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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Middle school teacher. An email from a parent that assumes positive intent gets answered significantly more quickly than one that does not.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. .