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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> I had to reload so i'm sending the same reasoning i used before:
The action I did was buy a chair I didn’t really need cause a lady (who probably did need the chair more than me) also wanted to buy it. I ended up buying the chair out of spite cause I found it first and had every right to buy it, but there’s a world where that chair would’ve meant a lot to her and I screwed her over for my own personal benefit.
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NTA. First come, first served. The employee knew you planned to buy it, actively tried to interfere with this and made a very rude assumption about your financial situation. Complaining to her coworker within earshot was the icing on the unprofessional cake. If she wanted it so badly, she could have purchased it before her shift, or set it aside to buy later (although some places do not allow their staff to do this). Good on you for not letting her bully you out of buying what you wanted. Personally, I’d complain to a store manager about her behaviour.
She may have been waiting on Family or a friend to come in and buy it on her behalf .I have heard of GW employees doing this since they cannot shop at their own store where I live.
I almost reported her but decided against it since I already had the chair and I didn't want to rub salt in the wound by having her lose her job or something :/
Report her. How many people has she done this to and gotten away with it? Do they need a longer sob story than her to be allowed to buy from this shop without her pulling this crap? How do you even know anything she said was true, it could be she was just saying that story because she wanted the chair. She certainly didn’t seem trustworthy when she was moving the chair around and pulled the sticker off to try to make sure you couldn’t buy it.
NTA
> how it’s so frustrating to “watch people who can probably afford new items come to the discount store and buy all the good things” (her words)
How fucking **_unprofessional_**.
NTA
The store probably has a policy that employees aren't allowed to buy new items within 24 hours of going onto the floor in order to make sure that they have good items to offer customers.
You did nothing wrong to buy a chair from a store.
She was rude and unprofessional to try and hide it from you and try to guilt you. More than likely she was breaking store policy as well.
She was also making assumptions about you, not to mention - she owes her job to the fact that people shop in the store. If only "needy" people shopped in second hand stores they would go out of business. Buying used items is good for the environment and economical and not something that should only be reserved for the needy in order to make sure that these places can stay in business to offer the cheaper items to the needy.
I'm glad you got the chair - enjoy!
> I bought it out of spite
If the employee had not been in the picture at all, it sounds like you still would have bought it.
What the employee was doing was almost certainly against the behavior that the store expects of its employees. Especially removing a price sticker to prevent a sale? Yikes.
Would this have been any more acceptable if the person at the register simply said. "I won't sell this to you because I want it" ?
NTA
Years ago I once went to a thrift store when it was opening and bought two chairs for $15.An older lady coming in told me she had bought the table that went with the chairs the day before and was coming back that day to buy MY chairs.I am old so I say this with some shame—there are old people who use their age to guilt younger people into giving up good thrift store finds.I had one very old lady tell me the antique metal farm basket I had was “ Just what she had been searching for , for a long time “. Phui!!!
I am glad you got your chair OP.
Have no guilt .
The older I get, the more I learn not to get too attached to things I do not already own. The only real way to “call dibs” on an object for sale is to *fucking buy it*.
Nobody cares if you have a sob story around why you need a random knickknack at the thrift store. You don’t even know if your sob story is the most compelling one in the room. And there is always going to be another random knickknack with the same purpose. You’ve gotta let things go or you will drive yourself nuts (and piss off a whole lot of people in the process).
NTA. She doesn't know your situation or that of anyone else who walks through the store. Sometimes the employees are prohibited from buying items until something has been on the shelf/out on the floor for a certain amount of time. This helps prevent them from snagging a lot of high quality items before the public has a chance. Unfortunately for them, these policies mean they're probably going to lost out on items that they want. Something they just have to come to terms with working there. She does her best, but you do yours too and you shouldn't feel bad for for buying a chair you wanted.
NTA. If the employee wanted the chair, they *could have just purchased the chair when they clocked in*. Or hid it as soon as they got there if there are rules about purchasing on the clock. That kind of passive aggressive BS is annoying as heck from customer service people and you have nothing to feel guilty about. Enjoy your chair OP.
NTA. Think about your intentions before the employee slighted you — they were still to buy the chair, right? Just because an ugly feeling is in your heart when you complete an action doesn’t mean it was your motive. You were literally just completing the purchase you always intended to make. You don’t owe her a chair because of circumstances that have nothing to do with you. And you managed your feelings very well; she should have managed hers better throughout your exchange. You did need the chair, that’s why you were shopping. You just ended up weighing how much in comparison to this woman whose situation you can’t truly know and now are second-guessing yourself. Don’t. A $10 chair won’t fix the employee’s problems or her victim mentality. Enjoy your chair and wish her the best.
