy form the experience they'll go someplace else.

2. This is probably one of the biggest reasons why stores have stopped offering layaway. Too much merchandise tied up for no good reason. In your case it was just clothes and home goods, but if people are putting things like hot toys and video games on layaway and then never buying them in full, the store is losing sales because people can't buy the hot toys and video games because they're being held for other people. And then these shoppers go elsewhere.

[MoxisPilot]

My mother would always say "well if you buy that now what if you decide you want something else later? Then you won't have the money to get it"

Which would lead us to walking the rest of the mall/store/flea market what have you until I decided that no I wanted the first thing I saw, and then trying to convince my mother to walk back to that place with me so I could get it.



That's what I was thinking.

My mom is the SAME WAY.

She also drove it into my mind that any article of clothing that costed more than $10 was ridiculously expensive.

I'm just now getting over my inability to part with my money, mostly because I need clothing and "Sale Shopping" isn't an option right now.

[blas]

When I was in middle school, one of the biggest trends was for girls to buy clothes, keep the tags on, and return them the next day or whenever they could go back to the mall.

[Demonoid Phenomenon]

I witnessed the same phenomenon myself when I worked at Marshall's, which is owned by the same company as TJ Maxx!

There were so many people who would put up these HUGE layaways and do one of several things.
1) Never come back
2) Come back later for a refund (if there was anything to refund after the fees were deducted)
3) Return every few days to switch out this or add that
4) A combination of any or all three

And, yes, we had the folks who bought bags of clothing just to return the bulk of it later. I guess it might be more comfortable to try on things at home, but going through the process of returning to the store and getting a refund (which could take forever if any tags were removed and a price check had to be done on one or more items to verify the price) seems time consuming and inconvenient.

We had one lady who routinely purchased piles of clothing, removed every last tag, and then brought 95% of it all back. Her returns were a nightmare because we had to verify the price of everything she returned. She had to know she was going to bring most of this stuff back (because she always did), so I can't fathom why she had to remove the tags just to try the stuff on.

[AnaKhouri]

3) Return every few days to switch out this or add that

GAAAH! I remember that too...it was the worst, especially around Christmas time when the layaway line often stretched for miles and every single customer had to spend 10 minutes picking through their layaway and confusing me by doing that.

I will NEVER work clothing retail again, I swear!

[The Real Slim Shady]

In the store I work in, these people are usually Secret Shoppers. Their job is to basically "police" the store and take note on cleanliness of the floor, dressing rooms, registers, as well as the promptness of our customer service. They always buy something and nine times out of ten they return everything within the next few days.

They then grade each employee on their attitude while helping and how smoothly the transaction was processed. I hate them with so much passion, because they always seem to "grade" unfairly, or based off partial evidence.

I don't anyone with a buying compulsion, but it's interesting to hear about it. You can tell I'm one of those cheapskates who has trouble buying anything if it's not absolutely necessary to a continuing existance.

Also, first post! Yay!