Man was quoted 45 bucks to clean his suit. Then he walked into a thrift store with a plan: ‘bought it back for 18 bucks’

Everyone loves a life hack, particularly one that saves you money. But I think when those savings come at the expense of a charity, there are some moral quandaries to be picked over.

Enter British TikToker @zinny_oi_oi_oi, who posted a video claiming that he managed to get his suit cleaned for half the price he was originally quoted. The video says:

“I took my suit to the cleaners, who wanted to charge £45 (about $60). So I gave it to the charity shop on the high street. They pressed and cleaned it and put it in the window. Of course I bought it back for £18 (about $24).”

Incidentally, a “charity shop” is UK English for a thrift store. Comments are skeptical, with @yido13 pointing out that “No one charges £45 for suit cleaning”. I checked that for myself by looking up a typical British dry cleaner, with “I Hate Ironing” quoting just £15.60 ($20) for dry cleaning a two-piece suit.

As was also pointed out by user @tuomaa09, if you decide to try this “hack” you are rolling the dice on how much you will pay to buy your suit back, as you have no control over what the store will charge for it: “funny till charity shops sell it for 200”. In addition, you don’t know when your clothes will be put on sale, so someone else may buy your suit before you do.

“They’ve not got time to wash all those clothes.”

It was also explained by multiple users that thrift stores do not dry clean their items, but just steam them to disinfect them, then sell them. As “Tulips & Daffodils” said: “I volunteer in one. They’ve not got time to wash all those clothes.”

Even if this hack were viable, I think it’s ethically questionable whether you should save money by having a charity clean clothes that you’re intending to buy back from them. The charity is getting money they wouldn’t have made, so they should be happy on that front, though it’s hardly in the spirit of supporting vulnerable people or good causes.

One comment from “Hackney 1974” says that as charity shops steam clothes, it’s “easier and cheaper to just buy a steamer”. A search on Amazon shows that steamers can be bought for between $25 and $60, depending on the quality, so if you are trying to save money on steaming clothes, I think it’s easier, cheaper and safer to just do it yourself rather than gamble on a thrift store doing it and then you being lucky enough to buy your clothes back at a reasonable price.