33 Industry Secrets People Need To Know
Reddit user u/Eastern-Violinist-46 posed the question, "What's a dirty, little secret that you know only because you work in the industry?" People from a variety of industries came forward to share some behind-the-scenes info, and their anecdotes were super informative. Here's what people shared:
"I own a sign shop, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that almost all businesses fail within the first year. If you think you are going to open a restaurant or a boutique, you are about to lose a bunch of money. Also, no matter what business you want to start, go talk to your local sign guy and ask how many businesses have been in that location and failed. Trust me, we know which locations are cursed."
"I used to work for a major talent agency in Hollywood, and a lot of the Academy voters never watched the screeners and let their assistants vote on their behalf."
"I'm in insurance. If you call to request an estimate for a claim, they will count it as a $0 claim on your file when they deem the damage not enough to repair. That means when another company pulls your information, it will not only impact your future rates, but might make you ineligible for future policies. Don't ever call insurance for an estimate first. Get a third party inspector to tell you whether you should file with insurance."
"Always wash your new clothing before you wear it, even if it looks fresh and new. It's been thrown on the floor, moved around a dusty warehouse, tried on by a sweaty post-gym person, and probably sat in a stinky, humid shipping container for two months. Plus, you want to wash off all the starching/finishing products which make it look so 'new.'"
"People cleaning their underwear in kettles is a huge problem in hotels. We find so many forgotten underpants in the kettles, and I can't even assume how many we didn't catch. Don't use them. If you want a nicer room in a hotel, book with Dr. or Prof. before your name. That makes you way more likely to be bumped up. When you're traveling privately, take a card from any hotel testing company with you and give it to the reception when you arrive to enter as the 'address for your bill.' Staff will be extra nice to you."
"Engagement ring business here! Oh, so many. Most natural diamonds have been in, like, two or three rings before they end up in yours. Rings are made with more fragile designs than they used to be, because after you get tired of it breaking/needing repairs all the time, you will buy a new ring, thus giving us more $$$. This is also why the trends nowadays lean toward dainty and minimalistic with a massive stone, because it's a ticking time bomb. This is also why a lot of jewelry stores won't stop you from getting stones that are too soft for daily wear (looking at you, opal). The largest diamond distributor is Walmart. Diamonds that jewelry suppliers discard for being 'ugly' end up on James Allen and Brilliant Earth."
"Leaving online shopping items in your cart while logged in will likely put you into an automated discount offer stream! So, if you intend to buy anyway, leave it in your cart for a few days and see if you get a marketing email with a discount code."
"How dirty the fruits you put in drinks are. I quit getting oranges in my Blue Moons because I figured that orange drove up from Florida, got to North Dakota, was never washed, got cut up, and was put in my drink. Grosses me out."
"There isn't a 'larger than normal call volume.' We just don't have enough staff. Also, your call is not important to us. We actually want you to go away."
"I used to work in radio, and we totally didn't take caller number 10. We maybe counted one through six, and then sorted through the callers until we found an excited sounding voice that fit the target demographic."
"Before I would go on stage as a male dancer, we would inject our penises with solution and/or take Viagra because we were supposed to be, at minimum, half hard all night. We were not allowed to be fully flaccid unless we were dressed. Same goes in amateur porn. Because of this, it's very hard to feel pleasure and finish from basic sex, and it takes a lot to get it up for women, even if you want to."
"Casino boss here. If a shooting or death happens at a casino (all the time), it's almost never reported or shown in the news because local newspapers work together with casinos to avoid hurting the tourism in their city. You'll only hear whispers about it from coworkers, and that's it."
Blurred Image of Gaming machines in a Casino.
"Military-grade is a misnomer for high quality. While companies may sell high quality goods, deeming it military-grade would actually mean it's the cheapest, crappiest material that saves money right now and doesn't worry about 5–10 years from now because a new budget will be passed and the government will continue to be terrible with money."
"I worked in grocery stores for about 40 years. Notice how most ice cream brands have lids that aren't sealed? When you're working stock, whenever a container falls on the floor, sometimes the lids fly off. Most workers just put the lids back on and put it on the shelf. It happens all the time. Always, always buy the handful of brands that actually seal the lids on, or you're just asking to get sick."
"Maybe not a 'dirty' secret, but I work in the VFX industry and was shocked when I first learned how much 'beauty' work is done on actresses. All those famous middle-aged (and older) women that have aged so well? Yeah, we've gone in and removed their wrinkles, crow's feet, saggy neck, etc. Removing acne and acne scars from young performers was also a common occurrence. No wonder women and girls struggle so much with body image."
"Your loved one looks at peace in their casket, but what you don't know is they have plastic eye caps under their eyelids that are (sometimes, not always) glued shut. There are either wires or sutures holding their mouth together and usually some cotton and a bit of wax on the inside to form that subtle smile. There might be a styrofoam block under their back to make the positioning look more natural and comfortable. There might be styrofoam blocks under the padding to help hold their arms in position. Depending on the case, they're probably wrapped in plastic garments underneath the clothing provided. There is a LOT of smoke and mirrors in preparation of a decedent."
"I am working at a sports club with way over 2,000 members, and I can tell you, you might sign some paper about data security and how we handle data, but believe me, your data will go places you don't want it to go."
"There are TONS of buildings out there that don't meet code, even new construction. Inspectors either don't care, don't know the code, or don't even bother to inspect in the first place. On the plus side, building code is extremely over-conservative, so if you get 'close,' it's probably safe. Maybe. Most of the time. Except when it's not. And then everyone gets sued."
"I work in the medical field. This isn't really about my field exactly but an adjacent field: health insurance. There is a guy reviewing our notes looking for reasons to deny a claim. The guy reviewing generally has no clinical knowledge whatsoever, but they are looking for certain keywords so they can stamp the 'denial' on the claim. For this reason, I will omit certain things on the clinical notes if it isn't directly applicable to what I am treating because I know from experience that they will use that word as in indication that the proposed treatment is 'inappropriate' and therefore denied."
