50 Dirty Secrets That Only People Working In A Specific Industry Know

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.

Most rules are flexible if you are polite. Staff usually want to help. Rudeness is what shuts doors fast.

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.

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. .

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.

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.

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.).

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.

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.

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.

Daycare teacher-your kids can eat and do more than what you think.

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.

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. .

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.

Walmart has a board full of photos from all the shoplifters caught. It's like a wall of shame.

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.

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.

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.

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.”.

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.