Redditor broadway96 was eager to hear the juiciest information people learned about their former workplaces which they weren't supposed to know, leading them to ask:
"What's a company secret you can share now that you don't work there?"
Off The Books, But With Good Intentions
"This isn't a company secret, but:"
"I worked part-time at a Domino's franchise in college."
"The owner was, at first glance, a short-tempered, critical penny-pincher who did everything he could to save a business money, right down to watching over your shoulder to make sure you didn't put too much cheese on a pizza."
"Cheese is called 'white gold' in the pizza industry, even back in 2002."
"But after working for him for a while, you realized why he was so specific about the margins."
"Twice yearly, he would send out generous bonuses (in the form of money orders made out to his employees from his own personal savings account) to the college students working for him."
"the checks/money orders contained the memo line 'keep learning!'"
"The amount of the money orders would be directly correlated to the profit margins of the stores he owned. The dude did legit profit sharing."
"After I graduated, I heard a rumor that he was trying to start up a small education grant trust that would benefit applicants of the Farmer School of Business at Miami University, but I don't think anything ever came of it."
"This owner also played favorites when hiring."
"Every single one of his managers was a former employee."
"Three of the four managers at his stores when I worked there had graduated from my college with business degrees."
"All four of them had a small portion of their education paid for by Marvin Covington."
"Marvin Covington, Oxford, Ohio Dominoes owner from Vevay, Indiana, died in 2017."
"That dude knew how to do business, and do it right."- sunward_Lily
Season 1 Netflix GIFGiphyIt's all in the branding
"I worked at L’Oréal."
"The cosmetics from L’Oréal and Lancôme are practically the same."
"But Lancôme costs like $20 more."- BayBel
A Literal Comic Book Villain
"I worked at a comic book store that offered a service where you paid a small premium to have sent in rare comics to have them graded at CGC."
"A few months later we had many customers coming in to check the status of their comics."
"We contacted the owner to see what was going on, and he would always claim that there was some distribution problem."
"Fast forward a few months, we found out he was taking customers graded copies and selling them online while trying to return back issue versions of their original comics."- ZealousidealWay1139
The American Healthcare System Everyone...
"Health insurance dude."
"When you file a claim, it is often denied because they're counting on you not escalating it."
"Once you do, your case goes to a 'medical management group' which ought to be called the 'we don't wanna pay' group."
"Keep escalating and involve your doctor."
"Fight for the insurance you paid for."- theUttermostSnark
Pop Culture Politics GIF by PBS Digital StudiosGiphyWow.
"The vehicle modification shop at Chillicothe Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, Ohio dumps waste coolant from the machine shop into a storm drain that empties directly into the Scioto River, because the chemical disposal tank is a 55 gallon drum in the paint shop, and that's much too small.
"They can't throw me into solitary confinement for complaining anymore."
"This happens about once a year, when the machine's coolant reservoirs are emptied and the coolant replaced."
"It's not on a schedule, it's one of those things that you do when work is slow."
"Each machine holds 15-20 gallons, and usually you just add more as it evaporates, but eventually it gets nasty and needs replaced."
"It's supposed to go in a waste tote to be disposed of safely, which is what every non - government machine shop does."
"Being able to prove this is being done would require knowing when they're going to do this, and that's a decision that's often made spur of the moment - hey, work is slow, let's have a clean up day."
"There aren't any phones in the machine shop, either."
"A container to store the waste properly costs $200."
"Why waste taxpayer money when we can just poison the taxpayers instead?"- Pariahdog119
Neat Freak! But It Paid Off...
"I don't think it's a bad secret at all."
"But back in college, I delivered pizzas for Papa John's."
"The store manager must have had an undiagnosed case of OCD or germaphobia or something."
"Because every night, he would assign someone to do the cleaning duties (mopping floors, double checking expiration dates/throwing away expired stuff, etc.)."
"And every night, he would absolutely lose his temper and berate whoever was doing the cleaning."
"They were going too fast, they weren't cleaning everything, whatever."
"After that, he'd always take over the cleaning himself."
"He was amazingly picky about the cleanliness and food quality."
"'Expiration date is three days from now? F*ck that, I'll order more'."
"Throw that sh*t away, we're not serving it'."
"He would also go out of pocket to buy special cleaning products 'because that worthless bullsh*t that corporate wants us to use doesn't get the job done'."
