Do you ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes at your favorite stores, fast food restaurants, companies you interact with, or brands you purchase goods from often? Well, Redditor u/broadway96 asked, “Whats a company secret you can share now that you don’t work there?” And personally, I’m fascinated by some of the responses. Here’s what people said.
1.
“I used to work surveillance at a casino. From something, like, three stories high, we could zoom in on money on the table games and read the serial numbers of the bills. We could see the pips on dice. The policy was to not look down women’s blouses.”
2.
“McDonald’s here. Sandwiches with a round egg use real, cracked eggs. If your order contains a folded and scrambled egg, it comes from a package kept in the freezer or fridge.”
3.
“If you were on live chat with customer care at the company I worked for, I could see what you were typing before pressing send. I watched people work through grotesque, racist, sexist statements, fraudulent lies and mistruths, and their whole range of emotions in real time before deleting and typing ‘ok.'”
4.
“Maple sap can be trucked in from other states. Where it’s turned from sap to syrup determines the state it comes from, not the actual location of the trees.”
5.
“I worked at a [drugstore] makeup company. The cosmetics from that brand and another high-end luxury brand under the same parent company are practically the same. Even so, the high-end products sell for much more.”
6.
“After working for a large hotel chain, I would tell you that if a hotel has carpet, don’t touch it with your bare feet. Sure, it’s vacuumed regularly, but the carpets might get professionally cleaned twice a year. You have no idea how many people spill food, every drink imaginable, piss, vomit, everything. Hotels just put a little spray on the carpets and everything looks good as new, despite all the filth that gets on them.”
7.
“I work in a field that deals with medical records — and everyone should have a copy of their own records from every practice and doctor they’ve seen. The number of times I’ve seen false diagnoses on medical records or mix-ups with other people’s information is wildly high.”
8.
“At Panera Bread, you can create any sandwich or salad or anything you want on the menu with the given ingredients we have on hand. Also, you can sample anything you want. If you ask, we have to give it to you.”
9.
“I worked at a major national pet store chain, and I’d advise you not to buy pet fish. Pretty much every shipment that came in was infected with a common parasite. Basically, half our tanks were in quarantine. We had several customers come back saying we killed their entire fish tank because of a fish we sold them.”
10.
“I used to work in college admissions. Children of wealthy donors, athletes, and other VIPs have lower admission criteria. They still have minimums to hit, but they’re very easy to reach, even at a ‘selective’ university.”
11.
“Kirkland products (the Costco brand) are independently tested to beat the industry-leading product in that category, whether it’s razor blades or laundry pods. If it doesn’t beat the industry leader, they won’t put the Kirkland name on it.”
12.
“I’ve worked in retail for years and can tell you that all new clothing is dirty. This still shocks people, but there’s no washing machine or disinfectant spray or wipes when clothes come in or are returned. Nothing. I’ve opened boxes of new clothes only to see bugs come out. I’ve seen women come in after workout classes and try on clothes while dripping in sweat. Not to mention what can happen in the factory… The bottom line is people are gross and nothing is clean. Always wash your new clothes when you get home.”
13.
“I work for a wholesaler, and you would be surprised how many companies simply source merchandise from elsewhere and sell it without ever touching it. We ship merchandise direct to customers and just swap the return addresses.”
14.
“Your warranty service part that took eight months to arrive actually probably arrived three weeks after the company paid the invoice. They didn’t even order the part for seven months. The company told you the delay was due to manufacturing delays and supply chain issues, but in reality, they couldn’t afford to pay their bills and had to pick and choose which orders to place. They were just really bad at budgeting and damage control.”
15.
“I worked at a major cable/internet service provider and we had four billing cycles. When the company upgraded the billing system they did something wrong and all but the current cycle got a late charge. Instead of fixing it immediately, we were told to credit the accounts only if the customer called in. Most of our customers were wrongly charged but they just paid their bills without looking too closely.”
16.
“I worked for a large construction company and the sales guys would intentionally omit items from contracts because they received incentives for what would then become a ‘change order.’
17.
“I worked for a major hotel chain in housekeeping for over ten years. The number of suicides and people who die naturally in their rooms is a lot higher than you’d think. I worked at a huge convention hotel with more than 1,000 rooms and it happened quite often. Unless it was a big mess it would just get cleaned like normal and the next guest would have no idea.”
18.
“If you wear single-vision glasses, you likely paid hundreds for your glasses. But I can tell you from where I worked, the lenses cost literal pennies to produce.”
19.
“I worked at an inbound call center, That ‘we are currently experiencing an unusually high call volume’ message is permanent. They just didn’t staff adequately.”
20.
“I worked baggage at an airport. Nothing is handled with care. If it’s marked fragile, your only hope is nice baggage handlers. You should avoid packing breakable things at all costs.”
21.
“I worked at a popular fast food chain where the manager replaced expiration stickers on the bread with new ones so it would last longer. I threw out tons of pita bread topped with green fuzz after checking the manager’s work.”
22.
“The difference between the high-quality deli meat sold at ‘upscale’ markets and the regular deli meat sold in other grocery stores is that we changed the label. We would literally stop the production line, wait for the guy who ran the label machine to swap them out and then start it back up again.”
23.
“I worked at Best Buy, which sells many larger appliances at cost or even at a loss. Many of these are suggested retail prices are controlled too. Things like televisions, washers/dryers, laptops, phones, etc, do not make Best Buy any money. It’s the accessories that make all the money (think: cables, cases, mounts, bags, install, and warranty). Management didn’t care if I sold a million TVs. They cared how many cables and mounts I sold.”
24.
“Dating websites don’t want you to find love. They’re designed to squeeze as much money out of you as possible before you cancel. They partly rely on people forgetting to cancel a subscription so they put deliberate barriers to impede the cancellation process.”
25.
“I worked in the seafood industry for many years. Don’t ever buy those pre-marinaded cuts of fish that you’ll often see at the counter. These cuts are about to turn bad (or already have) and the marinade is only there to mask the poor quality and smell of the seafood.”
26.
“Movie theaters don’t make money off the tickets. They make money off the food and drinks. Despite this, 99.9% of theater staff couldn’t care less if you sneak food into the movie. All we ask is that you’re subtle enough so that we don’t get yelled at by the 0.1% who care.”
27.
“The ‘secret ingredient’ in Jimmy John’s tuna salad is soy sauce. Kikkoman soy sauce to be specific.”
Do you have fascinating or juicy inside scoop about a company you’ve worked for? We can’t wait to hear about it… Tell us in the comments!
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