"I've worked in two commercial rest homes: memory care and assisted living. They cut every corner known to man. The kitchens are pretty much guaranteed to be eligible for immediate jeopardy, meaning that if they fail a random inspection, they will be shut down that same day. The monthly food budget was less than what salary workers got paid. Food would show up rotten right off the trucks, and we were still instructed to pick out the 'bad stuff' and feed the rest to the residents. The rent is so predatory to families and residents. It was upwards of $2,500–$3,000 for a single-person room every month WITHOUT utilities. The residents pay $50 a meal for it to come cold and mushy in a styrofoam box."
Nurse holding hands with patient in empathy, trust and support of help, advice and healthcare consulting. Kindness, counseling and medical therapy with doctor for hope, consultation and depression
"Video editor here. We often leave obvious mistakes in early versions of the cuts so that the client will note them, making them feel smart and involved, likely leading to them not making extraneous notes elsewhere. People in non-creative positions (the majority of committee clients) absolutely love feeling like they've contributed in clever and meaningful ways to a creative project when we, the trained creatives, know better. It can save a very solid edit from the people who want to make notes for the sake of making notes."
"I worked at a company with a third party 24-hour call center. They literally had times with no one working, and if you called, the automated system would just pick up and say, 'Someone would be with you shortly.' It would just repeat until someone actually clocked in and answered the phone."
"This is kind of a lame one, but I work as a shirt printer. I've found that if you're an adult small, you're better off buying a youth large or youth XL, especially on T-shirts. They're a little wider, and XLs fit better than smalls. My sister learned this trick. She's 5'0" and actually saved a decent amount of money buying youth vs. adult."
"When items are listed on sale at the grocery store, the sale price will be listed on a bib part of the tag while the 'regular' price is listed on the sticky part attached to the shelf. The 'regular price' is hiked up, sometimes by several dollars, to make it look like you're getting a better sale than you actually are, when in fact, the sale might actually not be that great of a deal at all. The sale price might even be almost as much as the price was before the sale. Pay attention to items at regular price when they are not on sale, and make sure that you're not getting swindled."
"Enterprise Rent-A-Car buys their cars straight from the manufacturers at a price lower than dealerships get. After they rent them for a year, they sell them to the public at a price higher than they originally paid."
"Beyond the visibly captured footage, pretty much everything you see in wildlife documentaries is faked. I've spent the past few years working in post, handling the raw footage. Those lizards falling from the trees? There's a dude dropping them to get the shot. That rare snow leopard they tracked across its natural habitat? It's actually three or four similar-looking ones. That mother elephant protecting her baby? It's a male elephant with the tusks and penis VFX'd out. The sound is whatever the foley artist could find that worked. The audience expects certain sounds, and some animals don't sound like you've been tricked into believing. That's just the tip of the iceberg."
"I work in large scale construction. Large developers effectively borrow on the credit of all of the smaller players who are their subcontractors. You have billion-dollar companies asking smaller companies to pay for them with a promise to pay later. The larger the developer, the slower the process is to get paid. If a project goes bust, it's these small guys that get hit because all of the developers have LLCs that are project specific. No assets to speak of."
"So many of your favorite actors and actresses are wearing expensive ($8,000–$20,000+) hairpieces and wigs. I know because I put them on."
"I work in a call center for a large cellular company and have a dirty, little secret that consists of just two words. Ready? Be nice. That's all it takes. There's no need to threaten anyone, be aggressive, or take your anger out on us. We're real people just like you, not just a voice on the other end of the line. When you're rude, belligerent, or threatening toward us, that makes us want to do less for you. And, we will. We'll do as little as possible and maybe make you jump through extra hoops for being a pain. But, if you're nice, patient, and treat us like human beings, we'll bend over backwards to do what we can for you. We didn't cause the situation you're in. While it's reasonable to be upset about something, it's completely unreasonable to take it out on someone else. Talk to us. Tell us what's going on. Give us a chance to help, and we will."
"Luxury hotels document EVERYTHING. The really ritzy places will make note on every single phone call/interaction you have. It's great for remembering special occasions and creating a really memorable stay, but it also means we know exactly how you're a pain in the butt. Irritate us enough and we'll be oddly busy and sold out for every night you're looking to book in the future."
"Digital porn artist of 20+ years here. This isn't so much a 'dirty, little secret' as it is something I think people should really know about: Hollywood and 'society' may have ridiculous body standards for people, but most everyday people's actual interests/tastes are MUCH more broad and inclusive than that. Whatever your body is like, there are millions of people who would find you sexy. Whatever kink you have, you're not the only one. As long as your personality isn't garbage and you've got the patience to sort through the incompatibles, you can absolutely find a partner who would be into you. I'd put money on it."
"I work in journalism. It's not uncommon for publishers and other top-tier managers to hold stories out of fear the reporting will anger advertisers. It's also not uncommon for reporters to fight like hell to preserve the integrity of a story."
And: "I worked in factory floor automation, and oftentimes, the generic products sold at supermarkets are just the brand-name product in different packaging. I worked at a massive bread bakery of a well-known national brand, and the bread was all the same. When they finished a lot of their brand-name bread, they paused the packaging line and loaded on a new wheel of bags and kept bagging bread from the same batch in whatever store brand was up next. I saw the same thing at an orange juice packaging plant. There was only one set of production lines, and they turned out a dozen different brands of OJ. It all came from the same oranges and from the same lines. It just got packaged in different cartons."
What are some other industry secrets more people need to know? Tell us in the comments!
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Big Retail, Stablecoins, and Dividends. Oh My!
