22 Jul Thrift Etiquette: What Not to Do While Thrifting

I’ve done quite a few posts on the do’s and don’ts of thrifting {check out thrift shopping 101 and 10 Thrift Commandments}, but I’ve never really done anything on thrift etiquette. Well, after this weekend, I had to change that.

For the past decade, I’ve been a serious secondhand shopper and I’ve seen a lot of things, but I’m noticing people are becoming increasingly aggressive and some are just jerks.

Last weekend was my thrift shopping tour at the Goodwill Outlet. And when clothes are $1.69/pound, it can bring out some serious, hmm, how should I say this…animals. The Goodwill Outlet has been a favorite of mine for about four years, but I stopped going. Nothing against the store, but with an increasingly busy schedule, I couldn’t always make it out to Long Island City. But in my absence, the store is now run over with people who behave in a way they wouldn’t in a “regular” store.

In light of these events, here’s what you absolutely, positively should not do at the thrift store:

Don’t Attack:
There’s something interesting that happens when employees place bins with new merchandise on the floor. Here’s how it goes at the Outlet: everyone lines up at the front of the store, sales associates wheel about six or seven bins out and then everyone attacks. The ladies who were on my thrift tour were baffled at what was going on and one even jokingly asked, “should I be afraid?” I told the ladies they can get in the middle of the action to see what it’s like or they can just hang in the back and keep thrifting where the store wasn’t so crazed. But either way, I assured them they would find amazing pieces, and they did. The shoppers who chose to engage in the chaos were running, in a state of chaos and grabbing everything. Whether you go in to attack mode or not, there’s more than enough to go around and I really don’t think the people who got first dibs on the bins lucked out any better than anyone else.

Take What You Need and Leave the Rest:
For the people who chose to push, shove and attack the bins, they all seemed to have one general strategy: grab everything in sight. Now don’t get me wrong, there is a thrifting strategy that goes grab-things-that-catch-your-eye-and-edit-down-later. That’s a bit different than grabbing any and everything. These folks were scooping up random items by the handful and throwing them in their carts {after amassing multiple carts, they finally narrowed down their selection}. The general idea behind that strategy is take everything, in case something valuable or cute is in the pile, and leave others with nothing. As I mentioned before, there’s enough to go around for everyone. Taking a second or two to pause, see what you’re picking up and deciding if it’s remotely of interest to you is much better than operating from a place of, “I want it all, even if I don’t need it!!!

If It’s Not Your Cart, Don’t Touch It:
I always advise shoppers to keep their carts nearby because an unattended cart can be a treasure trove for a fellow shopper. At the Outlet, the aisles are kinda narrow, so shoppers aren’t always close to their carts. During Saturday’s tour, I noticed a woman holding up a skirt that looked eerily similar to a skirt one my thrift tour ladies had in her cart. I walked closer to the woman with the skirt and she put it back in our cart. She clearly knew the skirt and cart didn’t belong to her. And later in the afternoon, the same woman tried to swipe another item from our cart. By this point she clearly knew the cart had an owner and she had no qualms about attempting to take the contents inside of it. When you’re at the grocery store, you wouldn’t take food out of someone else’s cart, correct? It’s the same principle while thrift shopping.

Thrifting can be competitive, but it doesn’t have to be. And no matter what, don’t lose your manners just to score an amazing item.

These are just a few etiquette pointers. Have you seen anything really crazy while thrift shopping? What are your personal etiquette tips? Have you ever got caught up in the moment and done something questionable in the quest to find a cheap chic item?