"He also went out of pocket to hire some kind of specialist to clean out the fountain drink dispenser, ice machine and all that stuff."
"'The machine needs to always be as close to brand new as possible!'"
"One stand out moment for me was when he reduced a cashier to tears by hollering 'Would you eat off this floor? No? THEN IT'S NOT CLEAN ENOUGH!'"
"He wasn't telling her to eat off the floor."
"He was just making a point."
"After we'd closed the store, he'd kick all of us out, lock up behind us and stay until something like 2am cleaning the place."
"You always knew when he closed because you could smell the chemical scent still lingering in the air."
"The end result of this was the store, the food, the equipment and the facilities were always in squeaky clean condition."
"Customers (somehow) picked up on what a perfectionist the store manager was and bought from us all the time."
"Because there's a lot of peace of mind that goes in with knowing your food was cooked by someone willing to throw ingredients away BEFORE the expiration date, stay in the store until God knows when cleaning everything, etc."
"The true irony was how much the boss hated himself because he didn't think he was doing a good enough job to run a clean restaurant with fresh ingredients."
"It didn't matter how many compliments he got from customers or how many service industry veterans said they'd never worked in a place as obsessive about freshness and cleanliness as his Papa John's store, he was convinced his store was still a filthy barn."
"Eventually, he got promoted to some kind of higher level corporate position (district manager?) that required him to visit other stores and make sure they were all up to spec."
"The end result of that was a LOT of stores in this area all improved seemingly overnight."- EponymousTitular
Season 10 GIF by FriendsGiphyEasy Way To Get Attention
"If you pick up a wall phone at Home Depot and push '7' it activates the store wide intercom."
"This works in every store in my province afaik."- _Zoko_
Be Careful What You Say...
"If you were on Live Chat with Customer Care, I could see what you were typing before pressing send."
"I watched people work through grotesque, racist, sexist statements, fraudulent lies and mistruths, meticulous grammar fixes, and their whole range of emotions in real-time before deleting and typing 'ok'.”- BariatricPressure
2 Secrets For The Price Of One
"Ford parts from Mexico are way more reliable than Ford parts from Detroit, or at least they were before 2020."
"I worked in Detroit and we had some customers who were fussy about us always doing repairs with Michigan parts, but when we had a problem that wouldn't stay fixed we would always secretly switch to the Mexican parts, which did solve things."
"I was a prison guard a decade ago and we installed some facial tracking software in the surveillance cameras."
"One of the inmates panicked while cleaning the unused solitary confinement cells--which is usually a desirable job, it's easy as f*ck and nobody pays attention to you, and he insisted that he be moved out of that job because there was a ghost."
"The ranking officers decided to check the new cameras, and the security software claimed it saw a face behind the inmate at the same time as he was visibly startled in the camera footage."
"We're all aware there are mundane reasons why a new facial recognition system would think it saw a ghost, but since the inmate and the security software both thought there was a ghost it was decided that the inmate should be immediately transferred at no penalty."- NoAnTeGaWa
season 9 GIFGiphyIf some walls could talk!
Then again, any jilted employee will likely do all the talking for them...
"Here comes the Bride..."
"Wedding receptions."
"Having been to a dry one, it was seriously THE WORST!" - stubept.
Married At First Sight Lol GIF by LifetimeGiphyYou don't know where that dog has been...
"Back in my university days there was a hotdog cart outside the bar after closing every busy night."
"We always lined up for one since they were the absolute best dogs in town."
"I stayed sober one night and got a hotdog after the night was over."
"I couldn’t believe how disgusting it was."
"Cart hot dogs after the bar are totally awesome with alcohol."
"Not so much without." - Big-Challenge-1652
Dance like nobody's watching.
"Dancing in a big crowd to music you'd normally never listen to." - Darkdreams28.
"Crowds of people and loud music when I'm sober: Headaches, anxiety, want to get out of there ASAP!"
"Crowds of people and loud music when DRUNK: WOOO! F*CK YEAH! PAAARTAAAY! "- Ins0mnimaniac.
"Raves."
"I went to see deadmaus sober and i quickly realized i had to be drunk or high to not get annoyed by everyone else haha."
"People high as hell pushing you, dropping drinks etc."