In this podcast, Motley Fool analysts Jason Moser and Matt Argersinger discuss: Why Walmart and Amazon are considering launching their own stablecoins. Roku and Amazon expanding their partnership. Two dividend stocks Matt thinks are worth getting on your radar: Whirlpool and Owens Corning. To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you're ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy. A full transcript is below. Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Amazon wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $659,171!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $891,722!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 995% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 This podcast was recorded on June 16, 2025. Jason Moser: Big retail's taking a closer look at stablecoins. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Welcome to Motley Fool Money. I'm Jason Moser. Joining me today, it's senior analyst Mr. Matt Argersinger. Matt, thanks for being here. Matthew Argersinger: You bet, Jason. Always glad to be with you. Jason Moser: On today's show, we're talking Amazon and Walmart's potential stablecoin aspirations. Roku and Amazon are teaming up in the ad market. We'll also take a look at a couple of Matt's favorite dividend stocks. But before we dive in, let's take a look at a few of the headlines driving the market today. After a tough Friday, markets are up today as the conflict between Israel and Iran continues. Now, according to Middle Eastern and European officials, Iran is signaling that it seeks an end to hostilities and wants to resume talks over its nuclear programs. Oil prices recently spiked because of the conflict, with WTI crude price up 11% over the last week. However, prices are down today on the news that Iran does seek to end hostilities. Let's hope that's the case. Finally, it's Fed Week. The Federal Reserve Interest rate decision is out on Wednesday at 2:00PM, with Chairman Powell's press conference to follow at 2:30. Matthew Argersinger: A lot going on, J Mo, but I have to say, does it surprise you as much as it does me how resilient the market has been this year? Here we are again on Monday. After that terrible news last week on Friday, we're again within 2-3 percentage points of an all time high. It makes you wonder what would need to happen to actually shake this market. Jason Moser: I'm not complaining, Matty, but yes, it is a bit surprising. Well, when we come back, big retail takes a closer look at stablecoins. Matt, we both read over the weekend about how Amazon and Walmart are looking at ways to possibly issue their own stablecoins, which, in turn, could, and I want to stress could, have an impact on payments companies like Visa and Mastercard, essentially by taking volume away from their massive networks. Now, I want to dig into this by asking, first and foremost, how exactly would this work? As a consumer, I'm hoping this isn't the case, are they going to force me to use stablecoins to make my purchases? Matthew Argersinger: No, not at all. I think if you're a consumer, who wants to do more transactions within the world of crypto, outside the banking establishment, this gives you another option. I think this is especially appealing to someone who might live outside the US or is doing cross-border transactions, who might live in a country with a more volatile currency, it becomes a nice benefit. It's a peg to the relative stability of the dollar without actually having to be in dollars. But if you're someone like me who has no problem with the banking establishment and generally likes to use credit cards for 99% of transactions, this won't affect you. Now, I think for Amazon and Walmart, it's a smart move. These are two of the biggest retailers on the planet, obviously. Not only does this potentially attract millions of new users who only want a transaction in crypto, it could potentially also save billions in processing fees that these retailers would otherwise pay to Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and banks to facilitate transactions. I don't think anyone should be surprised that Amazon and Walmart are getting into this. Jason Moser: I'm glad you made that cross-border point because that to me, seems one of the most obvious use cases. These are global businesses, obviously. That's something that could certainly benefit. Now, this also hinges very much on the regulatory environment, which seems clear as mud right now. It does seem like we really need to see more in the way of consumer protections, some type of regulatory framework if stablecoins are going to become a meaningful medium of exchange. To be clear, I think that's happening. It's something that's going to take some time, but when you look at it today, tens of millions of people globally, use stablecoins as a medium of exchange today. My suspicion is that probably grows over time. It's worth noting too, Visa and Mastercard are already partnering with crypto platforms to offer cards that allow you to spend against your stablecoin balance. It's not like Visa and Mastercard are ignoring the stablecoin opportunity. They're absolutely participating in it. I think investors should be encouraged by that, but if you look at Visa and Mastercard over the last five years, the stocks have basically more or less they've matched the market. Stretch that over 10 years, they've outperformed vastly. The longer you own these stocks, it seems like the more sense it makes. But let's look out over the next five years, particularly in this evolving space. How do you think these companies fare given all of these changes? Matthew Argersinger: The next five years, it's tough to say. But do stablecoins mean that these companies are disrupted and are going to do terribly over the next five years? I think that's an easy call. I don't think so. They're so dominant. Each operates in more than 200 companies, billions of issued cards outstanding, millions of merchants around the world that use them. You mentioned tens of millions of people using stablecoins, which is growing fast, but that's a drop in the bucket, compared to Visa and Mastercard's network. Keep in mind, consumers get a lot of benefits from using cards, especially credit cards. First, they're generally free to use. They give me rewards like cashback or airline miles or other benefits. Other than a stable currency, I'm not exactly clear what consumers get from using stablecoins. I know Circle and Tether get to earn interest on the float, but do consumers get anything out of it? I don't think so. Look, at the same time, though, I'm the last person who says big, dominant companies can't be disrupted, but over the next five years, I don't see it happening with Visa and Mastercard. In fact, as you mentioned with both companies, they can actually become big players in the crypto space themselves. I'd rest fairly easy if I'm a shareholder, and guess what? I'm, Jason. Jason Moser: Yeah, I think you're right. It boils down to incentives. You got to give me a reason to want to change over. Like you, I'm perfectly happy with my current banking relationship and how it enables us to spend our money and track our spending. It'll be fascinating to see exactly what these companies do. Next up, Amazon and Roku get a little closer, and we've got some dividend stocks you may want to keep your eye on. Matty, Roku and Amazon are teaming up, or