Woman discovers gross retail 'secret' after trying on a bra in the fitting room

One market that online shopping will likely never fully dominate is clothing. Trying on something in a store is a huge part of the clothes-purchasing experience, especially for people with unconventional body shapes, like me and my child-bearing hips.

But that doesn't mean buying clothes from a brick-and-mortar retailer is perfect.

Because there are other people who shop at stores, and, well, if there's anything we've learned about people, it is that they have the capacity for near-infinite grossness.

X user natalie learned the hard way after shopping for a bra.

She wrote, "Tried on a bra in Primark & it was nice so I went to buy it but there was no tag so the guy went to find a supervisor to get a code, comes back & goes, 'this isn't ours, it's a swap,' so someone has literally left THEIR OWN BRA on a hanger in order to shoplift one AND I TRIED IT ON." Gross.

That's right, a shoplifter put their own used bra on a hanger after stealing a brand new one from a store. Which means that this person went boob-to-boob with a total stranger by the laws of transitive bra property. 

Unfortunately, people had retail horror stories of their own, so they began chiming in. One user posted: "This reminds me of the time when I was shopping with my nan and I put her old shoes on the sale rack while she was trying stuff on and a lady put my Nan’s shoes on and went to buy them and my nan had to tell her they were actually her old shoes"

Another user added: "People literally do the same thing at Debs, last week I found a Matalan top in the changing room."

In situations like this, it might be helpful to laugh about it. "That's hilarious," another user wrote. "It's hard enough to find a bra that fits well but to discover it's someone's second hand one OML laughed out loud on this

But at the very least it can teach you a lesson: ALWAYS CHECK THE TAGS. 

Retail workers shared the times they caught people trying to do the old switcheroos. 

It's just a filthy practice that needs to stop. Because it happens more often than you think. 

The same thing happened to me when I worked in the women's coats department. Granted, a customer's going to be a lot less upset about putting on a used coat than used undergarments... But still.

This article was originally published on February 3, 2020. It has since been updated.