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At almost any job, one quickly learns that the public perception of an industry or profession is generally flawed in some way. As with most things in life, it can be pretty useful to know exactly how things work behind the scenes sometimes.
So we’ve gathered interesting and illuminating posts from folks who spilled industry secrets online and compiled them here. So get comfortable as you scroll through, take notes on whatever might be useful, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own experiences and examples, if you have them, in the comments section below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
When I worked at Ross 15 years ago they would only schedule each staff member for ~12 hours per week so that they could call people in for one unscheduled shift/week (and they did, every single week) without anyone passing the 20 hour threshold where they'd be entitled to benefits. So instead of having full time employees at a store that was open 9 a.m. - 11 p.m. 7 days a week they just had like 80 part time employees who each had to work second jobs (also no benefits) to get by, all so that Ross didn't have to give anyone sick leave.
They made me watch an anti-union video and sign a no-union pledge when I was hired, and they had anti-union posters up in the breakroom. I quit as soon as I found another job, ghosted them on my last shift, and have never stepped foot in that store again.
Unionize your workplace. Avoid patronizing anti-union businesses whenever possible.
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#2
Most rules are flexible if you are polite. Staff usually want to help. Rudeness is what shuts doors fast.
#3
Every employee at any Marriott branch has the power to comp up to a certain amount per guest without manager permission. When I was working at the St Regis a decade ago, I could comp $500 per guest per day without approval. I comped things all the time for nice people: free champagne, free spa services, free anniversary dinners. I also claimed I didn’t have that power for jerks who demanded free stuff.
Michael Largey 14 hours ago
Well, the OP has just ruined things for Marriott employees who are faced with jerks who have read this.
#4
The ice cream machine isn't broken, it's down for cleaning because it is a stupid design that has to be supervised at all steps of the process, and takes a long time, instead of being able to simply be started cleaning by the night shift and finished by the morning shift.
Asri 12 hours ago (edited)
That makes no sense at all. Waaay back I managed a frozen yogurt shop. I could clean all 4 double machines in 3 hours and have them back up and running by opening. (And yes, entitled sorority girls will see you elbow deep in a machine and be knocking on the door and get mad you won't open up at 6am for them.
#5
That buying "off brand" items is alot cheaper and a majority of the time the off brand items are often made with the same ingredients and sometimes even in the same factory as the name brand.
Michael Largey 13 hours ago
Sometimes yes and sometimes no. House brands are often made to a "price point", which says "We'll pay you x amount per item. Make the product as close to the real thing as your profit margin allows."
#6
Worked for the second largest big box fashion retail store.
Most items made 1000% profit. That's WHY you see things for sale for $5 that were $40. They're still making profit.
Don't pay retail. .
#7
A TON of fitness professionals are not healthy at all. EDs, steroids, injuries, plastic surgery, and cluster B personality traits are everywhere. Being fit-looking has very little actual bearing on inner health. .
#8
I don’t think it’s a secret really, but IKEA has some interesting psychology and is set up specifically to keep you facing products with every turn.
The one way design through the storeroom floor does have exits, but forces you to think you could be missing out. You can’t see around corners, so there’s a sense of mystery and you want to see what’s next. At every turn of the path, you’re facing yet another display.
There’s also “there IKEA effect” where the act of assembling the item causes the shopper to feel a sense of ownership and a higher perceived value of the item.
(I worked at IKEA when I was younger and learned some of this.).
StrangeOne 11 hours ago (edited)
I just want to hear from those with ADHD and the like; Does this actually work on you? Or do you find Ikea, and other stores like this, makes you feel dizzy, spaced out and leaving empty-handed, or with one, small-ish thing you think is the most useful but unsure if it was worth it for going to Ikea?
#9
Im not sure if they still do this, but when I worked for Geek Squad they would remotely connect an IT worker from India to fix software issues on computers.
You are playing hundreds of dollars for somone making a pittance. Worse, I doubt they have the same privacy laws you would expect from your home country.