rather, they're extending or expanding their relationship. This partnership will allow advertisers to reach roughly 80 million connected TV households through Amazon's demand-side platform. This seems like a space where we're seeing more partnerships in order to take advantage of this massive opportunity, the ad-supported video-on-demand space, that AVOD space. To be clear, like I said, Roku has already been working with Amazon's DSP to a certain degree, that demand-side platform. But this expanded partnership goes deeper, where programmatic in-stream video inventory is concerned. What do you make of this news today? Matthew Argersinger: Well, at first read, this definitely feels like a win for both companies. Obviously, given Amazon's size and other revenue sources, it's going to move the needle much more for Roku. But you've got this massive network of advertising touchpoints with Amazon's DSP. Now, you fully integrate that with Roku, which I think accounts for something like half or almost half of all TV streaming. That's impressive. If you're an advertiser, you now have a much greater scale, but also you can now be much more targeted because you're not having to potentially advertise to two audiences that already have significant overlap. I think it's a nice win for both companies, for sure. Jason Moser: You remember, it wasn't all that long ago, we weren't even talking about Amazon as an advertising business. It was just a little rounding error on the income statement. Maybe they made several million dollars, and now all of a sudden, they're operating on basically an $80 billion annual run rate with their advertising business. It's just phenomenal to see. Clearly, they've built out, I think, ways to win on both sides. Whether it's that demand-side platform or just through the content that they're slinging us through their many channels. This seems to make a lot of sense. Now, I think a logical question or at least the question that came to me, initially, is how this may or may not affect the Trade Desk. Obviously, a lot of our listeners are very familiar with the Trade Desk, a very popular recommendation in the Foolish universe. I think it's worth noting, Trade Desk shares are up today, so I don't think this was something that the market received negatively. In fact, Trade Desk and Roku announced their own partnership toward the end of last year. We're seeing a lot more collaboration in this space. It prompted the question to me like, is this a rising tide ultimately that lifts all boats situation? I feel like that's the most likely answer. When you look at the opportunity here in the advertising video demand space, the revenue in AVOD worldwide is expected to reach better than $54 billion this year. It's projected to hit $71.3 billion by 2029. It's growing, and I think part of that has to do with the value proposition, particularly in emerging economies or economies that maybe are not quite as well off as ours. It's just consumers get tremendous value, and I think we're seeing more and more consumers even here domestically getting that value. Netflix bringing advertising into their model as well. It seems like an exciting space. Now, that said, Roku's shares have had a tough go over the last five years, Matty. It's a big opportunity, like I noted, but it's a very competitive space. Is this a sign that Roku is getting things back on track? Do you see this from these levels today as potentially a market beater over the next five years, let's say? Matthew Argersinger: Here's my problem with Roku, Jason, and it's very superficial. I'm not sure who has actually made money investing in Roku. I don't want that to sound flippant, even though it is. But unless you brought Roku within its first few months of going public, in 2017, you've not only drastically underperformed the S&P 500, but you've lost money. The stock did soar in 2020 and 2021, but if you aren't lucky enough or savvy enough to sell during that time, you're down big from those highs. I'm not commenting on the business, and I think this expanded partnership with Amazon is definitely a good step. But is the company a good bet in the long run? Based on its track record as a public company, and that actually means something to me, it doesn't appear to be a good bet to me, Jason. Jason Moser: I'm an Amazon shareholder, I'm a Trade Desk shareholder. I don't own Roku, never have, and I don't think I ever will. Part of my hang-up with the business, following it since it went public, it's had to pivot a lot. Going from hardware to software and now trying to pooce their own content, going into advertising, all these different things. It's just tricky to see exactly where their primary focus is., I think I'm happy being a shareholder in Amazon and the Trade Desk and I'll just keep moving forward. Matty, let's wrap it up. We'll talk some dividend stocks. We all like cash in the pocket, and you run two of our different dividend services here that focus on dividends in income. I wanted to start firstly with your take on the metrics. What are one or two key metrics you think investors should prioritize when looking at dividend stocks? Matthew Argersinger: There are many. I would say, if you're just starting to look at dividend stocks, I think looking at how a company has grown its dividend, the growth rate of the dividend over time, and has that growth exceeded inflation on an annual basis? I think that is a tell that the company's growing its earnings, it's becoming a more profitable, more valuable company, and it's showing up in their dividends. It's a good proxy for a company's growth. Then related to that, check out the payout ratio. We all get enticed by companies that have high yields, 6, 7% yields. Generally, those companies are paying out a high proportion of their earnings out as dividends, and that can be unsustainable, especially if the company's earnings slow down or if it's a cyclical business. With dividend-paying companies, I generally like to see a payout ratio below 70%, even below 60% to be safe. Those would be the two I would focus on initially. Jason Moser: Occasionally, you just see that payout ratio fluctuate. It could be due to one time expenses or whatever it may be. I guess it makes more sense. Look for it over time. Matthew Argersinger: Maybe look at a five-year trend, and that give you enough information, probably. Jason Moser: Well, we've been talking about it all show. I know you've got some favorites in the space, Matty. Do you care to share if you have a couple of dividend stocks that you feel are worth getting on listeners' radar today? Matthew Argersinger: Absolutely. I've always got some favorites. I'd say there are two that stand out to me right now, and both are fortunately or unfortunately tied to the housing market. Just keep that in mind. I think both these can be winning investments from here, but they would do a lot better, Jason, over the next several years if there was a pickup in US home transactions. With that aside, the first stock is Owens Corning. The ticker is OC. We just rerecommended this in our dividend investor service here at the Fool. It's a leader in roofing and insulation. If you've ever been to Home Depot, Jason, looking for insulation for your roof or some other part of your house, you've probably seen the big pink bags with the pink panther images on them. That's Owens Corning. Really well-managed business. The