‘I always see them do this’: Goodwill shopper catches workers ‘dressed as customers.’ Then she sees what they’re hiding in the back

Goodwill employees have long been accused of interfering with the secondhand shopping experience. 

Some believe they resell the best donations on platforms like eBay for profit. Others think they jack up prices on anything remotely valuable. And then there’s the claim that they pull discounted items before customers get a chance to buy them.

Recently, one Goodwill customer claimed she had caught the last one happening in real time.

What did the Goodwill customer allegedly witness?

TikTok user Deven (@devenr3) shared a video that’s now been seen more than 315,900 times, showing a supposed worker casually removing items from the racks. 

The tags aren’t clearly visible, but the text overlay makes a bold claim: "Goodwill employees dressed as customers and taking sale color tags to the back."

In the clip, the TikToker sounds stunned.

"I cannot believe what I saw today at Goodwill," she says.

She explains that a woman—who she assumes works for Goodwill—spent the whole time pulling white and tan tags off the shelves and taking them to the back of the store.

And the TikToker says she wasn’t the only one.

"There was another lady that was also doing the same thing," she adds.

Deven says she had always heard rumors about this kind of thing but never believed it.

"I didn't think that it was actually true, but they are pulling all of the sale tags and putting them in the back of the store," she says. "Crazy. Mind-blowing."

What could explain the employee’s actions?

The shopper’s claims are hard to verify, as most accusations against Goodwill workers tend to be anecdotal.

While there are plenty of social media posts alleging that employees interfere with discounted items, there’s little concrete evidence proving that this happens on a large scale—or that it’s an official practice.

That said, Goodwill employees are allowed to shop at the stores where they work, and there’s nothing stopping them from purchasing sale items like any other customer.

In fact, Goodwill offers a 20 percent employee discount on all items, which could explain why some workers might take advantage of markdowns before others get a chance.

However, as many commenters suggested, the employee could have simply been doing their job—rotating items, retagging them, or handling store inventory. 

@devenr3 I can’t believe Goodwill would do this to us ???? #fypシ #thrifting #goodwill #sneaky #lies ♬ original sound - Deven

Commenters share their theories 

In the comments section, some viewers claiming to be former Goodwill workers explained what the employee in the video could be doing. Others shared similar stories about Goodwill. 

“It’s a way to rotate inventory,” explained one viewer. “The items that don’t sell go to another facility the bin stores to be sold per pound. I worked in processing and as a lead cashier.”

“As a former Employee, this is called ‘Rotation and Pulling,’” wrote another. “Each color represents a week on a Calendar Month and that Color goes on sale on the 3rd week as it Approaches 30 days on the Floor, it is a must to keep the Store becoming a big mess, if everything stays on the floor newly processed could not be put out, each ‘Z Racks’ hold about a 100 pieces and about 10 to 15 ‘Z Racks’ possibly more are pushed out as the new color in rotation daily...out with the old in with the new.”

“I always see them do this,” claimed a third. “And there’s never actually any clothes hanging with the sale color tag!!”

The Daily Dot has reached out to Deven via TikTok and Instagram direct messages. It also contacted Goodwill via email. 

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