Used Pair Of Brownish/Grey Dress Slacks

Item Purchased: Used Pair Of Brownish/Grey Dress Slacks
Location Purchased: Unique Thrift Store / 3000 S. Halsted St. / Chicago, IL
Price: $4.10 + tax

Review: It's a rare occasion when I go out with the intention of browsing and buying clothes. Acquaintances of mine have probably seen more leap years than clothes-shopping days for Kevin. If I spend a little time in a thrift store, however, I do remain open to the garment possibilities around me.

About the pants:

They're great. I can't seem to find the brand name anywhere on them. They were made in Costa Rica out of American synthetic materials. They fit well. I like them. The belt that came with the pants broke as soon as I tried fastening it, but I have other belts so that didn't concern me too much.

About my total shopping experience now:

While browsing the aisles of Unique, I came across a black button down shirt with small neon stars on one side reminiscent of the bowling alley in The Big Lebowski. It was slick, well-fitting and I wanted it, but there was one problem... It had no price tag on it. Shirts at Unique run anywhere from a dollar to upward of seven. I would have been fine paying a price that fell anywhere between that range. When I went up to the cashier, however, she informed me that anything without a price tag on it could not be sold.

Bear in mind that most (if not all) of the products at a thrift store like Unique come from donations. Any amount paid for these items is a clear profit for the store.

"Are you serious?" I asked the cashier. She reaffirmed her stance. My roommate was having the same exact problem over in his checkout line with a child's keyboard he wished to buy with intent of circuit bending it. "Can you just charge me like $8.00? I'd really like this shirt" I pressed.

"No, I'm sorry. All of the pricers have gone home for the day."

Pricers? You mean that there are several levels of employment at a thrift store? People are paid simply to look at someone's old junk and apply an arbitrary price to it? "Are you serious?" I asked again, just to make sure.

"Yes, I'm sorry."

I'm not trying to run anyone else's business, but if I were to pay $8.00 for a shirt that was probably originally priced at far less than that, wouldn't that be an ultimately good thing for the thrift store's bottom line? Hell, wouldn't this upselling/ripping-off/profiteering be looked upon as employee initiative by the "pricers" of Unique. Maybe a district manager would have heard about my cashier's loyalty to making money off of impulse customers like myself and promote her to one of (obviously) several positions within the Unique Thrift Store hierarchy.

But noooooooooooooooo... This woman had to hold her ground and exert the great veto-ing power her position holds just in case I had assaulted a member of a bowling league in the back of the store and stolen his shirt.

I've been to several stores (resale and retail) where it was possible to haggle with the employees for a discount. Here I was, ostensibly trying to upsell myself only to be met with a slap-on-the-hand "NO." Maybe I'm just bitter because I didn't get the toy I wanted, but this all seems rather ridiculous to me. In a store with thousands of shirts all falling within the same general price range, there is no general rule for clothing where the price tag has gone missing? How bad is your job when you are a cashier who has no way of price-checking a typical product of your store?

All in all, Unique is a quality thrift store with great prices and selection. If you go on Mondays, everything is half-off. Just don't expect anything in the way of competent customer service.

Rating: 3.75 / 5 (pants)
Rating: 1 / 5 (Unique's unique policies)