dividend yield is only 2% right now, but it's been growing at double digit rates. Management has also been buying back a lot of stock. In fact, management is targeting one billion in combined dividends and buybacks each of the next two years. It works out really nicely for shareholders if you're looking at shareholder-yielding companies. My second idea is Whirlpool. Ticker WHR. I think everyone should know Whirlpool. It's North America's leading kitchen, bathroom appliance maker. You got brands like Whirlpool, of course, but Maytag, KitchenAid, InSinkErator are all Whirlpool brands. It was my stock on the radar last Friday during our Friday show. Whirlpool stock has really suffered over the last several years. It's had rising competition from Asia. As I mentioned, the housing market here in the US has been stagnant, but Whirlpool got some really nice news last week. It looks like the 50% steel tariffs that are being applied to various importers are also going to be applied to appliances. That's going to give Whirlpool, which manufactures the vast majority of its products in the US, a major leg up. Stock is very cheap, trades for less than 10 times forward earnings and has a dividend yield of almost 8%. It's a little bit riskier than Owens Corning, but I like the value and I like the turnaround potential. Jason Moser: I got to ask you one last question. You know what's coming. Looking at these two, Owens Corning, Whirlpool, do you have a favorite? Is there one you like over the other, or do these really just represent a nice way to get a good risk exposure? One, you said, obviously, Whirlpool, a little bit riskier, Owens Corning, maybe a little bit lower on the risk scale. Is it a nice 1, 2 punch in that regard? Matthew Argersinger: It's definitely a nice 1, 2 punch. I own both. If I had to pick one for the short run, I might go with Whirlpool. If I had to own one for the next five plus years, I would probably go to Owens Corning. I just think its business is less cyclical. It's much more tied to refurbishment and replacement, as opposed to Whirlpool, which, of course, needs people to be buying new appliances. I might go with Owens Corning in the long run, even though I like both. Jason Moser: We'll leave it there. Matty, thanks again for being here. Matthew Argersinger: Thank you, J Mo. Jason Moser: As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool editorial standards and are not approved by advertisers. Advertisements or sponsored content are provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. I'm Jason Moser. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Jason Moser has positions in Amazon, Home Depot, Mastercard, The Trade Desk, and Visa. Matthew Argersinger has positions in Amazon, Home Depot, Mastercard, Netflix, Owens Corning, Roku, The Trade Desk, Visa, and Whirlpool and has the following options: short September 2025 $90 puts on Whirlpool. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Home Depot, Mastercard, Netflix, Roku, The Trade Desk, Visa, and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends Owens Corning and Whirlpool. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Big Retail, Stablecoins, and Dividends. Oh My! was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
31 Spoiled, Entitled, Out-Of-Touch People Who Are Surely Too Clueless To Survive A Day Outside Of First-Class
If you've ever had to take the deepest breath in the world because you just heard something almost too privileged to be real, you're in the right place. Recently, people on Reddit shared the most out-of-touch thing they've witnessed a rich person say or do, and I had to lie down for a while after reading through it. Here are some of the top comments: 1."My friend's sister, who is attending medical school, said, 'Did you know some people's parents don't pay for their school?'" —mercfan3 2."'I wish my kids qualified for financial aid.' She thinks financial aid is a benefit everyone else gets that she's losing out on. Said by a woman brought up in an upper-middle-class family and married into another one. I don't know too many 25-year-olds with zero college debt, whose first house is a 4-bed single-family home and immediately put in an inground salt water pool, had two kids, then finished their basement with all the fixings." "No. No, you do not want your kids to actually qualify for financial aid. Give up your giant house, pool, and regularly occurring vacations first. Oh, and you don't HAVE to pay your kids' full college tuition for their D1 schools, but you can easily afford to without eliminating any other discretionary cost in your life This couple easily makes $350k, the husband is a partner." —drunkpickle726 3."'Why don't you just buy a house? This apartment is awfully small for the four of you.' I loved the person who said this very much; he was like family, but my ex and I couldn't believe our ears when he said that. We both wanted to answer in a tone absolutely dripping with sarcasm, 'Gee, we never thought of that! We'll have to go shopping tomorrow. Would you like to write the check for the down payment since it's such a great idea and we don't have any money?'" —Kind_Blackberry3911 "Man, one of the engineers at my office bought a house and then was nonstop pressuring me about when I was going to stop renting. Never mind that I'm an admin assistant, so I make a fraction of what he does. I was finally like, 'When you get our boss to give me a raise to match your salary, I guess?' That finally seemed to shut him up, but Jesus Christ, it was so tone deaf." —ScroochDown 4."Girl I knew in high school was whining about how her parents cancelled their annual ski trip to Switzerland, and they had to settle for Jackson Hole instead. Poor girl, times were tough." —HorrorSmile3088 5."'It's so easy to travel. Just save $100-300 every paycheck. I don't know why people can't do that.' This was right after college when I started paying back my loans while only making $18/hr. I told her, 'Lady, I'm lucky if I have $20 left over.' She looked shocked." —Appropriate_Sky_6571 "Similarly, when people say you should spend your 20s traveling, seeing the world, and getting cultured before settling down. You think I don't want to?? That's expensive, plus, how am I supposed to get that many days off work??" —VanillaMemeIceCream 6."My wife does work for high-profile clients. Often, you'll see a $20,000+ food order barely touched and, due to liability concerns, thrown away. I wish this was sarcasm." —ElonsMuskyFeet "I am a notorious post-event crasher because of this, complete with Tupperware. Walked into a work event after it was over, and the crew was shoveling the food down; one looked at me, nodded, and pointed to the buffet. 