Recently, u/Acrobatic_News_9986 asked "what was an industry secret that genuinely took you aback when you learned it?" and we decided to round up the most surprising answers:
1. "A lot of aisles in grocery stores are sponsored. The soda aisle for example, the store didn't buy that merchandise, it's stocked by a vendor."
2. "Supermarket shelf space is a cut throat market. Notice that the name brand stuff is always at eye level, whereas generic items are near the floor? That's not by accident."
3. "The guacamole that you eat at TGI Friday’s is a giant envelope of dry stuff, mixed with a five gallon bucket of sour cream. And it’s pretty freaking good."
4. "Whenever you fill out a survey like 'how did you like our website today?', most of the time an actual human does read your response, and it doesn't disappear into a black hole."
5. "As a former cashier, a lot of people were surprised when I told them that we were given a two minute time limit per customer."
6. "If you are asked to rate someone's customer service out of ten, anything less than a nine in some places may as well be a zero."
7. "I work in hospitality and money is taken out of my wage for food. It doesn’t matter if I eat or not they’re still gonna take it out. The price varies on how many hours you worked that day I think."
8. "A lot of bands, I mean a LOT, use pre-recorded tracks in their live show. Even ones you would never think. In fact, I would say MOST do today to some degree."
9. "I don't know if the rule has changed since I left, but you CAN 100% bring your own candy to the movie theatre."
10. "As an electrician, I'm amazed more houses don't burn down every day. I do my best, but many others just work as fast as they can and leave behind shoddy work that falls apart when you touch it."
11. "Lots of musicians buy their records in bulk. 500k units sold is almost platinum, then they turn around and sell it back to distributors."
12. "The use of microwaves in mid-range restaurants. I knew it was common in fast food, but seeing all the hot sides in a steakhouse with $50 entrees being cooked in a microwave was a little jarring."
13. "Billboards promoting TV shows are not for the consumer but for the advertisers we want to sell time to."
14. "99% of web traffic to a client’s commercial that they upload to YouTube is fake."
15. "I work in IT security and I am constantly surprised by how terrible so many organisations security practices are. There’s outdated equipment, no accountability, and most of it is run on Excel."
H/T to u/Acrobatic_News_9986 and AskReddit for having this discussion!
Note: All submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.
Additional thumbnail credits: Fox / Nickelodeon / NBC