Woman attends $1 day at Goodwill. Then she catches Goodwill doing something sneaky with the Orange tags: ‘They arent suppose to do that’
When TikToker Angelina Vue (@angelina.vu) attended $1 day at Goodwill, she made a shocking discovery. And needless to say, she wasn’t happy.
In the viral video, which has amassed 217,800 views, she shared footage of a local Goodwill. She panned the camera to a large blue bin, full to the brim with clothes, which looked as if they were about to be removed from the shop floor. She then showed specific Orange labels attached to various pieces of clothing.
Accompanying this footage was on-screen text reading: “PSA: Goodwill pulls every orange-tagged item the day before $1 day… and guess what color the $1 tag was the next morning?”
“Over several weeks, I’ve observed the same pattern: the tag color selected for Sunday’s $1 sale is consistently pulled from the floor the day before,” Vue added. “For a charity-based store that receives its inventory for free and is supposed to help the community on discount days, this comes across as extremely misleading.”
Vue didn’t immediately respond to The Mary Sue’s request for comment via TikTok comment.
What does the orange tag mean at Goodwill?
At many Goodwill stores, items are marked with colored tags that rotate weekly. Each color indicates how long an item has been on the sales floor. When a tag color reaches the end of its cycle, it is typically discounted. This is sometimes as low as $1, as part of a scheduled sale.
From Vue’s perspective, Goodwill pulling the items the day before undermines the purpose of the color-tag system and prevents shoppers from accessing items at the expected sale price. This raises concerns about fairness and transparency.
@angelina.vu Over several weeks, I’ve observed the same pattern: the tag color selected for Sunday’s $1 sale is consistently pulled from the floor the day before. For a charity-based store that receives its inventory for free and is supposed to help the community on discount days, this comes across as extremely misleading. @Goodwill Industries Intl. @Goodwill Official do better. #goodwill #thrift #thrifting ♬ admire the perc – !
Commenters urged the TikToker to report it
Some commenters suggested alerting the authorities. “Advertising a sale nobody can shop is against the law,” one wrote. “Report it to the FTC. Mine did this too until I reported them. They are back at it two years later. May be time for another report…”
“Message your representatives and senators to make bills against this,” a second suggested. While a third pleaded, “As a former Goodwill worker, they shouldn’t be doing this, please report it. The way we do it is, if green was last week and it’s now blue, we pull green because it’s already been on sale and we need to make room for new items coming out!”
Is this part of a larger pattern?
However, other Goodwill workers suggested this pattern was widespread. “I worked there for 2 weeks lol it sucks so bad, we pull things an hour before opening/as theyre opening,” a fourth revealed. And a fifth shared: “I used to work at Goodwill. They literally tell you to while people are looking. I asked why, she said ‘To have room so we can get new stuff out,’ like can’t we do that after?”
Over on Reddit, a user explained that they had an identical situation when shopping at their own Goodwill, and admitted that they were “perturbed” by this “questionable activity.”
In response, one eagle-eyed Redditor revealed, “All 8-9 Goodwills in my area do the same thing, so it’s probably nationwide. They pull all the sale colors the day before. They certainly don’t go to the bins, so I’m not sure what happens after that. I’ve noticed this for several years – it’s not something new.”
So, based on the TikTok comments and Reddit posts, this might be more common than you think. However, The Mary Sue was unable to independently verify this.
Goodwill didn’t immediately respond to The Mary Sue’s request for comment via email.
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