JC Penney's Part 2

Also while I worked at JC Penney's, a couple in their mid-forties (i'm guessing) came into the store and put a packaged 3-pair of underpants on the counter and asked if they could return them.

At that time, JC Penney's had a pretty liberal return policy if the merchandise was still in its package. However, I noticed that the price on the package of the underpants was $3.50 and we were currently selling the same brand for $8.50 (same 3-pair price; circa 1991-ish).

The underwear were yellow and thread-bare, not from use but seemingly from age and potentially sunlight. I needed to get a manager's approval...this transaction would just be for making the customer happy and not because it helped the store.

I went to the manager and asked if I could have approval for refunding the purchase price. The manager reluctantly said "yes". Said to refund the $3.50 but then mark the underwear down to $1.00 and put them on the clearance table.

When I came back to the couple, they said "great", reached down to the floor to pick up a paper sack and dumped six more underwear packages on the counter; said they wanted to return the rest of their underwear. Said that her father had recently passed away and as they were going through his closets and dressers, had found a lot of unworn clothes. Said they were headed up to catalog after this visit.

I told them that they should have told me about the other underwear from the start and I needed manager approval again. Went to the manager and he graciously told me to refund all the underwear and put them on the clearance table. He also remembered that Penney's hadn't sold their 3-pack of underpants for $3.50 since 1972. This underwear had been sitting in this fellow's dresser for 20 years before it got returned to my store.