#10
All our “freshly made bread” comes from a frozen box or dry bag. I’ve had regulars comment about the quality of the bread, claiming they know which employee made it that day. lol, you absolutely do not.
#11
The markup on our seasonal items are huge. Thats why Christmas went 40% off just days after we first started putting it out months ago. Even now, at 60%, we make a profit. It's priced to go on sale right away.
#12
I work for a large consumer goods company. We must sell our products to all retailers at the same cost (by law), and it is up to them to decide what to sell it to customers for. For example, we sell the same product to Walmart and Loblaws for the same price, and Walmart sells it for $8 and Loblaws sells it for $11. It doesn’t matter what the volume is.
StrangeOne 10 hours ago
I hate Walmart, but sometimes their prices are agreeable. That gives me conflicting feelings. I don't like it.
#13
I used to work in the meat and seafood department of a Winn Dixie in Florida. Despite the massive coastline of our state not one single seafood item was from Florida. We were getting clams from Uganda.
UnclePanda 4 hours ago
I had an exquisitely good shrimp burger in South Carolina. You could see the ocean, the shrimp boat, and the restaurant all at the same time.
#14
The Jet-Puffed marshmallows and the cheaper store-brand marshmallows are made at the same factory on the same machine with the same ingredients. The only thing that is different is the printing on the bag and the price.
Rick Murray 7 hours ago
Depends upon the store and the product. Sometimes it's a cheaper substitution - vegetable oil for butter, glucose syrup (from corn starch) instead of cane sugar, battery hen eggs instead of free-range, and so on. [I work in industrial food production]
#15
How much gets thrown away. I work at a charity shop where we sell donations to raise money for charity. People donate a lot of stuff that never gets sold, mostly because it’s not in great condition or was too cheap when it’s bought new.
#16
Check the dates on your groceries before you buy them.
In a perfect world, we were supposed to rotate groceries- pull the current ones out, put the new ones at the back, and put the old ones back on the shelf in the front. We also were meant to do inventory twice a year, where we would catch broken and expired items.
In reality, we had less than 60 seconds a box to haul the box onto the cart, open it, stock the items, flatten the cardboard and store the cardboard on the cart. Items almost never got rotated. And in the years I’d worked at the grocery store, we’d skipped inventory a few times- our store manager hated it because it made the shelves look empty. So it was never too surprising to see an item on the shelf, already expired.
Ellie 8 hours ago
Where I live, it is illegal to sell groceries after their expiration date, if an inspector finds an expired item the store will receive a fine. That's why many stores, expecially big supermarket chains but also discounts, have a separate container for soon to be expired articles, or they are left on the shelves but they are clearly labeled and usually reduced up to 50%. It helps reducing food waste, and it is also good for the customers
#17
I'll stress long since ex-employee first.
At Home Depot (and I suspect any other similar stores), if the website says there are 2 or less of something in stock - there are exactly 0 in stock. It means someone miscounted inventory.
Also, if you are browsing in Home Depot, and more than one employee approaches and offers to help you find something - they think you are planning to shoplift.
Chich the witch 13 hours ago
Then why when I actually want to buy something and need help it is as if there is not a single employee onsite?
#18
Walmart has a board full of photos from all the shoplifters caught. It's like a wall of shame.
Michael Largey 13 hours ago
Since when did the Walmart corporation have any idea of the meaning of "shame"?
#19
I work front desk at a large hotel chain.
A lot of the time (at least at our chain) the room rates we offer to a walk-in guest is completely up to us, more so if we have a ton of rooms open. If the computer gives us a rate of, let’s say, $170 - I could just take $50 off and make it $120, if the person is being nice to me. In my managers eyes I guess, it’s better than the room not being sold at all.
Also with room upgrades, I literally will give them out for free to many people. (As long as we have them available). If I notice a nice couple come in who are polite and make conversation (you’d be surprised at how many people come in, barely say a word, and are rude), I will upgrade them to the best room we have.
Politeness (and a small tip sometimes..) can go such a long way.
