Value Village — Attraction in Landover Hills

They have a lot of great stuff, I loaded up my entire cart with clothes. I was really disappointed to find that they don't have fitting rooms, so I headed to the checkout, which is ONLY self- checkout, planning on taking everything home to try it all on. I removed the hangers from over 30 items and was mostly done scanning, my total was well over $200. I asked about the 30% discount for new members, it's advertised all over the store, and no one seemed to know how to actually get the discount. They said I would get an email anywhere from an hour to a few days with a coupon. I was under the impression that if I joined the reward club I would get the discount right away, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Fortunately, I asked about the return policy before I paid, and they don't take returns, only exchanges. No fitting rooms and no returns. I left my whole cart there, I'm not buying clothes I can't try on and can't return. What a giant waste of time. Two stars because they do have nice stuff, but the prices are somewhat high for a thrift store and there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to their pricing. T-shirts were anywhere between $3 and $9, casual summer dresses anywhere between $6 and $17. I didn't see a clear difference between the items on the low vs. high end, it all seemed...

Just a preface first:

I’m in here quite often and I only really come back because I am shopping for someone else most of the time and because of some of the nice employees. The management on the other hand is very racist. I am black and in my mid thirties. If you are black, they will follow you and watch over your shoulder from the aisle behind you or in an aisle adjacent to you. They don’t seem to do it as much now because of how often I’m here or because they have a security guard. Although management knows my face, me being a regular, they still suspect I’m going to steal. When there’s multiple black shoppers in one department, they will send a couple of employees to watch over and “straighten” all at the same time. Occasionally, some of them will do a quick glimpse inside your cart. On one occasion, one of the employees followed me out of the store into a nearby store and I know he followed me is because this employee still had his green smock on so I don’t believe he was on break...

I've been shopping at this location for several months, but after today, I won’t be returning. I had a coupon from a sister store that I've used here many times.( Both stores are under the same brand.) Today, the coupon wouldn’t scan at checkout. The store manager explained that I could no longer use the coupon due to recent business changes but said she’d "be nice" and apply the discount anyway. She then offered me her personal coupon, which she claimed would prevent her from using it for her own children. WHAT?!

How did a simple transaction turn into her personal martyrdom for me, and at the expense of her children? I politely declined, but she insisted, saying she could just get another coupon.

The whole experience left me feeling disgusted. I ended up buying just one item to avoid any further interaction with her. I’ll gladly drive 40+ minutes to my old store to avoid dealing with this professional...