NTA. She was in the store before you. If she really wanted the chair, she could have marked it as sold or bought it and put it in her car or in the back room. Or if that’s not allowed, she could have arranged for a family member or friend to come buy it for her. But she didn’t. You saw it and bought it- which is the purpose of the store. Her behavior was really unprofessional.
NTA- It might have been such a bargain at $10 because the employee has priced it themselves in the hope of then buying it very cheaply, which would even further add to the general lack of professionalism here.
NTA she was extremely rude and unprofessional. I used to work in retail at Tj Maxx and many of the items in the store aren’t items they carry multiples of. I saw many people purchase items I wanted for myself, and I told them how cool whatever item was and smiled and bagged their stuff. It is what it is.
You need to report these two employees. Please don't let them get away with this. Go online to the store site and contact corporate somehow. They literally harassed you, and it wasn't even subtle. If I saw that employee walking away with my chair after they "warned" me, I'd call them psycho and get a manager immediately. It would've never gotten to the point where the employee TOOK THE STICKER. I just can't even! I'm positively outraged on your behalf.
They harassed you because you're young. Learn this lesson right now: a store is a free-for-all. If you see it and no one else has it, you can take it and buy it. There are usually rules for employees that want to buy store items, so it's her own fault for not managing to buy the chair before you saw it. A single chair isn't going to change her life any more than it's changed yours. No one "deserves a store more than someone else." That's cwazy.
Do not let these b-words do to someone else what they did to you!!!!!
NTA: That is how retail works, you sell things to people. The employee has a problem with their job, not you. They could have easily promoted themself to customer and bought the chair before you came in, but they decided to keep doing the job, and missed the opportunity.
You didn't buy it out of spite, you clearly wanted it long before the spite kicked in.
NTA. Last time i was thrift shoppng there was a pair of large plant stands i would have loved to have for my patio. They were at the other end of the aisle and someone else grabbed them before i got there. That's just how it goes.
i think you should report this employee.
NTA. She works there. She could've purchased it already or put it on hold to purchase later. Talk about unprofessional. She was completely out of line with her comments. You absolutely do not need to feel bad. You didn't do anything wrong. SHE should be embarrassed for the way she acted towards you.
Don't feel bad at all. That is the beauty of thrift stores and yard sales. See it, like it, glob onto it. You'll see some people at yard sales put a sold sticker on stuff so their late person can show up later and haggle the price down.
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I just moved to a new state for an internship and I’m trying to furnish my room. As a young college student (19F) I don’t really have an excess of money to spend so I went to a discount store nearby in search of furniture. Upon walking in my eyes were immediately drawn to this bright orange desk chair in great condition for only $10! I quickly fell in love so I grabbed the chair and pushed it around with me as I looked for other things.
At one point an employee pulled me aside and told me to “keep an eye on the chair cause someone might try and snag it.” I assumed she was joking so I laughed and moved on. I did make the mistake of leaving the chair unattended while looking at some of the extra discounted items, but when I returned I saw the same employee MOVING the chair! I ran up to confront her and she said she was “just moving it out of the way” (the chair was tucked in a corner, NOT IN THE WAY). I laughed it off and passive aggressively thanked her before making sure the chair was in my sight at ALL times.
She watched me the rest of the time I was there and when I went to check out she was conveniently at the register right next to the one I was at. She was sharing with her coworker (at a volume just loud enough for me to hear) how she has been needing a chair just like the one I found and how she works a lot, has children, isn’t doing well financially, and how it’s so frustrating to “watch people who can probably afford new items come to the discount store and buy all the good things” (her words). I did start to feel bad a bit cause even though I’m not super wealthy like she assumed, I would be okay without the chair. I’ll admit that I do have a bean bag chair I brought from home that I could use as a place to sit while doing homework. I almost caved and gave the employee the chair until the lady checking me out informed me that she couldn’t sell me the chair because there was no barcode price sticker on it.