#20
Not necessarily a secret, but hotel clerks are usually empowered to offer reduced room rates if the room would otherwise sit empty. If it's the offseason, they'll probably give you a room for like 25% off. It's worth asking.
As a bonus I'll also dispel a rumor of a secret which is not actually real: There is no Starbucks secret menu in the sense of there being beverages that aren't listed anywhere by Starbucks. There's no logical point in having one to begin with. There are recipe cards in every store for every single menu item, and none for anything that is not on the menu. If you know the ingredients and quantities, they will make anything you want, and if you want to call it a Twix Frappuccino or whatever, you can. But they won't know how to make it without you telling them. The company kind of embraced the idea of a secret menu, but it's not a secret, because it's on their website lol.
The only exception is the Undertow. That's not on the menu, but good baristas know how to make it. I am not absolutely sure why it's not on the menu, but I've heard it's because it doesn't have a consistent temperature throughout. It's 2 pumps of vanilla, a splash of cream, and then two shots on top, pulled over a spoon so they don't mix with the cream. You drink it quickly like a shot, and it's cool on the bottom and hot on top. It's really, really good. I used to start every shift with one.
#21
Ex cruise ship worker here. We had our own bar where we paid basically nothing for alcohol. It was awesome. I was once the most hungover I’ve ever been when I got called for random testing and I was like “uh just to be up front if you guys test for alcohol I’m not going to pass” and the lady was like “we don’t, trust me no one else would either.”.
#22
Ultrasound tech. Every single fetus looks the same until later in the 3rd trimester. Once they get bigger and more fat they start to have more identifiable features like a chin dimple, lip shape or different nose shapes. Until then it's a dancing skeleton with some overlying soft tissue indistinguishable from the 4 others I saw that day.
StrangeOne 10 hours ago
Never occurred to me. Who's demanding to know distinctive features in an ultrasound?
#23
I work in car manufacturing. The amount of defects in a car we allow through has really made me think twice about any vehicle I plan to buy. But working where I work I know what and where to look for it.
Edit: now mind you these defects aren’t related to safety. But most are electrical, and cosmetic. For instance when installing seats we had run out of bolts to secure them to the body, so instead of stopping production we just finished building them. It’s funny to see the operators try to drive one of them off the line to the lot to be transported offsite until it can be repaired. But some things make it all the way to a customer such as an entire 150 vehicles made it to dealerships without rear windshield wipers.
#24
If you overdraft your account, ask for a refund. The system checks prior overdraft fees {if any) and will usually refund if it's your first time, or has been a long time since your last overdraft.
StrangeOne 10 hours ago
It really depends on the agent you get. If one agent doesn't seem to understand what you're talking about, refusing for the sake of refusing, or seems unclear about leniencies, just don't want to bother with you, call back. Sometimes, you may get someone who totally gets it and helps you out. Be polite and calm.
#25
"Low on colours" are basically a way to make you spend money on new cartridge. Cartridges have an "expiry" date, no matter how much ink it still has, it will still prompt to replace when the time is up.
Midwest Mike 12 hours ago
Just don't get an inkjet printer. The ink cost more than blood (please look it up its crazy). And if you do. Remember its usually cheaper to get a new Ink Jet Printer than new ink and YES its so very wasteful. So get a Color or B/W Laser Printer if your going to do a lot of printing. Toner doesn't go bad. JUST DON'T UPDATE THE FIRMWARE. Or else you can't use generic toner cartridges for cheaper. Heck look for old/used Color or B/W Laser Printers locally. Often they still work great. BUT DON'T UPDATE THE FIRMWARE. Yes, they take up more space. But cheaper per page.
#26
I work for a popular theme park that provides transportation. Our vehicles are 24/7 ready to start. Keys in the ignition. If anyone wanted to walk onto one of our vehicles and steal it and drive away they could. And it would take a few minutes before anyone would even realize it.
#27
Work in tech. The current cycle is “invest in AI” > US layoffs > Expand in India. Running joke is AI means Actually Indian with how predictable it is.
