'They put little weights in [...] to make them feel more expensive': 30+ Professionals share their industry secrets

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Oct 9, 2023 9:00 AM EDT

One of the benefits of working in a particular industry is that you get key insights into how things work, learning all kinds of insider information from working behind the scenes. Often, though, all this insider information does is lead back to the fact that the entire thing is just an elaborate charade. This knowledge is, of course, a double-edged sword because often you joined that industry in the first place due to a personal interest, and now you have to live with the knowledge that the entire thing is kind of a scam.

It's pretty common knowledge that a lot of things are spruced up in order to be more enticing to prospective clients or buyers, but it's the extent and pervasiveness of this simple tactic that is surprising. Everyone expects that real estate photos are going to be doctored to some extent in order to get you to go check the place out, but you might be surprised to learn that there are literal weights added into some of your favorite "luxury" products in order to make them feel like they're manufactured to a higher standard without raising the cost of production.

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    Organism - "What is a 'dirty little secret' about an industry you have worked in?"
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    Font - Posted by u/Thealexiscowdell1 What is a "dirty little secret" about an industry that you have worked in, that people outside the industry really should know?
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    Font - RandomRedditCount They put little weights in lipsticks to make them feel more expensive so they can charge more. 33.5k ↓ Reply Share BenHippynet Same for Beats headphones ✩ 14.9k ↓ Reply Share
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    Font - BubblyMimosa If it's the first time a professor is teaching a course, there is a good chance they are just one lecture ahead of the rest of the class. 20.5k ↓ Reply Share Kind-County9767 And we usually vastly overestimate what's reasonable for people to understand in the course so the first few years are usually harder, with the final exam marks significantly massaged while we cut out the portions of the curse that are too difficult 5.2k ↓ Reply Share
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    Font - bochuggin4life Nobody who actually sorts mail gives a s about your package. The word fragile doesn't stop them from throwing it 20ft into a metal container. 19.4k ↓ Reply Share TheTimgor it's really fun to pay $145 extra for hazmat shipping and see this box with EXPLOSIVE in big letters on the side show up at your front door with a big dent in the corner 9.8k ↓ Reply Share
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    Font - Lone_Buck When the health inspector shows up, a mad scramble happens in the back to clean the kitchen while they start the inspection in the dining/bar area of the restaurant. 17.8k Reply Share 8.7k kettyma8215 Yup. One manager will hold the health inspector up in the front of house while back of house is busy labeling and making sure minor violations they visibly see are dealt with. ●●● Reply Share
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    Font - Galbert123 Microsoft Excel runs the country Reply Share 17.1k cbduck So much so that Kelly Rowland once used it in a music video to try to text someone. 7.6k Reply Share ●●●
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    Font - EyeBumGaze808 Locksmith here. We can get into any lock/door within 30 seconds. All the posturing and bringing out a impressive toolkit and hammer drill is just showmanship to pro long the call out. 30 seconds flat. 16.2k Reply Share
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    Font - tristanjones When an app pops up with a 'do you like this app?' thing, the Yes button goes to the App Store for a review, the No button goes to an internal complaint process. This on average filters upset customers away from the app store and artificially raises app score by a whole star on average. That is the only way most corporate service apps have 4 stars. 15.2k drew8311 Reply Share Long time ago the company I worked for would only show this popup if we detected things were going wel
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    Font - Underestimated Iguana a very popular local bagel shop/bakery i worked at advertised all of our baked goods were homemade (dozens of muffins, danish, cinnamon rolls ect) and they were not. they all came from sysco, frozen on sheets. many customers would rave about the baked goods saying they were the best they've had. god bless them ↑ 14.9k ↓ Reply Share ●●●
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    Font - ianwrecked802 If you're ever buying bulk gravel/sand/crushed stone from a local pit/quarry that has scales to weigh the amount of product you're getting- you're getting fd because you're paying for water. Most of these pits/quarries spray the living f out of their stockpiles before/during operation to make the material heavier in the truck. Never buy by the ton- always buy aggregate by the cubic yard. It's a measure of volume- not weight. Source: I own a rock crushing business/multiple qu
