The Super Cheap Thrift Gone Wrong

I love my Super Cheap Thrift.  It actually has a name, but I won't use it here today.  I'm sort of upset with my favorite thrift.  Well, maybe not the thrift itself, but the Saturday crew. 

Saturday The Bean and I were on the way to my Grandmother's house, so we stopped by the SCT.  I am not a big fan of the Saturday crew anyway.  The lady that runs the check out knows me from years ago when I was about to accept a job and decided not to take it after all.  I used the excuse of "needing more time for my ebay sales" to not accept the job.  Back then, I was selling 25 or more items a week and making more than this little pitance of a job was going to pay.  I decided that I could stay home, sell on ebay and still have more free time than I would doing this job, which required me to be in my car using gas driving from one home to another and visiting different families - some with unknown family histories.  I really just decided that the job didn't sound safe or fun for me.  So, I declined the position.  This particular lady at the thrift was the one I told "no."  So, she always remembers that.  Whenever I buy anything, she loudly says, "I SEE YOU ARE STILL SELLING ON EBAY."  And, yes, I am, but I buy a lot more for us that I do for ebay at that thrift.  That's where I get some of my favorite old stuff ( like that precious aqua planter in the previous post).  But, in her eyes, every item I purchase will be resold for thousands of dollars.  Oh, how I wish that was true.

So, whenever she is there, I get this attitude about my purchases.  And, it really bothers me.  I buy what they sell, I pay the price they have it priced, (it's not my fault they still sell things for 15¢!) and I pay cash (they hand out vouchers to people in financial distress and they can buy whatever they want or need).  She always has to say, "Oh, this is ooooooold."  or "Oh, this is worth a lot of money."  The funniest part about that is that she is usually holding something that is not a) old or b) worth a lot of money.

Before I went to pay, the lady in charge of the whole thrift was telling me how they had to clear out a lot of merchandise to make room for all the Christmas merchandise.  "We have so much!" she said.  (I tried not to slobber or beg to look in the backroom)  They already had boxes of Christmas items stuck under the clothing racks and people had been looking through them.  In one box, I spotted a huge wreath with the 12 days of Christmas figures all made out of felt and sequins - sort of a Bucilla craft thing- and it was super cool.  I asked another volunteer how much it was and she took it to the back for a price.  When she returned she was empty handed.  "That is CHRISTMAS"  It is not for sale yet."  Uh, helloooo, I was just told that you did not have room for all the Christmas and here I stand wiling to pay to one huge item and remove it from the store.  Striiiiike one.

(I am making a short story very long today - sorry).  When we went to pay, it was 1:45 and the store closes at 2:00.  We were the last two customers checking out.  And, there stands the lady that I do not like.  Great.  Striiiike two.  That's when The Bean discovered a big box of keychains.  He has a huge collection of key chains and always looks for interesting ones to add to his collection.  There were a ton of key chains in this box and they were marked 25¢ each.  He started digging in them, trying to pick out a few good ones.  But he liked a lot of them, so he was really picking through them.  As he was looking through them, the lady that is in charge of the entire Thrift Store, walked by and told him he could have them for 10¢ each, so pick out all the ones you want.  That perturbed the lady that I don't like.  Grrrr.  She didn't want us to get a better price and she didn't want to stand there while he picked through them.  She proceeded to tap her foot and drum her fingers on the counter while sighing loudly.  "Ohhhhhhh!"  Puh-leeze.  Finally she reached over and snatched the box out from under him and said, "Let me count them and I will name a price."  That surprised me, but she wanted out of there.  It still wasn't 2:00 yet, so I wasn't concerned about leaving. 

She counted them out, slowly and making errors in her counting skills.  She finally had piles of sixteen 20's and seventeen 20's and a pile of 16 - which I had no idea what that meant.  I went out to grab a check since I had spent all my cash.  When I came back in, I had the check made out except for the amount.  I had the pen right there on the line where you write in the amount and I heard her say how much, but I didn't realize how much she was saying until I wrote the amount down.  $35.00.  Holy batcrap.  That ain't cheap! 

But, the check was written.  And, it was 2:00.  And, she was giving me the speech about how much money I was going to make on all those key chains.  (I had already told her over and over and over they were for The Bean's collection.  (She was still drumming those fingers and giving me a look.)  To be blunt - she was pissing me off.  *Sigh.

So, what could I do?  I picked up the box of $35.00 key chains and left as she quickly locked the door behind us.  I feel like I got bamboozled into spending serious cash.  I know I could have said, "No", but I really love that thrift store and didn't want a bad reputation in there.  She already seems to think I am robbing them. 

Oh well, what's done is done.  The whole episode just gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. 

Anyone need some keychains?

*For the record, there are about 50 different an unique ones in there from around the world and that do things (flashlights, tape measures, etc.) and those are the ones that he likes to find.  The rest are pretty much FREEBIE ones from Realtors, banks and such.  There are about twenty with the name BRUCE on them.  Any Bruce's out there?

PS.  Please do not EVER tell The Breadman that I squandered $35.00 on key chains.  Ack!

PPS.  The lady at the thrift (the nice one) told me that the man (Bruce) collected them and when he got married, his wife said he had to get rid of them.  And, he did!  Meanie old wife anyway.  Booooo.

*I wanted to add, after reading comments, that no one knows I resell.  And, really, I buy a lot more to keep, give away, swap and gift than I do to resell.  She is the only one that knows it.  I spent $10.00 on a huge bag of other itmes that same day and only the little fuzzy deer is for resell.  She just likes to make a fuss over it.  The SCT shall always remain my very favorite thrift store.  Everyone else is sweet and helpful.  She's just a pain!