‘I would’ve never known’: Woman pays $10 for a $6 hoodie at Goodwill. Then she’s shocked QRs are charging more than price tag

A Goodwill shopper is going viral after she discovered that the QR code on a price tag charged her more than the printed price. The woman, who goes by @kaybayes on TikTok, shared her experience in a TikTok video that has since been viewed over 2.9M times. The video was also reposted by the account @HustleBitch_ on X on February 23, 2026.

The shopper said she bought four items from her local Goodwill store. One of them was a men’s camo hoodie with a price tag that clearly said $6.79. The cashier scanned the QR code on the tag to ring it up. She did not type anything into the register manually. But when the shopper got home and looked at her receipt, the hoodie showed up as $10.09. That is a $3.30 difference on a single item.

What made it worse, according to the shopper, is that the register did not show item prices while scanning. It only showed the final total. She said whatever price is stored in the QR code is what gets charged, not the number printed on the tag. “If I didn’t look at my receipt, I would’ve never known,” she said in the video. She also raised a bigger concern. If one item can be off by over $3, how many shoppers across how many stores are being overcharged without knowing it?

This isn’t the first time Goodwill has been called out for pricing issues

The video sparked a strong reaction online. One commenter joked about the situation by writing, “From Goodwill to Goodbill.” Another user called it a pricing glitch or an intentional scam. One person said they stopped shopping at Goodwill altogether because the prices are no longer what they used to be.Savvy shoppers who already know about retailers hiding secret pricing tricks during sales will find this pattern all too familiar.

The rising prices at Goodwill stores have been a growing concern for shoppers in recent years. Multiple TikTok users and Reddit posts have pointed out cases where Goodwill priced donated items higher than their original retail price. One viral example showed a TJ Maxx teapot originally sold for $6.99 being listed at $7.37 at Goodwill. A former employee on Reddit also claimed that workers were told during morning meetings to keep raising prices to meet store quotas.

The Crystal Hope video in the replies added more fuel to the conversation. She pointed out that Goodwill’s current president and CEO, Steven Preston, took over in 2019 after working at Lehman Brothers and serving in the Bush administration. She claimed that after his first full year as CEO, Goodwill cut $25 million from direct services to its membership. 

She also highlighted a $499 price tag on a donated dining room set at a new Goodwill store in Ocala, Florida. “We came to Goodwill because we didn’t have a lot of money,” she said. “It doesn’t make any sense why we even have a secondhand store if you’re just gonna put full prices on things.” Consumer advocates suggest that always verifying charges before leaving a store can save shoppers from costly mistakes they may never notice otherwise.

Goodwill Industries International is a nonprofit organization, and its CEO compensation is public through IRS Form 990 filings. According to Salary Ideas, Preston earned about $724,605 in 2024. While that is far less than the $2.3 million figure that often circulates online from a debunked chain email, critics still question whether that salary is justified given the organization’s reliance on donated goods and its history of paying some disabled workers below minimum wage. 

Goodwill has also faced scrutiny over its use of Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which allows employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage. According to reports from the National Federation of the Blind, some Goodwill affiliates have paid disabled employees as little as 22 cents an hour. The NFB has led protests and called for a consumer boycott over the practice. As of 2025, 16 states have moved to phase out subminimum wages for disabled workers.

As for the QR code pricing issue, the original poster said she plans to go back to the store to have the same tag scanned again on camera. Whether this turns out to be a system error at one location or something more widespread remains to be seen.