Apatheist 4 hours ago (edited)
This began in about 2005 when we started offshoring work in market research data processing. The company I joined in 2000 had about 20 people in DP; after merging with 3 other companies, all of whom were bigger, there were about 20 people left onshore to cover the work of all 4 companies when I was made redundant in 2024. Those in India were paid about a third of what we were getting in the UK.
#28
Middle school teacher. An email from a parent that assumes positive intent gets answered significantly more quickly than one that does not.
Joseph Miller 1 hour ago
If it's a negative intent e-mail, it takes longer to calm down to rationally discuss that issue in an e-mail.
#29
The code for the paper coupons you get in the mail for fast food places can be used many times if you just use the code on the app to order. If you go to a certain place often you can take a pic of the paper to help remember it.
The surveys on fast food receipts just give you a code with a certain code to it. For example, Carl's Jr. has codes that are CJXXXXX, where the X's are random numbers. Once you figure out the code for that restaurant you can just not do the survey and write down random numbers after the CJ on your receipts. Nobody ever checks and they don't even type it into the computer. Free burgers.
#30
Great Value Milk is the same as the name brand delivered to the store. There are only so many dairies in each region and milk can only travel so far. The only difference is the sticker. Each container of milk has a dairy code on it that you can search online to confirm this.
#31
We can't do anything if you're stealing. We can't even accuse you. We can only call the police and most workers won't go court for the soulless corporate lizards who run our store. Besides by the time the cops would arrive you'd be home in bed for the night.
StrangeOne 10 hours ago (edited)
I scope them out and report them to the manager. All I've seen security do is take photos of the suspect and call police. But some security have no chill and will physically try to stop suspected shoplifters.
#32
Daycare teacher-your kids can eat and do more than what you think.
#33
As an IT consultant, we charge "shop rates" for projects much like auto mechanics do. If the average tech takes 6 hours to do the job then that's what we charge. If super tech gets the project and finishes in 2 hours then it still costs 6 hours of labor. Of course if dingus tech gets the project and takes 10 hours then we eat the difference.
Rali Meyer 8 hours ago
in automotive it's called labour times. On pre-production cars we clock the time required to change, say, your alternator. And that is what the dealer charges. That's also how a damage assessor after an accident can spend 4 hours in his office, use "our" software and can name the cost for the damage to the penny.
#34
It's been a while since I was in this industry, but it still holds true:
No matter what your dad told you, going to the dealership and asking for the "cash price" on a car is the *worst* thing you can do. The dealership can make more money on financing a vehicle than on the sale itself. Telling them up front that they won't get that money on the back end incentivizes them to keep the price high. Let them think you're financing with them, negotiate the *actual price* of the car while ignoring the mathematical jiu-jitsu they try to pull on the monthly payment, come to an agreement, and THEN tell them you're paying cash.
Toothless Feline 12 hours ago
Or just go somewhere like CarMax that uses set prices and doesn’t play these “negotiating” games.
#35
That the shelves and the food item placement in a grocery store is meticulously designed to make you stay there as long as possible and buy things as much as possible.
StrangeOne 10 hours ago
I'm immune to this trick. I can only buy a much as my meager budget allows.
#36
A lot of the time, prices can be haggled in my company. If there is any cosmetic or structural damage to an item, any cashier can reduce the price and its often negotiable if they're feeling nice.
UnclePanda 4 hours ago
Freshly returmed from a country where you haggled for *everything*, I tried it at Walmart. It didn't work.
#37
Cat and Jack Brand items are returnable to Target within a year of purchase price in any condition.
Mahiera Etsuhae 8 hours ago
Why would it be just one brand? Wouldn't the store return policy apply to all brands?
#38
I was a store mgr for a large home improvement store for 12 years, I knew in the first 15 seconds how much if any help you gonna get. If you were a jerk then very little or none, if you’re reasonable and nice I’d bend over backwards for you…I remember my first boss telling me: you’ll never remember 98% of your customers but you’ll remember the other two..
