Abandoned/lost/found goods back on sale

Grolschevik

Here's an interesting one, I think.

Bought a scarf in a well-known retailer today. Had no tag or price on it, so I asked a member of staff about it. She went off with it to ask the manager and came back about 5 minutes later, saying the manager said it was 9.99 (thought it was a bargain, so!) and that her manager had told her for me to bring up another 9.99 item - which she found and handed to me - for the person on the till to scan.

Person on till verified with staff member that I wasn't spoofing, and that all was in order.

Got it home, and my other half came to the conclusion that someone had left or dropped their scarf in the shop, and someone else, or staff, had put it back on a hanger. This was based on a strong smell of perfume on it and some wear that I hadn't noticed. Smell of perfume survived a wash.

Now, it wasn't the only unlabelled and unpriced item on that rack, but it's the one I fancied. My thoughts when I got home were that someone wearing strong perfume had tried it on, and ripped off the tags. But why would they do the latter?

My question is, could my partner be right? That either staff or customer stuck it back on the rack, and the harassed manager today basically went "dunno, charge a tenner"?

Because that's really one step away from gifting someone something you found on the street.

Again, absence of bar code and tag. But that's not particularly rare in this particular outlet.

Thoughts?

Cabaal

I can see how it can easily happen, shops have so much stock they may not always be aware of every single item.

I was in a shoe shop one day with my sister and the staff member put my sisters shoes on a shelf while she was trying on shoes, she mistook my sisters shoes for shop stock. She apologised but I can see how it could happen.

If you'tre not happy go back and get a refund.

Xterminator

someone wearing a lot of perfume tried it on? there are innocent explanations, why do you assume the worst with no evidence?

Grolschevik

That was my first thought. I literally said that in my post. But the lack of tags, washing info, or price...

ben.schlomo

Tags are taken off items by customers every day of the week. Worst case is the shop let someone return it without tags and then resold it, no issue either way really.