'Take the whole tray,' they literally begged, 'cuz otherwise it goes right in the trash." —DopeCharma 7."Someone told me they thought poor people just 'don't try hard enough' and that 'everyone has the same 24 hours.' It was wild how confidently they said it, like generational wealth, health, and safety weren't even factors." —fatherballoons "And just the damn randomness of life, I hate the 'don't try hard enough.' You could work 16 hours a day and give it all, and things just don't work out. Yet the guy who won a gamble will tell you how hard he worked and why everyone is able to achieve the same he did. Survivorship bias is a hell of a drug." —sinjuice 8."My ex once said before a date, 'I won't wear my Rolex so you don't feel poor.'" —leahlo 9."'I don't get why poor people don't just budget better.' Ah, yes, the CEO of life, right here." —Any_Lingonberry_3948 "I know folks who grew up poor, fell into a good-paying job (at least in relation to their upbringing), and adopted this mindset. I'm always like, 'How do you not remember where you came from?' Good budgeting when you are poor is hard as hell. I grew up fairly poor but do okay now, nothing to brag about, but I enjoy luxuries and a comfortable life that I'm quite thankful for — and I never, ever let myself forget where I came from. That's in no small part because all it takes is one catastrophic illness or other bad turn in life to end up back there again. But more importantly, it's because you've got to remind yourself that getting some lucky breaks doesn't make you better or harder working than someone else, it just means that you got lucky enough for your efforts to fall into place. I did work hard, yes, but there was also good fortune involved, too." —bamisdead 10."I once worked for a company where the CEO was used to flying private. The company then opened its first office overseas. For this purpose, he needed to fly commercial for the first time in about 20 years. After the trip his secretary took great pleasure in telling stories after his first trip on how clueless he was about commercial air travel: not knowing how to deal with the security screening, limitations on carry-on luggage, and being much more at the mercy of airlines in terms of scheduling." —thirdtimesdecharm 11."My therapist said I have generational wealth anxiety." —SeaConstant1433 "How can i get that anxiety?" —kosommokom 12."I did private duty home health for an extremely wealthy woman who had round-the-clock home care employees. I came to work one evening and was getting her ready for bed, and I noticed that she had several new yoga pants and casual tops hanging in her closet with the tags still on. I commented how cute they were, and she told me that her day shift worker had taken her shopping at Target, and asked me if I'd ever been there, followed by saying she 'never knew stores like that existed.' (Of course, she didn't know because everything she owned came from Neiman Marcus, Saks, Gucci, Prada, etc.)" "I laughed and said, 'Sweetie, if Target excited you that much, Walmart will blow your mind. You can get new tires on your car while you grocery shop, or get a new TV and even patio furniture.' She said, 'Are you kidding??! Well, then that's where we're going tomorrow!'" —Minimum-Career-9999 "That is actually very endearing. Kinda scary, but I love the attitude of enjoying the new opportunities. She might have been fun if that positive spin continued." —scattywampus 13."I worked my way through college doing housecleaning, babysitting, and retail jobs. Met a girl who laughed at me and said her father wanted her to know about the REAL working world, so every summer he got her hired by one of his client firms in the oil business. Bitch, please. The HARDEST part of the real world is getting a chance. And he hid that from you." —chockerl 14."'I don't know why people need remote work. I just had someone who drove my kids to school, so it didn't interfere with my work schedule.' You really think everyone can do this?" —Electronic-Shower726 15."'I don't understand people who go to Disney World and don't stay in a villa or one of the deluxe resorts! It's just not the same or not even close to worth it to be at the poor-people value resorts!' Said to my husband and I who were on our honeymoon while staying at a value resort. We are both teachers and saved up for YEARS to make that vacation happen." "We were just so grateful to be able to 1) take a honeymoon and 2) go somewhere that we both love but can't go to regularly because of how expensive it is. Opened my eyes to how so many people can't look past their own perspectives and gave me an understanding of where entitlement might come from." —Belle0516 16."A former friend of mine had a fight with her parents about some boy she met on Snapchat. The parents were 100% in the right. Guess what the punishment was. She wasn´t allowed to wear her designer clothes for a week. A week. She was so mad. It was so weird and a big reality check for me. I knew her parents were rich, but then I realised how different our lives were." —Icy-Rule-7248 17."'If you don't like this town, then move.' As if coming up with thousands of dollars to relocate and start over is just readily available. Yes, Priscilla, I would love to just move. How about you slip me about 10 grand so I can?" —meh_alienz 18."My roommate in my freshman year of college asked me, 'So when is the cleaning lady coming to collect our clothes to be washed?' now? She honestly thought that someone came around, picked up dirty laundry, washed and folded it, then returned it to us and thought that was part of our dorm fees." —readingreddit4fun 19."I'm planning a wedding and I've had MULTIPLE people tell me my wedding should be black tie because 'what grown adult doesn't own a tuxedo?'" —atlanduh 20."My ex grew up very wealthy and genuinely thought that when you're shopping for something, you should buy the most expensive item because it's the best. Also, he was so clueless that he thought that silver that tarnishes must be poor quality." —sqplanetarium 21."'I'm so happy to not go on vacation for a bit.' My coworker said this when she went abroad six times in one year. Different countries each time." —Maleficent_Count6205 22."I wasn't spoiled. I had to clean out my horse's stall myself." —DoTheRightThing1953 23."'I work hard, I should be able to travel wherever I want,' in a conversation about Indigenous people who were asking tourists not to come there because they saw it as harmful to their community." —StrawbraryLiberry 24."A girl I met travelling has fallen into an influencer pyramid scheme. I put up with it until she made a post saying the following: 'Unpopular opinion: if you're poor and you have a smartphone, then it's your fault.' Instant unfollow." —maryg1503 25."Refer to a speeding ticket as their 'go-fast license.'" —Trips-Over-Tail 26."'I don't care about politics.' Dude, people's lives and rights depend on this shit." —lifeincolour_ 27."I teach at an upper-middle-class middle school. I had a 7th grader extremely upset because his parents revoked the credit card privilege on his phone. He bought a bunch of designer clothes, and I guess racked up a bill. The kid was so mad, saying, 'It's not even their money! It's a credit card. Get over it, bro.' I tried to explain that you still have to pay the credit card company, it's not free money, but he wasn't hearing it." —SinfullySinless 28."One of my friends was complaining that she and her husband received no help from her parents when they went to buy their first house and that she had to use her trust fund instead." —stablerslut 29."Girl I was dating had a 'rough' month and needed $200 for a car repair. Casually said she'll just take out $5k from a savings account her parents gave her (with $125k in it) to treat herself for all the stress it caused her to bring the car to the workshop 2 miles away." —Groundbreaking-Tax-4 30."A wealthy girl once told me, 'We don't have as much money as everyone thinks. Last year, we barely had enough money to put in the pool house.'" —mattysatty_380 finally, "Having a military parade for your birthday." —wonderererere What's the most ridiculously privileged behavior you've witnessed from a rich person? Tell us what happened in the comments or via the anonymous form below:
