‘A thrift vigilante’: Hero stranger becomes Goodwill Batman when they find a genius way to combat overhiked prices

It seems like so long ago now that Christopher Nolan made cinematic history with the line “He’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs” in 2008’s The Dark Knight. The quote is just one of many pop culture idioms that the acclaimed director can take credit for.

But what about the heroes that aren’t deserved by the corridors they dole out justice in? Take Goodwill, or any prominent thrift chain, for instance; these deplorables upsell glass and cotton in a market meant to be affordable. It’s a foul, foul enterprise indeed.

But where there’s a foul enterprise, there’s a chaotic-good avenger waiting just around the corner to shed a ray of hope, and TikTok has found such a champion for the case of Goodwill.

Documented by @happyvibes1983, we’re greeted to a showcase of Goodwill’s more mundane inventory of glass jars and containers. Mundane, except for the fact that they’ve been vandalized with tiny notes that inform potential buyers of the swindle that’s in play here. Indeed, the notes claim such market injustices as reselling used items at a higher price than their new counterparts, selling a generic, recycled jelly jar for $2.99, and pricing items higher than they do at Wal-Mart (the latter of which is, of course, a federal offense, probably).

There’s no denying that this simple-yet-unique act of defiance is objectively hilarious, and is sure to result in many an enemy being made of Goodwill. Of course, when it comes to the gentrification of thrift stores, it’s worth examining the root of the problem. Terry Nguyen, in a 2021 Vox article, notes that excessive shoppers, such as resellers and YouTube “flippers” who buy items that they don’t actually need, end up increasing prices due to high demand, which subsequently prices others out of thrift items (aka, the people who actually need thrift stores). That’s not to say Goodwill’s hands are entirely clean, either (those who play this high up in the capitalism game rarely have such hands).

But let’s focus on the important implications here; a Goodwill Batman implies the existence of a Bulk Barn Martian Manhunter, a Crate & Barrel Black Canary, a Blue Nile Mister Terrific, and any number of other Justice League members who have turned to gut-bustlingly passive-aggressive tactics to wear down the dastardly market machine. Forget James Gunn’s Superman; these are the superheroes we should be bringing to the big screen.