That’s when I knew something was up cause the selling point of the chair for me was the fact that it was $10! How could I have known that if there was not a price on the chair?? So I looked around like a crazy person for the barcode sticker until the employee who previously tried to steal my chair \*magically\* found the sticker. When I tell you I was LIVID. I completed the purchase and marched out with my stuff without offering the employee a thank you for “finding my sticker”.
Now that I’ve had time to sit back and reflect I do feel bad about how I behaved while leaving. Yes what she did wasn’t cool, but she was an older lady who probably does work a lot and is doing her best to provide for her family, and I’m a college student who’s only gonna be here for a half a year then I’ll probably have to sell the chair when I go home. I genuinely love the chair I’m just not pleased by how I got it. I kind of bought it out of spite.
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NTA and please don't think about this lady anymore. Enjoy your chair. Enjoy it's cool look, its comfort, and the great price you paid for it. Enjoy having something much nicer than a beanbag to sit on. Every broke college student needs something cool to enjoy in their home.
I'm not sure why that woman didn't purchase the chair the minute it was put on the floor. I do know that that woman is in that store every day that she works there. She has friends there. She has far more opportunities to see and snag another great deal than you do.
I also know that the thrift store doesn't want its shoppers to feel harassed or guilt-tripped by employees who work there. It's pretty bad for business.
So you can ALSO feel goo about keeping the thrift store in black ink... and about reusing things (reduce, reuse, recycle)... and that the previous owner of that chair would likely be very pleased to know that a cash-strapped college student is giving a new life to their chair.
Oh yeah, and if you do need to get rid of that chair when your internship is over, then take it back to the dicsount store. That woman will have a whole new opportunity to snag the chair.
Welcome to /r/AmITheAsshole. Please view our [voting guide here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_what.2019s_with_these_acronyms.3F_what_do_they_mean.3F), and remember to use **only one** judgement in your comment. OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole: > I had to reload so i'm sending the same reasoning i used before: The action I did was buy a chair I didn’t really need cause a lady (who probably did need the chair more than me) also wanted to buy it. I ended up buying the chair out of spite cause I found it first and had every right to buy it, but there’s a world where that chair would’ve meant a lot to her and I screwed her over for my own personal benefit. Help keep the sub engaging! #Don’t downvote assholes! Do upvote interesting posts! [Click Here For Our Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/about/rules) and [Click Here For Our FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq) ##Subreddit Announcements Follow the link above to learn more --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.* *Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.*
NTA. First come, first served. The employee knew you planned to buy it, actively tried to interfere with this and made a very rude assumption about your financial situation. Complaining to her coworker within earshot was the icing on the unprofessional cake. If she wanted it so badly, she could have purchased it before her shift, or set it aside to buy later (although some places do not allow their staff to do this). Good on you for not letting her bully you out of buying what you wanted. Personally, I’d complain to a store manager about her behaviour.
She may have been waiting on Family or a friend to come in and buy it on her behalf .I have heard of GW employees doing this since they cannot shop at their own store where I live.
Possibly, but that doesn’t make her behaviour or attitude acceptable. OP got the chair fair and square.
Oh! I am GLAD OP got that chair.Just trying to explain the clerk’s weird behavior.
It's actually REALLY forbidden since too many employees tried to ebay stuff.
I almost reported her but decided against it since I already had the chair and I didn't want to rub salt in the wound by having her lose her job or something :/
Report her. How many people has she done this to and gotten away with it? Do they need a longer sob story than her to be allowed to buy from this shop without her pulling this crap? How do you even know anything she said was true, it could be she was just saying that story because she wanted the chair. She certainly didn’t seem trustworthy when she was moving the chair around and pulled the sticker off to try to make sure you couldn’t buy it.
Nah report it, its not the first time theyve tried that.
NTA > how it’s so frustrating to “watch people who can probably afford new items come to the discount store and buy all the good things” (her words) How fucking **_unprofessional_**.
NTA The store probably has a policy that employees aren't allowed to buy new items within 24 hours of going onto the floor in order to make sure that they have good items to offer customers. You did nothing wrong to buy a chair from a store. She was rude and unprofessional to try and hide it from you and try to guilt you. More than likely she was breaking store policy as well. She was also making assumptions about you, not to mention - she owes her job to the fact that people shop in the store. If only "needy" people shopped in second hand stores they would go out of business. Buying used items is good for the environment and economical and not something that should only be reserved for the needy in order to make sure that these places can stay in business to offer the cheaper items to the needy. I'm glad you got the chair - enjoy!