#39
**Hotels:** Be nice. Seriously, be kind and the person behind the desk will bend over backwards for you! Also: unethical Protip, but if you’re going to be one or two nights in a city and want to save, CALL BEFOREHAND, and tell them you’re in town for a funeral. Bereavement rates are anywhere from 30-50% off.
**Bed Bath Beyond & Nordstroms:** They will literally take back anything that looks like they sold it before. Now, you can’t return a Hamilton Beach blender or Wrangler jeans, but if you have a luxury/expensive brand item? You can return it for store credit.
#40
We leave notes in our system under your name so other stores will know about your bad behavior. If there’s a pause and it looks like someone is reading something when you give your name, that would be your clue.
#41
Former clothing retail here
Customers' returns can be sold to employees at heavy markdowns. Even if the customer never worn them. We find small imperfections and use that judgment. You can get a return item for 80-95% off. I own several expensive shoes that cost $30 each.
In the sale section, we usually get a generous discount. Around 50% off the marked price. But there are times when we get a special discount of 75% off. This is where all my Christmas gifts would come from.
#42
Former dominos manager, cinnamon twists, parm bites, garlic twists and pan pizzas all use the same dough.
Also, the tracker is just a bunch of lights on a timer. This timer starts when the people at prep stations check off the first item on your order, all of the other steps on the tracker are arbitrarily timed except for the driver is on their way one.
And when it says "Mark is working on your order", the truth is, any employee capable of making a pizza is working on it. The system has no way of knowing who's handling your food until it gets to the delivery phase.
Finally, for the most part drivers don't care about a tip based on the price of the order. Like a few dollars to cover gas is fine. They care more when your order is a pain in the neck (super big orders or delivering to places that are hard to navigate to, or at the edge of the delivery area, or if instructions are weird). Basically if they have to drive more than 5 minutes or deliver more than like 3 pizzas (with sides and stuff), that's when they'd expect a bigger tip.
#43
One thing most customers don’t realize is that big chains often pretend to run out of certain items just to push alternatives with higher profit margins. For example, if a popular budget option is ‘sold out,’ it’s not always because demand was too high-it’s sometimes because management wants you to buy the pricier version sitting right next to it. Employees usually know the cheaper stock is in the back, but we’re told not to restock until the ‘premium’ stuff moves. It’s not malicious, just business strategy-but from the customer side, it feels like artificial scarcity.
#44
Wearing gloves in the kitchen means less handwashing. Bare hands touching food means more handwashing.
The reasoning here is that you don't feel the stuff on your hands, and most people think that the gloves mean their hands never got dirty. Bare hands feel everything and we can't stand it, so we wash way more often.
Stephanie Did It 9 hours ago
I would prefer employees to wash their hands more often. Why? I often see gloved workers handle food, money, and equipment with the same gloves on. Their hands may stay cleaner, but they are spreading filth everywhere they touch including my food.
#45
I work in big branded select service hotels. The comforters don’t get clean after every stay. It’s logistics. The hotels don’t have enough blankets or washers. That’s why they use those top sheets or duvet covers. Usually only cleaned if there is an obvious stain.
Rali Meyer 8 hours ago
And I don't get why you see so often in (US American) movies people keeping shoes on when they lie on the bed! (lay on the bed?)
#46
Paint is marked up by a lot.
Contractors pay lower depending on how much they buy. They could be getting $20 a gallon. Regular joe pays $80. .
#47
Did you ever wonder what happened to the unsold hamburgers at Wendy's?
There's always a few patties on the grill ready to be sold the moment a customer walks in.
What happens when they get "done" and nobody comes in to buy them?
They go right into a refrigerator, and they become tomorrow's chili!
#48
If you’re drinking the fountain soda you’re drinking mold and mildew. Sometimes black mold.
Mike Goslin 14 hours ago
Often true, but not usually true. It is possible to maintain a clean soda machine. Some places do, some do not. It is pretty easy to tell the difference.
#49
At Walmart, If frozen food items or dairy products don’t get refrigerated right, they still stock and sell them.
#50
Dont workout at commercial gyms if you can afford not to and if you have to, wash your hands and shower.