"Was pretty cool but i was cursed as the designated driver." - User Deleted
happy dance GIF by Roanoke CollegeGiphyWouldn't this just make them "games"?
"Drinking Games."
"You ever played ring of fire with cups of water?" - SeanRodrieguez.
This way they'll think they're actually winning...
"Playing Mario Kart with my non-gaming family."
"Suddenly I'm on their level!" - BlackeyeThe2nd
My boss needs to think I'm having a good time...
"Work functions."
"Company Christmas party with booze vs. dry as night and day." - Brancher.
new girl bar GIF by Fox TVHow are we related again?
"Family gatherings." - smellslikeloudoggg
More like "bored" games...
"Any board game!"
"Especially Monopoly scrabble and operation."- Calypos_Luna
Better question is, what isn't better with alchohol?
"Life, in general."- supbiatches1
Happy Spring Break GIF by HBOGiphy"Snifter stupid martini glass cocktail onions."
"Being quiet around others while they're yapping."
"Singing randomly in public situations."
"Bad music."
"That drink with tomato juice and an oyster in it."
"Really salty food like just salty chips, I like more flavor."
"Clamato, that weird blue juice that goes in that blue tiki cocktail."
"Dried fish."
"Oily fried fishes Cheap burgers or frozen pizza."- dumbnunt_
Liquid patience
"To have someone else talk to you about their mind blowing ideas, and just sit there and be like 'dude that’s gonna f*cking change the world'."- GrouchyInteraction12
Beer puts the "B" in Barbecue
"Cooking food on the barbecue."- leatherwolf89
Labor Day Drinking GIF by Twisted TeaGiphyMight be worth a second viewing?
"Certain films, 'Twilight' being the classic."
"Highly recommended getting drunk or high and watching a kinda sh*tty film."- ViSaph
It depends on the mood I'm in...
'Listening to live music you don’t like."- peachycreaam
"EPCOT at Walt Disney World is lame as a kid, but as a grown adult, its the best place."
"Just go in and drink around the world."- El_JEFE_DCP
disney world thanksgiving GIF by Disney ParksGiphyWhy do I suddenly find this so intruiging?
"Things you aren’t usually interested in."- fawnsweb
So.Many.Kids.
:Kid's birthday parties."
"A few dozen shrieking kids isn't too bad when you're half c*cked on some beers."- Woah_man34
Happy Birthday Reaction GIFGiphyNext time you eat something, or watch a movie, or visit a location that isn't as good as you remember, it might be worth reflecting on what you were drinking at the time.
But there are also reasons why a discerning patron refuses to give their money to specific companies, regardless of whether or not they desire the product.
Curious to explore this notion, Redditor Snoo_72206 asked:
"What’s a company you refuse to support and why?"
Insurance companies failed to deliver assurance to these Redditors.
Ghosted
"Progressive. A few years back, an idiot crashed into my parked car with a lawnmower while I was at work."
"The owner of the lawnmowing company decided to play games and not pay for the damage."
"My Progressive agent ghosted me and his supervisor never returned my calls."
"I eventually got the money but Progressive didn't do a damn thing."
– The_Height_of_Folly
Unlike A Good Neighbor
"State Farm. Before we met, my wife was in a car accident that permanently damaged her neck, forcing her to drop out of college and abandon her dream to play violin professionally, and requiring her to get an injection in her neck twice a year for the rest of her life."
"She's been in a 4-year legal battle with State Farm as shes entitled over $100k since she was no way at fault for it."
"But they will not budge and keep demanding ridiculous things from her. Next month she's actually scheduled to fly back to the state where the accident happened so she can undergo a 10-hour psychological analysis (when she asked her attorney why they're asking for that, she pretty much said 'because they can')."
"State Farm also recently requested she shoot a video of her attempting to play the violin and then talking to me about how it make her feel that she can't play it painlessly anymore. In a recent deposition, they actually asked her if she had intentions to get medical treatment were they to award her with the money back when it happened."
"They've become such a pain but we've made the decision to fight it out as long as we can, because giving up is what they want us to do, and we want to prove to insurance companies that they can't screw over their clients like this."
"So yeah. Screw State Farm (and honestly most insurance companies)."
– Ben-Stanley
A Major Trauma
"Dude. State Farm is the worst. My sister was in an accident when she was 16 that left her with permanent brain damage, dashing her chances of the future career she dreamed of."