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    Font - blueeyesredlipstick There is a lot of money spent every year that decides where specific items are placed on grocery store shelves. If you're at a grocery store that's part of a chain, and you look at a shelf and there's an item that's approximately at eye level, I guarantee you that the company that makes that item paid a lot of money to put them there. There's lots of weird psychological tricks that go on in terms of how stores are laid out. 13.2k Reply Share ●●●
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    Font - notyourchannel In the consulting world, nobody really knows what they're doing Reply Share 12.3k Oldpotter2 Being a consultant is easy and cheap. Get two six packs of beer, go out to the loading dock a few minutes before quitting time and offer the guys a beer, and ask "if you were in charge, what would you change about this company". Take good notes, write it up in a 30 page report and bill $5,000. 6.0k ●●● Reply Share
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    Font - Dressed2Thrill You have to know your way around health care to get good health care Edit: I had no idea this would get attention but I'm so glad it did. Here's a summary of some tips (thank you to many of the ppl in this thread for their own experiences and tips too!!) What you should know: 1. Your patient rights. You can ask for a referral to a specialist. You can ask for second opinions. You can ask to see what is in your chart. Know your rights.
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    Font - 2. If you have a family member in a hospital or long term care home, please visit and be there as much as possible. When you are sick or old you are just not able to summon the energy to be on top of Med errors or even general care. The more eyes on the care and environment the better for your family member. 3. Advocate for your family member. Do some research too: what is the illness? What are some options? And take these to the doctor and ask if they're appropriate (with the patients co
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    Font - 4. Follow up. If the office doesn't call you: FOLLOW UP. Keep following up with offices, pharmacies, specialists, etc. until you're satisfied. 5. If you are in the States, review your bill. Go over every item and see what can be negotiated and hound them until you feel it's fair. The squeaking wheel gets the grease.
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    Font - 6. Get a job in health care. Not a clinician? No problem: environmental services and portering are excellent well- paying entry-level jobs that can get you potentially into a union. You will learn hospital and health care really fast. 7. Before your family member goes home from hospital make sure you see a "discharge planner" or a "social worker" to talk about discharge. Hospitals are full and they usually are pressed to send people home fast with health care at home being an option: but
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    Font - 8. If you want the doctor to do/prescribe/refer something and they CHOOSE NOT TO, you are within your rights to say "May I have that option noted in my chart? I'd like to keep track of what I've asked you about". Innocent, right? Well it's a good way to get the clinician to think about whether they want their rebuttal of your suggestion in the chart. 9. If it feels wrong, please see someone else. Don't just blindly trust health professionals. They're people too. They're not magic. Some ar
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    Font - To all those folks who go into appts with chronically ill family, or partners, you are guardian angels. Keep doing what you're doing. It is more supportive (and the optics for the clinicians matter) than you know. Reply Share 12.0k
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    Font - somecow We touch your food with our hands. Weird. And yes, we wash them so often that they might fall off. That, or you get ades that wear gloves for 12 hours and never change gloves or wash their hands. 10.1k Reply Share
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    Font - resident16 I wouldn't say it's mostly a secret but agency staffing firms churn and burn college graduates who are basically thrown in the wild. The recruiter you worked with may be gone in six months and that's why a lot of ghosting happens. ↑ 9.9k ↓ Reply Share
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    Font - OriansSun If your business uses an inventory company, your numbers will not be correct. 9.4k ↓ Reply Share ✩ 4.4K 4.4k ●●● Twodotsknowhy When I worked retail we used to hire temps from RGIS to help us. We had to stop because they were so incompetent that they actually made the job take longer than if we did it ourselves. Reply Share
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    Font - sayan_sniper ex-farmer here. specifically, I worked at a "bio-certified" one. since there were no pesticides or herbicides used, every snail, every bug, every mouse had to be killed "manually" or by having a LOT of their natural predators around, ie. cats. the reason? nobody buys tomatoes, or anything else with snail bites on them Reply Share ↑ 8.9k 8.9k
