‘It felt good’: Supermarket employee gets fired on his birthday, so he hacks the new hi-tech soda vending machines and leaves his co-workers with 2-for-1 drinks

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Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Apr 1, 2025 1:00 PM EDT

Well, well, well, if it isn't a perfect little petty revenge story we've come across! Usually, you get something that might feel a little tooooo much. Like, the effort that went into the "petty" revenge felt like more than you should have wasted on that person. But in this case, we applaud the plot! 

 

It started when a kid got fired from her first job. She was working at a supermarket and when an employee turns 18, they get a small raise. However, when this employee turned 18, she got something very different than a raise, she got fired… Not for any bad reason, only that the manager didn't want to pay any of his employees more. In fact, he put fancy new vending machines in the breakroom to try and profit off of his own employees!! Like, who does that??

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  • So, as a perfect form of petty revenge, this girl did some research. She discovered there is a way to hack these new vending machines and program them to be any price. So she went right to work. She didn't want to make them free, so that the boss wouldn't notice immediately. So she made the sodas a buy one/get one situation. She enjoyed it for her last two weeks, and even taught a co-worker how to hack the machines in case they need to do it again. A perfectly petty revenge, if you ask us! 

  • PEPS THANKS FOR CHOOSING PEPSI Coca-Cola decisions, decisions Cocabol Designed To Make A Difference plantbone
    via Unsplash+ (and Nik A.)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "Tell me you won't renew my contract on my birthday? I'll 'hack' your soda machine."

    I had my first real job at a supermarket, about 20 years ago, as a stock-girl, where I started right after my 16th birthday, when you can legally work evenings in my country. I made barely any money, but did make a lot of friends, worked hard and I loved it. The boss was not a good employer.
    via BobRosssChesthair
  • He regularly made us stock until after midnight, around the holidays even 2a.m, very illegal for 16/17 year olds, etc. What happened to a lot to us was that when you became 18, you're wages got a little bit higher by law, and that's when you'd get fired. I knew chances
    via BobRosssChesthair
  • were I would be out too, but when he passed by me while I was stocking and said 'Happy birthday! Meet me in my office in 15 minutes', I thought I might have a shot at another year, because he never fired anybody on their birthday before, maybe he would renew me as a 'gift'. He didn't, I was
    via BobRosssChesthair
  • informed I could work the final 2 weeks of my contract and then I would be out. Time for my petty revenge. This was also the era where the old soda and candy machines slowly got replaced with more modern digital ones. The
    via BobRosssChesthair
  • breakroom had one of those older soda machines which the boss stocked with sodacans that soon would be or were recently out of date, so he could still make money on them, and us. Giant BRAND NAME on the front, 6-8 buttons in a row from top to bottom on the side for choosing and a moneyslot. You
    via BobRosssChesthair
  • probably know them. I had learned on the internet that when you pressed the top 4 buttons in the right order you would get in the 'secret manufacturer menu', where you could mess around with the settings. I was smart about it, if I made the cans free he would figure it out fast, as there would be no cans but also no coins,
    via BobRosssChesthair
  • so I got the machine to give 2 cans for the price of 1. I myself could only profit from my revenge for 2 weeks, but it felt good that I could leave my friends behind with sodas for €0.25 a piece. Also teached it to a trusted friend in case it was changed back. Heared
    via BobRosssChesthair
  • through the grapevine that the boss did find out later that year that someone messed with the machine, but as cameras in breakrooms were illegal it never came back to me. Small revenge but it still fills me with satisfaction.
    via BobRosssChesthair
  • Coincidentally, for my next job I had to learn how to get into the manufacturing mode of different kinds of medical machines, again by pressing buttons in the right order, so I could change the settings in what the doctors wanted for
    via BobRosssChesthair
  • their patients. Made me feel like the universe had wanted me to mess around with the soda machine, so I would be ready.
    via BobRosssChesthair
  • count', _post()?> "has_post_thumbnail al-sm-6 col-xs-12 sideler col-sm-6 col-xs-12 s the permalink(); ?>"
    via Unsplash+ (and Shahadat Rahman)
  • CoderJoe1 Bosses like that are soda pressing.
    via CoderJoe1
  • Anyway, I reckon we can all relate to wanting to pull one over on an unfair boss every now and then. It's only human nature, ya know? So kudos to you for outsmarting the old man in such a clever way
    via avid-learner-bot
  • FreedomPretty6893 Pettiness at its best. I worked on stocking 30+ years ago and my boss showed me how to make money with the machines after he found out that they were transferring him to another store halfway across the country. My last 4 months before the store closed forever I was making about an extra $30 every week. Trick was taking some money from the cash part before getting the readout he said
    via FreedomPretty6893
  • Pettorax Looks like his dreams of profiting off his staff went "pop".
    via Pettorax
  • Dakduif In university there was a machine in the canteen of the biology building. Some nerd programmed it so that if you put in a special code, you would get a Mars bar and a bottle of water for a price cheaper than if you would've gotten them both separately. Get it? 'water on Mars'? Loved it.
    via Dakduif
  • Joke was lost when they started stocking Twix in the Mars compartment, but the code still worked. Lots of discounted candy+water has been consumed by many, hungry biology. students.
    via Dakduif
  • Xylorgos This is great! Yes, it was a petty move, but it's still great. You got the boss, gifted your friends, and learned something valuable for your future. Petty revenge doesn't get any better than this! Kudos!
    via Xylorgos
  • DUH
    via Nielson Caetano-Salmeron nielsoncaetanosalmeron

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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