Egregious pricing practices at the thrift store have made some thrift shoppers wary of shopping secondhand. One thrift store visit, however, completely caught a thrift shopper off guard when they spotted a pile of free United States Postal Service boxes for sale, which happens to be a federal offense.
The shopper was shocked by the thrift shop's relentless profit-driven behavior, prompting them to share their find in the r/ThriftGrift subreddit.
"$24.92 for free boxes," the original poster wrote. The OP shared a picture of a pile of USPS Priority Mail large mailing boxes still packaged in new plastic wrapping.
The OP explained that they had noticed that the thrift store "significantly increased" prices over the last few months, which they suspected came about from using the Google Lens app to help price their items. However, this offering completely took the icing on the cake as these USPS mailing boxes can be ordered online at the USPS postal store for free.
The thrift store not only blatantly tried to flip a free item for profit, but it also violated federal postal laws in the process.
"Misuse is a violation of federal law," one user commented under the Reddit post.
"It literally says right on it that it's a federal offense to resell it," another commenter added.
These instances of thrift store corporate greed have confused and even angered thrift shoppers who patronize these secondhand stores for cheaper alternatives to buying things brand new, which also keeps still-usable items out of the landfill.
One thrift shopper spotted a vintage Coogi sweater priced at an outlandish price of $599.99. Another shopper found a secondhand dinnerware set, with the most expensive dinnerware item costing over $400 and the cheapest item still coming in at $50.
Fortunately, many thrift shoppers have still been able to score great deals at these secondhand stores, finding household essentials, like living room couches, and rare and valuable items, such as a retro gaming CRT TV, at great discounts.
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Save $1,000 this year 💸 However, charging customers a ridiculous profit for an item the store received for free is bad business practice.
"It's giving illegal," one commenter wrote.
"Report them," another user egged.
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