QUESTION: There is a thrift shop in my neighborhood in which people drop off all different types of clothing. In some instances, very high-end designer clothing is dropped off, often worth hundreds of dollars more than the thrift shop prices them at. Often, I shop at the thrift store and search for these items and make a handsome profit when I resell them.
My first question is, am I obligated to tell the thrift shop owner that in certain cases, he is seriously underpricing his items for sale? My second question is, I am often asked about an article of clothing that I bought at the thrift shop. To some, I reveal my secret and tell them of the bargains that I find at the thrift shop. To others I say, “I got this at a boutique store that I visit occasionally.” Am I permitted to conceal that I shopped at the thrift store by saying that I purchased the item at a boutique store?
ANSWER: There is a concept in Halacha called, “Ona’ah” which is the practice of overpricing or underpricing an item by more than one-sixth of the market price. If an item is underpriced to a point where Ona’ah would apply, one should tell the owner that they have underpriced the item to protect the owner from being taken advantage of. Regarding overpricing, one should inform the owner when Ona’ah is occurring as the overpricing of an item to such an extent is not permitted.
However, it is important to note that Ona’ah relates to pricing deviations from what the Halacha would consider to be the “market price” of a product. There is great debate as to how to apply the concept of a Halachic market price in today’s contemporary commerce. You should consult your Rav for further details.
Regarding thrift shops, I would like to suggest that the “thrift-shop market” is different in nature than other types of markets. The Minhag (custom) of thrift shops is that they acquire things for free or nearly free and batch-price them, i.e., regardless of quality or brand, all shirts are generally priced the same, all pants are generally priced the same, etc. The Ramah in Choshen Mishpat 331 cites a Yerushalmi in Bava Metziah that when the pricing custom is different than the conventional pricing at the market, the concept of Ona’ah does not apply. Accordingly, since the thrift shop market, “marches to a different drummer” so to speak, the concept of Ona’ah would not apply and you would not have to inform the owner that he is underpricing his items.
Similarly, the Pischei Teshuvah in Choshen Mishpat 232 rules that the practice of selling “closed box Esrogim” where batches of Esrogim are all sold in closed boxes for the same fixed price without considerations to quality, are also exempt from Ona’ah. For example, should one open the box and examine the quality of a particular Esrog subject to this pricing system and find it way less valuable than the fixed price, it would still not be considered Ona’ah, since the accepted Minhag of the seller is to sell all the Esrogim at the same fixed price without regard to the actual market price.
Regarding the second question that you asked, if you are concealing where you bought your item because you are embarrassed to admit that you bought item from a thrift store, then the following would apply. You would not be able to lie straight out to save yourself from embarrassment. However, you would be able to say something that can reasonably be interpreted in different ways. In your particular case, a “boutique store” can be defined in two ways. It can be defined as either 1) “a small shop dealing in fashionable clothing or accessories” or 2) “a small-scale retail store that specializes in a specific product category or niche.” Since the thrift shop is definitely a niche type of store, you have not lied when you called it a “boutique store” even though you hoped that your listener believed that you referred to the 1st definition of a boutique store rather than the 2nd definition which is what you intended.