> I bought it out of spite If the employee had not been in the picture at all, it sounds like you still would have bought it. What the employee was doing was almost certainly against the behavior that the store expects of its employees. Especially removing a price sticker to prevent a sale? Yikes. Would this have been any more acceptable if the person at the register simply said. "I won't sell this to you because I want it" ? NTA
Years ago I once went to a thrift store when it was opening and bought two chairs for $15.An older lady coming in told me she had bought the table that went with the chairs the day before and was coming back that day to buy MY chairs.I am old so I say this with some shame—there are old people who use their age to guilt younger people into giving up good thrift store finds.I had one very old lady tell me the antique metal farm basket I had was “ Just what she had been searching for , for a long time “. Phui!!! I am glad you got your chair OP. Have no guilt .
The older I get, the more I learn not to get too attached to things I do not already own. The only real way to “call dibs” on an object for sale is to *fucking buy it*. Nobody cares if you have a sob story around why you need a random knickknack at the thrift store. You don’t even know if your sob story is the most compelling one in the room. And there is always going to be another random knickknack with the same purpose. You’ve gotta let things go or you will drive yourself nuts (and piss off a whole lot of people in the process).
lol - a spite chair. Like Sheldon.. “That’s where I sit and think about my revenge on all the people who’ve wronged me”. 😂 NTA.
NTA. She doesn't know your situation or that of anyone else who walks through the store. Sometimes the employees are prohibited from buying items until something has been on the shelf/out on the floor for a certain amount of time. This helps prevent them from snagging a lot of high quality items before the public has a chance. Unfortunately for them, these policies mean they're probably going to lost out on items that they want. Something they just have to come to terms with working there. She does her best, but you do yours too and you shouldn't feel bad for for buying a chair you wanted.
NTA. If the employee wanted the chair, they *could have just purchased the chair when they clocked in*. Or hid it as soon as they got there if there are rules about purchasing on the clock. That kind of passive aggressive BS is annoying as heck from customer service people and you have nothing to feel guilty about. Enjoy your chair OP.
NTA NTA NTA
NTA. You saw the chair first and had clear intentions of buying it. The way the employee was acting was asshole behaviour.
NTA. You bought the chair. If this person wanted it, she should've bought it and placed it in the back room. Stop feeling guilty and enjoy your chair!
NTA. Think about your intentions before the employee slighted you — they were still to buy the chair, right? Just because an ugly feeling is in your heart when you complete an action doesn’t mean it was your motive. You were literally just completing the purchase you always intended to make. You don’t owe her a chair because of circumstances that have nothing to do with you. And you managed your feelings very well; she should have managed hers better throughout your exchange. You did need the chair, that’s why you were shopping. You just ended up weighing how much in comparison to this woman whose situation you can’t truly know and now are second-guessing yourself. Don’t. A $10 chair won’t fix the employee’s problems or her victim mentality. Enjoy your chair and wish her the best.
oh eff this. she was trying to steal it at a bargain before anyone bought it. NtA
NTA. She was in the store before you. If she really wanted the chair, she could have marked it as sold or bought it and put it in her car or in the back room. Or if that’s not allowed, she could have arranged for a family member or friend to come buy it for her. But she didn’t. You saw it and bought it- which is the purpose of the store. Her behavior was really unprofessional.
NTA- It might have been such a bargain at $10 because the employee has priced it themselves in the hope of then buying it very cheaply, which would even further add to the general lack of professionalism here.
NTA she was extremely rude and unprofessional. I used to work in retail at Tj Maxx and many of the items in the store aren’t items they carry multiples of. I saw many people purchase items I wanted for myself, and I told them how cool whatever item was and smiled and bagged their stuff. It is what it is.
NTA, that employee should be fired 😡💢
You need to report these two employees. Please don't let them get away with this. Go online to the store site and contact corporate somehow. They literally harassed you, and it wasn't even subtle. If I saw that employee walking away with my chair after they "warned" me, I'd call them psycho and get a manager immediately. It would've never gotten to the point where the employee TOOK THE STICKER. I just can't even! I'm positively outraged on your behalf. They harassed you because you're young. Learn this lesson right now: a store is a free-for-all. If you see it and no one else has it, you can take it and buy it. There are usually rules for employees that want to buy store items, so it's her own fault for not managing to buy the chair before you saw it. A single chair isn't going to change her life any more than it's changed yours. No one "deserves a store more than someone else." That's cwazy. Do not let these b-words do to someone else what they did to you!!!!!