Buzz Feed
7 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
33 Industry Secrets People Need To Know
Reddit user u/Eastern-Violinist-46 posed the question, "What's a dirty, little secret that you know only because you work in the industry?" People from a variety of industries came forward to share some behind-the-scenes info, and their anecdotes were super informative. Here's what people shared: "I own a sign shop, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that almost all businesses fail within the first year. If you think you are going to open a restaurant or a boutique, you are about to lose a bunch of money. Also, no matter what business you want to start, go talk to your local sign guy and ask how many businesses have been in that location and failed. Trust me, we know which locations are cursed." "I used to work for a major talent agency in Hollywood, and a lot of the Academy voters never watched the screeners and let their assistants vote on their behalf." "I'm in insurance. If you call to request an estimate for a claim, they will count it as a $0 claim on your file when they deem the damage not enough to repair. That means when another company pulls your information, it will not only impact your future rates, but might make you ineligible for future policies. Don't ever call insurance for an estimate first. Get a third party inspector to tell you whether you should file with insurance." "Always wash your new clothing before you wear it, even if it looks fresh and new. It's been thrown on the floor, moved around a dusty warehouse, tried on by a sweaty post-gym person, and probably sat in a stinky, humid shipping container for two months. Plus, you want to wash off all the starching/finishing products which make it look so 'new.'" "People cleaning their underwear in kettles is a huge problem in hotels. We find so many forgotten underpants in the kettles, and I can't even assume how many we didn't catch. Don't use them. If you want a nicer room in a hotel, book with Dr. or Prof. before your name. That makes you way more likely to be bumped up. When you're traveling privately, take a card from any hotel testing company with you and give it to the reception when you arrive to enter as the 'address for your bill.' Staff will be extra nice to you." "Engagement ring business here! Oh, so many. Most natural diamonds have been in, like, two or three rings before they end up in yours. Rings are made with more fragile designs than they used to be, because after you get tired of it breaking/needing repairs all the time, you will buy a new ring, thus giving us more $$$. This is also why the trends nowadays lean toward dainty and minimalistic with a massive stone, because it's a ticking time bomb. This is also why a lot of jewelry stores won't stop you from getting stones that are too soft for daily wear (looking at you, opal). The largest diamond distributor is Walmart. Diamonds that jewelry suppliers discard for being 'ugly' end up on James Allen and Brilliant Earth." "Leaving online shopping items in your cart while logged in will likely put you into an automated discount offer stream! So, if you intend to buy anyway, leave it in your cart for a few days and see if you get a marketing email with a discount code." "How dirty the fruits you put in drinks are. I quit getting oranges in my Blue Moons because I figured that orange drove up from Florida, got to North Dakota, was never washed, got cut up, and was put in my drink. Grosses me out." "There isn't a 'larger than normal call volume.' We just don't have enough staff. Also, your call is not important to us. We actually want you to go away." "I used to work in radio, and we totally didn't take caller number 10. We maybe counted one through six, and then sorted through the callers until we found an excited sounding voice that fit the target demographic." "Before I would go on stage as a male dancer, we would inject our penises with solution and/or take Viagra because we were supposed to be, at minimum, half hard all night. We were not allowed to be fully flaccid unless we were dressed. Same goes in amateur porn. Because of this, it's very hard to feel pleasure and finish from basic sex, and it takes a lot to get it up for women, even if you want to." "Casino boss here. If a shooting or death happens at a casino (all the time), it's almost never reported or shown in the news because local newspapers work together with casinos to avoid hurting the tourism in their city. You'll only hear whispers about it from coworkers, and that's it." Blurred Image of Gaming machines in a Casino. "Military-grade is a misnomer for high quality. While companies may sell high quality goods, deeming it military-grade would actually mean it's the cheapest, crappiest material that saves money right now and doesn't worry about 5–10 years from now because a new budget will be passed and the government will continue to be terrible with money." "I worked in grocery stores for about 40 years. Notice how most ice cream brands have lids that aren't sealed? When you're working stock, whenever a container falls on the floor, sometimes the lids fly off. Most workers just put the lids back on and put it on the shelf. It happens all the time. Always, always buy the handful of brands that actually seal the lids on, or you're just asking to get sick." "Maybe not a 'dirty' secret, but I work in the VFX industry and was shocked when I first learned how much 'beauty' work is done on actresses. All those famous middle-aged (and older) women that have aged so well? Yeah, we've gone in and removed their wrinkles, crow's feet, saggy neck, etc. Removing acne and acne scars from young performers was also a common occurrence. No wonder women and girls struggle so much with body image." "Your loved one looks at peace in their casket, but what you don't know is they have plastic eye caps under their eyelids that are (sometimes, not always) glued shut. There are either wires or sutures holding their mouth together and usually some cotton and a bit of wax on the inside to form that subtle smile. There might be a styrofoam block under their back to make the positioning look more natural and comfortable. There might be styrofoam blocks under the padding to help hold their arms in position. Depending on the case, they're probably wrapped in plastic garments underneath the clothing provided. There is a LOT of smoke and mirrors in preparation of a decedent." "I am working at a sports club with way over 2,000 members, and I can tell you, you might sign some paper about data security and how we handle data, but believe me, your data will go places you don't want it to go." "There are TONS of buildings out there that don't meet code, even new construction. Inspectors either don't care, don't know the code, or don't even bother to inspect in the first place. On the plus side, building code is extremely over-conservative, so if you get 'close,' it's probably safe. Maybe. Most of the time. Except when it's not. And then everyone gets sued." "I work in the medical field. This isn't really about my field exactly but an adjacent field: health insurance. There is a guy reviewing our notes looking for reasons to deny a claim. The guy reviewing generally has no