I can't say that I'll never shop there again, especially since I still have a gift certificate balance, but I will probably be frequenting my favorite thrift store a lot less.
We went this past weekend. I was standing in the housewares section looking at dishes. A few feet away from me, out of my arm's reach and untouched by me, a stack of stuff that had been piled up and shoved onto a shelf fell over. In that stuff was a ceramic bowl of some sort (out of place, because I was standing in the wood/metal/plastic area). An employee came over saying "oh dear, oh my goodness" over and over again and I helped her clean it up. She came back a few minutes later and said, with the attitude of someone doing me a huge favor, that they weren't going to charge me for it but I needed to be careful, and if I broke anything that cost more than $10 they would charge me for it. (Note: I've been going to this store for at least 14 years--the first time I remember going was when I was 16--and have never broken anything. I've also never seen this woman before so I assume she was new. And, not that she could know this, but if I had broken it I would have apologized and offered to pay for it.)
I said "OK, but I didn't knock it over. It just fell off the shelf."
She said "yeah, but if something breaks and they see you standing by it, they'll charge you for it, so just be careful."
I very seriously doubt that's their actual policy, but I just said "OK" and went about my shopping. When we got out to the car, my husband told me that when he had gone to the bathrooms to rinse off my daughter's pacifier, he heard the woman complaining about me and calling me a liar, saying "there was no one else around and she was just standing there." I've been feeling more meh about this thrift store than usual lately, but that was when my opinion of the place really soured. Yeah, people complain about their customers. But at the very least they should make sure they're doing it out of earshot of other customers. Even if it wasn't my husband that overheard it, another customer doesn't need to hear how an employee is annoyed by someone that's spending money at their store.
That's not the only reason, but it was more or less the last straw. I was already starting to think that, since my house is mostly furnished and this is the good furniture thrift store, that I was ready to move on. The last time I went there someone had decided that hobnail milk glass was super collectible and had raised the prices on things like bud vases and tiny candy dishes to $10-$20. You don't even want to know how much the bigger pieces were. Some of the pieces weren't even actual milk glass, but just cheap lightweight knockoffs with big seams down the side. To compare, I bought two authentic hobnail bud vases there a few months ago for 60 cents each. Milk glass vases on eBay seem to go for up to $5 each. None of this was separated out in any way, it was just all mixed in with the other tchotchkes and housewares. And it was only the hobnail milk glass--the grape/fruit patterned or any other pattern was priced as usual.
They've also got signs up indicating that they're trying to rebrand themselves as a thrift/antiques store. That's fine, but IMO that's going to be tricky at best and business-ending when all your customers feel alienated at worst. So I think from now on I'll just pass them by unless I've got a specific piece of furniture I'm looking for.
