Scoring a good deal while out thrifting can be a real rush for serious shoppers. But don’t forget to double-check those prices—sometimes a low dollar price point isn’t the steal it claims to be.
TikToker @drab.to.dreamy showcased this recently while on one of her regular trips to Goodwill to see what’s in stock and share her finds with her viewers.
“It’s brand new from Target,” she explains after setting her camera up at the store. “My Goodwill gets stuff from Target, brand new stuff. I don’t know if it’s like, returns, overstock, whatever. But this is $9.99. This is commercial salvage. That means they got it from…Target.”
But then she examined the price tag a little more closely.
The original Target price was $20. Goodwill was selling the bag for $9.99. But there was also a sticker showing that the bag’s final price at Target had been $6, as it had been marked for clearance before getting booted over to Goodwill.
“Make it make sense,” @drab.to.dreamy pleads in the clip. “Why do they do that? Just sell it to me for the $6.”
TikTok has become a fertile ground for people sharing finds like this—items at stores purporting to offer bargains, such as Goodwill or Marshalls or T.J. Maxx, with pricing that just doesn’t make any sense.
As one commenter wrote under @drab.to.dreamy’s video, “That’s like shopping at Kohl’s.”
Sometimes, that means the same item with completely different prices at the same store. There was also a Kohl’s customer last year who exposed her store for slapping full-price stickers on top of clearance stickers that initially reduced the price by 45%.
Commenters on @drab.to.dreamy’s video had anecdotes of their own to share, with very few people appearing surprised by these antics.
“I saw a 1.25 item from dollar tree at goodwill for 2.99,” wrote one commenter.
“I found $10 walmart jeans marked for $19.99 at goodwill,” another recalled. “I might as well buy new at this point.”
Others were simply frustrated with the general pricing at Goodwill these days.
“Goodwill prices are insane. The fact that they leave the original price tags on and sell it for more is unbelievable,” wrote one user, while another suggested, “Everything should be less than $3 at goodwill.”
“My goodwill mark all their dresses for $14.99. they are crazy, I can go through Marshall’s and get a new dress for that,” a third complained.
“I just saw a rock for $3.99 at Goodwill,” said a further user. “Like a regular rock from the ground with dirt on it.”
@drab.to.dreamy Goodwill why you gotta do us dirty like that…. #goodwill #goodwillhaul #goodwillfinds #goodwillstores #thrift #thrifted #thriftwithme #target #targetfinds ♬ original sound – drab.to.dreamy
One viewer said they used to work at a Goodwill that received merchandise from Target and they had a policy regarding pricing items at a certain percentage of the original price.
“And we also had to make sure that we tore those yellow clearance stickers off,” she wrote.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @drab.to.dreamy via TikTok comment and Goodwill via email.
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