Were these gifts shoplifted? Or just really old?

[PamFritters]

I have posted before about my SIL and her over gifting at Xmas and birthdays. It’s often clothes, very rarely anything I would wear. I usually take to a charity shop but this year I decided to be a bit more frugal and return them for credit. All had price tags on, various shops but today I took the Next and M&S ones in as I was near.

All of it scanned and came up. But all of it came up as ‘not sold/no sales record’. Oh and all the Next ones were coming up as £3. The lady in Next said she had worked there for 4 years and didn’t recognise any of the items. Basically they are either a) nicked or b) older than the system.

I think this might finally be the push I need to tell her to stop giving me clothes I don’t want, because she’s either stolen them or had hanging around with tags on in her wardrobe for five years. I’ve spent the last 20 years being subtle and it clearly doesn’t work.

I’m not being unreasonable to think these are weird gifts, right?

At the risk of being completely outing, our husbands are ID twins and she gives DH clothes that are HUGE. He wears size S and she gives him t shirts in XXL for example. It’s all so weird. Why does she do it? Any guesses welcome.

I actually offered them to them to dispose of but they said they couldn’t take them.

From OP

So the items came up on screen with a big red ‘not marked as sold’ or similar.

So if you get a customer that says they want to return something, and it scans as "Not Sold", you just have to let them leave with it?

Stolen then

Well tbf shop staff aren’t even supposed to apprehend actual shoplifters, so yes.

@Pololo it doesn't do that .. it simply says no record of sale and that can mean either it's stolen or it's old and been charitied or from vinted ..

We cannot take items from them in case they have been on they have bought it legit from a second hand seller .

To be honest most of the time it's just old stock someone has got from somewhere as there are codes on the barcode to be able to tell if it's Spring summer or autumn winter and which year etc.

I often have people try and return stuff and if it comes up with that I'll say but this is Aw 18 or whatever so where did you get it from as I obviously can't give you any money if it's that old .. they often say oh I was having a clear out etc.. trying their luck 🙄.. it happens all the time , at least every time I'm there . Not an unusual occurrence

My great aunt used to love taking stuff back she was given, it was a day out and a hobby for her. She used to get annoyed if it was in the right size so as a family we would buy M&S in wrong sizes for her deliberately as she loved to go in and chin wag with the ladies on the returns. They were literally her friends and even came to her funeral when she passed.

In your case OP I would just regift them back to her at Xmas. 😂

But add a random thing and every year regift and add something! Try and find the most hideous thing to add. 😂

But say nothing 😂

yabu
it's odd to take gifts to shops for a refund without receipt.

Have you ever worked in retail in January? It’s really really not odd.

So someone can walk into a Next, take something off the shelf, say they are returning it to the cashier, it scans and says "no record of sale" and you have to give it back to them?

(I do not plan on doing this, I'm just surprised that it seems this system seems to encourage shoplifting, rather than deter it)

@Pololo how does it encourage shoplifting?

I had an item from NEXT that I needed to swap for a different size a few weeks ago. It was a Christmas gift and the giver had included a gift receipt.

when the assistant scanned the barcode it came up as item not sold but you could see on the gift receipt that it matched what I was returning. She was a bit stumped and called a manager over who glanced at the receipt and authorised the return and swap for another size.

so although they do have the ability to check an individual item, it clearly doesn’t always actually work.

I would tackle this by doing a no presents for adults thing in future.

But why would she repeatedly give XXL clothes to a thin man who always wears an S, and who is apparently the exact same size as her own husband, who is his twin?

The security tag would probably be a give away.

It’s always such odd clothes as well. I wear jeans and gym wear. This is frilly shirts and glittery jumpers with unicorns on.

Definitely she has got them cheap somewhere! Sometimes unsold stock goes to clearance shops or market stalls.

For the people on here who think OP is weird/rude to take back unsuitable gifts and should just be grateful.

Do you just keep unwanted gifts cluttering up your houses, or do you give to the charity shop? If to charity why is that better than trying to get something they do like out of a gift?

either gifts come with a gift receipt and you can return them (if shop policy allows)
or we give them to a charity shop or sell on a second hand platform.

@greenacrylicpaint - why is selling on a second hand platform any different to trying to return to a shop? Either way you are getting money for a gift and returning to a shop is much less hassle. If you don’t want people to return your gifts to the shop, remove the tags.

@ClimbingHydrangea in theory yes but shoplifters never go to that bother . They just take it !

I only work there part time to get me out the house so I don't control the rules or shoplifters but they do all sorts of weird shit .

It's the same in any shop that someone could do that though isn't it