clinical knowledge whatsoever, but they are looking for certain keywords so they can stamp the 'denial' on the claim. For this reason, I will omit certain things on the clinical notes if it isn't directly applicable to what I am treating because I know from experience that they will use that word as in indication that the proposed treatment is 'inappropriate' and therefore denied." "I've worked in two commercial rest homes: memory care and assisted living. They cut every corner known to man. The kitchens are pretty much guaranteed to be eligible for immediate jeopardy, meaning that if they fail a random inspection, they will be shut down that same day. The monthly food budget was less than what salary workers got paid. Food would show up rotten right off the trucks, and we were still instructed to pick out the 'bad stuff' and feed the rest to the residents. The rent is so predatory to families and residents. It was upwards of $2,500–$3,000 for a single-person room every month WITHOUT utilities. The residents pay $50 a meal for it to come cold and mushy in a styrofoam box." Nurse holding hands with patient in empathy, trust and support of help, advice and healthcare consulting. Kindness, counseling and medical therapy with doctor for hope, consultation and depression "Video editor here. We often leave obvious mistakes in early versions of the cuts so that the client will note them, making them feel smart and involved, likely leading to them not making extraneous notes elsewhere. People in non-creative positions (the majority of committee clients) absolutely love feeling like they've contributed in clever and meaningful ways to a creative project when we, the trained creatives, know better. It can save a very solid edit from the people who want to make notes for the sake of making notes." "I worked at a company with a third party 24-hour call center. They literally had times with no one working, and if you called, the automated system would just pick up and say, 'Someone would be with you shortly.' It would just repeat until someone actually clocked in and answered the phone." "This is kind of a lame one, but I work as a shirt printer. I've found that if you're an adult small, you're better off buying a youth large or youth XL, especially on T-shirts. They're a little wider, and XLs fit better than smalls. My sister learned this trick. She's 5'0" and actually saved a decent amount of money buying youth vs. adult." "When items are listed on sale at the grocery store, the sale price will be listed on a bib part of the tag while the 'regular' price is listed on the sticky part attached to the shelf. The 'regular price' is hiked up, sometimes by several dollars, to make it look like you're getting a better sale than you actually are, when in fact, the sale might actually not be that great of a deal at all. The sale price might even be almost as much as the price was before the sale. Pay attention to items at regular price when they are not on sale, and make sure that you're not getting swindled." "Enterprise Rent-A-Car buys their cars straight from the manufacturers at a price lower than dealerships get. After they rent them for a year, they sell them to the public at a price higher than they originally paid." "Beyond the visibly captured footage, pretty much everything you see in wildlife documentaries is faked. I've spent the past few years working in post, handling the raw footage. Those lizards falling from the trees? There's a dude dropping them to get the shot. That rare snow leopard they tracked across its natural habitat? It's actually three or four similar-looking ones. That mother elephant protecting her baby? It's a male elephant with the tusks and penis VFX'd out. The sound is whatever the foley artist could find that worked. The audience expects certain sounds, and some animals don't sound like you've been tricked into believing. That's just the tip of the iceberg." "I work in large scale construction. Large developers effectively borrow on the credit of all of the smaller players who are their subcontractors. You have billion-dollar companies asking smaller companies to pay for them with a promise to pay later. The larger the developer, the slower the process is to get paid. If a project goes bust, it's these small guys that get hit because all of the developers have LLCs that are project specific. No assets to speak of." "So many of your favorite actors and actresses are wearing expensive ($8,000–$20,000+) hairpieces and wigs. I know because I put them on." "I work in a call center for a large cellular company and have a dirty, little secret that consists of just two words. Ready? Be nice. That's all it takes. There's no need to threaten anyone, be aggressive, or take your anger out on us. We're real people just like you, not just a voice on the other end of the line. When you're rude, belligerent, or threatening toward us, that makes us want to do less for you. And, we will. We'll do as little as possible and maybe make you jump through extra hoops for being a pain. But, if you're nice, patient, and treat us like human beings, we'll bend over backwards to do what we can for you. We didn't cause the situation you're in. While it's reasonable to be upset about something, it's completely unreasonable to take it out on someone else. Talk to us. Tell us what's going on. Give us a chance to help, and we will." "Luxury hotels document EVERYTHING. The really ritzy places will make note on every single phone call/interaction you have. It's great for remembering special occasions and creating a really memorable stay, but it also means we know exactly how you're a pain in the butt. Irritate us enough and we'll be oddly busy and sold out for every night you're looking to book in the future." "Digital porn artist of 20+ years here. This isn't so much a 'dirty, little secret' as it is something I think people should really know about: Hollywood and 'society' may have ridiculous body standards for people, but most everyday people's actual interests/tastes are MUCH more broad and inclusive than that. Whatever your body is like, there are millions of people who would find you sexy. Whatever kink you have, you're not the only one. As long as your personality isn't garbage and you've got the patience to sort through the incompatibles, you can absolutely find a partner who would be into you. I'd put money on it." "I work in journalism. It's not uncommon for publishers and other top-tier managers to hold stories out of fear the reporting will anger advertisers. It's also not uncommon for reporters to fight like hell to preserve the integrity of a story." And: "I worked in factory floor automation, and oftentimes, the generic products sold at supermarkets are just the brand-name product in different packaging. I worked at a massive bread bakery of a well-known national brand, and the bread was all the same. When they finished a lot of their brand-name bread, they paused the packaging line and loaded on a new wheel of bags and kept bagging bread from the same batch in whatever store brand was up next. I saw the same thing at an orange juice packaging plant. There was only one set of production lines, and they turned out a dozen different brands of OJ. It all came from the same oranges and from the same lines. It just got packaged in different cartons." What are some other industry secrets more people need to know? Tell us in the comments!