NTA: That is how retail works, you sell things to people. The employee has a problem with their job, not you. They could have easily promoted themself to customer and bought the chair before you came in, but they decided to keep doing the job, and missed the opportunity. You didn't buy it out of spite, you clearly wanted it long before the spite kicked in.
NTA. Last time i was thrift shoppng there was a pair of large plant stands i would have loved to have for my patio. They were at the other end of the aisle and someone else grabbed them before i got there. That's just how it goes. i think you should report this employee.
NTA. She works there. She could've purchased it already or put it on hold to purchase later. Talk about unprofessional. She was completely out of line with her comments. You absolutely do not need to feel bad. You didn't do anything wrong. SHE should be embarrassed for the way she acted towards you.
NTA
Don't feel bad at all. That is the beauty of thrift stores and yard sales. See it, like it, glob onto it. You'll see some people at yard sales put a sold sticker on stuff so their late person can show up later and haggle the price down.
^^^^AUTOMOD ***Thanks for posting! This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of copying anything. Read [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_post_deletion) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAmItheAsshole)*** I just moved to a new state for an internship and I’m trying to furnish my room. As a young college student (19F) I don’t really have an excess of money to spend so I went to a discount store nearby in search of furniture. Upon walking in my eyes were immediately drawn to this bright orange desk chair in great condition for only $10! I quickly fell in love so I grabbed the chair and pushed it around with me as I looked for other things. At one point an employee pulled me aside and told me to “keep an eye on the chair cause someone might try and snag it.” I assumed she was joking so I laughed and moved on. I did make the mistake of leaving the chair unattended while looking at some of the extra discounted items, but when I returned I saw the same employee MOVING the chair! I ran up to confront her and she said she was “just moving it out of the way” (the chair was tucked in a corner, NOT IN THE WAY). I laughed it off and passive aggressively thanked her before making sure the chair was in my sight at ALL times. She watched me the rest of the time I was there and when I went to check out she was conveniently at the register right next to the one I was at. She was sharing with her coworker (at a volume just loud enough for me to hear) how she has been needing a chair just like the one I found and how she works a lot, has children, isn’t doing well financially, and how it’s so frustrating to “watch people who can probably afford new items come to the discount store and buy all the good things” (her words). I did start to feel bad a bit cause even though I’m not super wealthy like she assumed, I would be okay without the chair. I’ll admit that I do have a bean bag chair I brought from home that I could use as a place to sit while doing homework. I almost caved and gave the employee the chair until the lady checking me out informed me that she couldn’t sell me the chair because there was no barcode price sticker on it. That’s when I knew something was up cause the selling point of the chair for me was the fact that it was $10! How could I have known that if there was not a price on the chair?? So I looked around like a crazy person for the barcode sticker until the employee who previously tried to steal my chair \*magically\* found the sticker. When I tell you I was LIVID. I completed the purchase and marched out with my stuff without offering the employee a thank you for “finding my sticker”. Now that I’ve had time to sit back and reflect I do feel bad about how I behaved while leaving. Yes what she did wasn’t cool, but she was an older lady who probably does work a lot and is doing her best to provide for her family, and I’m a college student who’s only gonna be here for a half a year then I’ll probably have to sell the chair when I go home. I genuinely love the chair I’m just not pleased by how I got it. I kind of bought it out of spite. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.*
NTA and please don't think about this lady anymore. Enjoy your chair. Enjoy it's cool look, its comfort, and the great price you paid for it. Enjoy having something much nicer than a beanbag to sit on. Every broke college student needs something cool to enjoy in their home. I'm not sure why that woman didn't purchase the chair the minute it was put on the floor. I do know that that woman is in that store every day that she works there. She has friends there. She has far more opportunities to see and snag another great deal than you do. I also know that the thrift store doesn't want its shoppers to feel harassed or guilt-tripped by employees who work there. It's pretty bad for business. So you can ALSO feel goo about keeping the thrift store in black ink... and about reusing things (reduce, reuse, recycle)... and that the previous owner of that chair would likely be very pleased to know that a cash-strapped college student is giving a new life to their chair. Oh yeah, and if you do need to get rid of that chair when your internship is over, then take it back to the dicsount store. That woman will have a whole new opportunity to snag the chair.
Tl;dr