Most people understand that when buying a new item of clothing, it may have been worn before, but when buying underwear, it’s a different story. You would never do something as gross as buying underwear that a total stranger has worn. Well, according to a new report, chances are you already have.
In 2010, the TODAY show aired an investigative report in which hidden cameras revealed some retailers reselling returned underwear. This wasn’t just happening at local bargain stores, they found retailers selling used underwear at big name stores such as Victoria’s Secret, Nordstrom, Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, the Gap and Marshalls. After the stores were exposed, they promised to make serious changes and “re-educate” their sales people.
Five years later the same investigative team decided to check in to the same stores to see how the re-educating was doing. They followed the same guidelines as they did years before. The undercover team purchased women’s underwear and removed all the tags. Before returning the undergarments to the stores, the team put two little dots on each label with black marker to identify the items.
Macy’s seemed to have passed the test. They immediately put the undergarments in a bag marked “damaged items”. At Bloomingdale’s, the clerk took the underwear to the back room, and it was never seen again. There were similar results at Nordstrom and The Gap. Victoria’s Secret, however, exposed a little secret of their own when a salesperson was caught tossing two pairs of returned underwear behind her, and soon after the same items were back on a table for sale, as new. At Marshalls the undercover team bought a set of underwear and a swimsuit. They took off the tags and removed the protective liner from the bathing suit so it looked used. When the items were returned, the saleswoman wasted no time putting on new tags.
A hidden camera captured the sales clerk at Wal-Mart stapling new tags on returned used underwear as well. She tossed the used underwear into a cart of returns. An associate seemed to realize that the underwear had been used, asking, “You think they wore that?” But when the team returned to the store the next day, they found the same underwear right back on the rack for sale.
After the stores were exposed, they issued statements that can be found here.
To avoid buying underwear that another person may have worn, it’s best to ask an employee to retrieve undergarments on display from the back to ensure its coming immediately out of its packaging. Just to be totally safe, it wouldn’t hurt to wash any undergarments you buy before wearing them too. When shopping these days, you really have to cover your butt, just hopefully NOT with someone else’s underwear.