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    Font - ButtfaceMcAss Butt People like to think that data analytics is some objective truth when there is sooooooooo much bias and room for subjectivity in data collection, analysis, interpretation, and communication. Oftentimes insights are cherrypicked datasets deliberately presented to make a specific point rather than having the data craft the conclusion. ↑ 8.7k ↓ Reply Share ●●●
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    Font - AssInvader93 HVAC guy here. Not really a secret but home owners sure think it is. CHANGE YOUR FUG FILTERS!!! ↑ 7.9k ↓ Reply Share
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    Font - ryl371240 Bedbugs are actually incredibly common in hotels. It's just that nicer hotels generally have better means of treating them. ↑ 7.6k ↓ Reply Share
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    Font - Pentastome Zoos and museums are universally held together with double sided tape. The size or prestige of the organization doesn't matter either. ↑ 6.4k ↓ Reply Share
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    Font - jrsinhbca Aerospace has a phrase "Get Healthy in Maintenance." Underbid the contract to win to the work; then they over charge on the maintenance activities. It's an investment strategy that pays well. Many aerospace sites have "cash cows," long term maintenance contracts that keep the money coming into the site. BTW - this is one of the reasons DoD spends sooooooo much. Reply Share ↑ 6.3k 6.3k
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    Font - FatherKerosene None of your restaurant food is "made with love". Anger and anxiety is what made that muffin, Tina, don't you forget it. ↑ 6.1k ↓ Reply Share
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    Font - El_mochilero Airlines often make more money carrying cargo than passengers. Also, they have much stricter contracts about delivering cargo on time than passengers. If a plane is overweight, they will usually remove passengers before they remove cargo. 6.0k Reply Share
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    Font - bhellor Wash all of your "new clothes". A very high percent has been worn and returned. 5.7k Mama-ConCon Reply Share ALWAYS wash new clothes. You never know who or what manhandled them. 2.5k ↓ Reply Share
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    Font - bertmom When you go somewhere that has novelty beer dispensers that you and a group can take to your table, just know they are incredibly incredibly difficult to clean thoroughly and there's probably mold in there. ↑4.1k ↓ Reply Share
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    Font - K4SP3R_H4US3R High volume recruiters spend an average of 10 seconds looking at a resume. 3.6k Reply Share
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    Font - ptvipers Not all that much of a secret, but, i used to work in a peanut butter factory, we produced about 25-30-ish different storebrands ranging from very cheap to stupidly expensive, we had a grand total of 3 recipes, chunky, not chunky and no additives ↑ 3.5k ↓ Reply Share
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    Font - sarusa2020 Life coaches need life coaches the most. 3.4k Reply Share SeasonPositive6771 No one should really be hiring life coaches unless they love to give away money. There's no real licensing body, education, expectations, etc. It's literally just random people who like giving advice. Reddit gives crappy advice for free, might as well try that first. ↑ 1.8k ↓ Reply Share
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    Font - OHLOOK OREGON I've worked in the music industry for 10 years and have access to financials of nearly 15% of all artists' recorded music revenue. Nobody is making as much as you think. The superstar artists who look like millionaires are not, in fact, millionaires. 2.8k Reply Share ●●●
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    Font - BudgetUniversity3087 When you call a cable company to cancel you speak with sales first the deals they offer are not the best they can do. ↑ 2.7k Reply Share
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    Font - chiree The vast majority of people working for pharmacuetical companies are hardworking, highly ethical, and proud of the work they do. We hate the executives as much as you do.... 2.0k n Reply Share
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    Font - [deleted] The insane mark up on manufacturing cost to retail for prestige brand gold and silver Jewelry (engagement rings aren't nearly so bad) ↑ ↓ 1.9k Reply Share ●●●
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    Font - MidLifeCrysis 75 · I've been in IT for 20+ years. We're not smart. We just google sk Reply Share 1.0k
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    Font - The3rdPedal23 A teacher will fail you or lower your grade simply because they don't like you ↑ 706 ↓ Reply Share
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