#53
Work at a big discount retailer, the clearance aisles are always *like that* because they want you to spend more time browsing.
#54
Many large chains that deal directly with the public have a manual (or section thereof) given to managers that outlines the policies of how customers are treated or upsold.
The latter can be particularly disturbing to read because a lot of dishonesty is behind it.
#55
Where I work all the curbside pickup orders are handled by Instacart. If you buy normal groceries though the app the items are all stored in a staging area with shelves for dry goods, a refrigerator and a freezer. If a customer buys any deli items like sandwiches or rotisserie chicken, the Instacart shopper doesn't stage it, we grab it from the deli, scan it with a provided phone and pay for it with a company card when the customer signals in the app they're ready for pickup. We have people who have just used the Instacart app to buy their lunch instead of the regular store app. If they'd used the latter they could have paid the store directly, grabbed their items themselves and left.
#56
You get a higher quality of healthcare on business days during business hours.
David Paterson 1 hour ago
In my city, medical receptionists in some places deliberately book as many people out of business hours as possible in order to charge more.
#57
Not so much customers but general members of the public I guess.
About 10-20% of all lifts (elevators) in the UK are operating illegally.
#58
Let us say your facility has 99 cameras and are paying a dude to watch them. The screen shows 9 cameras each about the size of a postcard for ten seconds before flipping to the next set of 9. Do you really think that someone can identify a crime in progress? It mostly just looks like people walking down a hall, criminal or not, you can’t tell. Cameras in real time are only useful to investigate an active alarm or incident. Cameras are most useful for post incident investigations.
Michael Largey 13 hours ago
Long ago I worked for a security company where my job was to listen in to live microphones in businesses at night. I had a whole switchboard where I'd plug in my headphones to a jack for each client. I never heard a crime going on. Possibly because there never was one.
#59
If you place an order for pickup, it’s batched with other orders for when we pick it. We don’t necessarily get it right away and we can’t see which batch your order is in. Also, depending on the contents of your order, it’s spread across three or four different types of batch. There’s no way for us to expedite it or pick the batch(es) your order is in; when we pick, it automatically assigns you the next one based on time. You can cancel it on your end if you need it sooner or it’s running late, but there’s nothing we can do until your order is picked and stowed, and there’s still little we can do until it’s picked up.
Stephanie Did It 9 hours ago
It would help a lot if OP had given a clue as to what industry or items they're babbling about.
#60
I worked for a long time in printing. Just because an instruction sheet or other paperwork for a product days it's printed on recycled materials, it may not be.
Rali Meyer 8 hours ago
If you work in printing, you can print anything on everything you like... i.e. "recycled"
#61
‘Fresh’ meat is usually a big yikes. Unless your store has a processing plant in the backroom, that food has been frozen, defrosted, refrozen, defrosted and then usually you go home and refreeze it. Frozen meat is usually more ideal; while the temps aren’t always consistent, it’s dealt with the defrosting less.
Also the seasoned meat at the butcher counter? It’s as close to expirations as possible. They season it to hide the discoloration.
#62
Costco does not treat their employees as well as they present. They always talk about the great pay rates, but the rate of pay means nothing when you can't get the hours as most of the front end is part time.
#63
Just say that the markdown or digital coupon didn’t work and ask the cashier nicely to fix it, then make up a price cheaper than what it really was. Make it believable (not too low) and the cashier will gladly change the price to whatever you say. I just want you to pay and leave.
What do you think ?
Ye Olde Dirty Grumpy 12 hours ago
For the WalkingDead, like me, yes.reddit is full of little baby angels who dont know this.
Load More Replies... StrangeOne 10 hours ago
These weren't really secrets. More like telling us what we already know but giving employees a platform to vent.
Ye Olde Dirty Grumpy 12 hours ago
For the WalkingDead, like me, yes.reddit is full of little baby angels who dont know this.
Load More Replies... StrangeOne 10 hours ago
These weren't really secrets. More like telling us what we already know but giving employees a platform to vent.
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