"It was a 10 year battle on settlement. The hoops they made us jump through… the disgusting tactics they used. They hired people to stalk me and my other siblings and report on our behaviour to build a profile on how much she was likely to succeed had the accident not happened to bring down the settlement."
"They belittled and publicly humiliated a 16 year old girl who was in a traumatic accident where her friends were killed."
"As a pre teen seeing all this, it actually completely changed me and opened my eyes to how evil people can be. Insurance companies are disgusting."
– MalBredy
Unreasonable Payout
"I know three people with State Farm homeowners insurance who tried to make claims and got laughably microscopic payouts."
"And then they keep their policies! What the fuck are you paying them serious adult premiums for, when they see the damage to your home and reimburse you with five bucks and a gumball?"
– driffson
A major social media platform and a popular ticketing service got the stank eye.
The Parent Organization
"Meta. What if I don't want to share my private info with you?"
– skycatminepokie
Chaotic Life
"my job required me to be on social media every single day, constantly be interacting with clients posts, constantly be creating content with the intent of trying to gt clients to share the content."
"i really do believe social media is a cancer on society."
"I know that reddit is also social media, but the anonymity makes it much less toxic and consuming for me."
– garlicdjango
Unhealthy Addiction
"I was addicted to Facebook for the longest time and it wasn't until I finally deleted it (not suspended, full deletion) that I realized what a profound effect it was having on my mental health. I'm not even exaggerating. I am so much happier without it."
"The friends I talked to all the time still talk to me through other mediums, and the ones that don't, just don't. And that's fine. I'm not even judging them for it. I'm in a much better place."
– starchystar
No More Live Events
"Ticketmaster - too many fees. Just don't go to live concerts anymore."
– username987654321a
"Ticketmaster:"
"Ticket price: $40"
"Service fee: $20"
"Paperless fee: $5"
"Fee fee: $3.15"
"Because we can fee: $2.00"
"You wanna go fee: $12.00"
"Print-from-home fee: $6.50"
"No physical copy fee: $16"
"No refund policy agreement fee: $8.00"
"Total: $112.65 F'k you very much."
"Sucker."
– Soulphite
Redditors thought these companies left a bad taste.
America's Favorite Food & Beverage Company?
"Nestle, is there anything ethical about them?"
– Aggressive-Ice-1009
The Partnership
"FYI Starbucks and Nestle are best buds now and have signed a multi multi million dollar partnership."
– poopybuttfacehead
Corporate Evil
"Nestlé. They are the very model of corporate evil. Raiding water tables in drought stricken areas, using child slavery to get their chocolate, and much more!! 🤡"
– Thintieguy
Local Business Killer
"Starbucks. It’s just too easy to support a local coffee shop if I’m in a situation where I can’t make my own coffee at home."
– PaticusGnome
Some retail companies were admonished by the following Redditors.
Bad Fashion
"Jaded London, ASOS, Primark, PrettyLittleThing & any other fast fashion brands that I can’t remember off the top of my head."
– brownguyinthecorner
The Reason
"It does go further than that for me, but my opinion does stem from their exploitation of child labour."
– brownguyinthecorner
Not Target
"Walmart"
"I used to work there and refuse to go there ever again. I put in my two weeks July 2020 and I haven’t gone there since. I refuse to step foot in any Walmart ever."
– funeralxfog95
Employee Confession
"Former Walmart employee here too that refuses to shop there. Union busting, encouraging people to work off the clock, threatening you if you get caught up doing work and accrue OT, humiliating public team cheers, inadequate training for dangerous equipment, constant busy work, terrible pay and benefits... not to mention that the only reason I ended up working there is they destroyed their local competitors in the town... f'k Walmart."
– BobGenghisKahn
Discomforting Atmosphere
"I started off hating Walmart as a kid because of the fluorescent lighting and overall depressed feeling that would overcome me anytime I would step foot inside one, and my hate has only grown stronger over the years."
– ChillNyeTheStonerGuy
They say America runs on Dunkin'.
That slogan alone made me give it a hard pass. The audacity. Everyone knows Starbucks is supreme.
I know, I know, the mega java chain is on every street corner in all major metropolitan cities and many customers may think they're overrated.
But say what you will. Their quality cup of joe is so much better than the mud Dunkin' Donuts passes off as coffee.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
