Australian TikToker Slams Local Op Shop for Picking 'Only Branded Clothes From Donations' in Viral Video

Brisbane TikToker calls out local Vinnies

A TikTok user from Brisbane has called out her local op shop for picking and choosing branded clothes from her donation. Jessy (@jessyxsw) slammed her local Vinnies in the TikTok video which has over 207.8K views and over 400 comments. In the video, Jessy highlighted a concern over the wastage of clothes which are good enough to be worn by people who need them and called out the exclusivity of the Vinnies, deeming them ungrateful.

Donating clothes brings an opportunity to upcycle, contribute to charity and support sustainable fashion. However, such practices of filtering can lead to wastage of unbranded clothes, defying the purpose of the donation.

Jessy started her video by saying, “I’m sorry, but when did donating clothes get so exclusive?”She further says that when she showed up to the second-hand store, an employee at the store was like “we’re not really taking donations right now cos we have too many clothes.” However, he still asked Jessy about the clothes she wanted to donate.

“I was like ‘Well, I have a $200 dress in that pile. I’ve got all branded stuff and it’s practically new.’ And then he was picking choosing my clothes,” Jessy says in the video. She went on to claim that the employee acted as if he was “doing her a favour” and towards the end of the video, she mentioned that another woman attempted to donate clothes at the store but she was rejected.  

“The guy didn’t even let the lady donate clothes, like what?” she said. As pointed out in the comments section, Jessy’s experience wasn’t rare. Several people echoed her feeling naming other stores and places that did the same when someone tried to donate clothes. One of the users said that they went to Salvos where they saw that the tags of brands like SHEIN and Kmart were cut off to hide their value.

Several other TikTok users came up with suggestions for Jessy. A user asked her to donate the clothes to hospitals instead as there are several people in need and they are always grateful.

While another user called Savers a better option as they accepted everything and it is easy to donate to them as well. However, Jessy replied to this user saying that she had a problem locating the donation bins for Savers.

A few users also came in to defend the actions of the Vinnies employee. A user said there are yellow stains, sweat stains and rubbish clothes including underwear which need to be sorted out as they are unfit to be passed further.

Another user who claimed to be a former worker at an Op Shop claimed that people often donate bags of clothes which stink and have fecal matter, thus the process of filtration is absolutely necessary.

Another Op Shop worker slammed Jessy for her response and claimed that she displayed a sense of entitlement. She said during the holiday season, such stores and inundated with donations making it necessary to sift through the stock as there is no space for excess.