Blab Your Industry's Secrets =>HERE<=

In My Humble Opinion
1

I work for a building supply company, and even though we don’t have many industry ‘secrets’, there are a couple that may be of interest to a few people out there.

Blab Your Industry’s Secrets
Subtitled: The Sy Syms thread - Where an educated consumer is our best customer.

Granted, we’re not a hardware store or the conventional home center that you’re used to seeing - we’re more of a mason contractor supply yard. That being said, we are affilatied with the Tru-Serv & Ace Hardware co-op buying groups - so here goes:

  1. Most Ace Hardware Retailers (who put a co-op generated price label on their merchandise) also put a ‘coded’ cost of the product on the label.

They use the VICKSBURGH coding system, where:
V=1, I=2, C=3, K=4, S=5, B=6, U=7, R=8, G=9 & H=0.

So the next time you run in for a gallon of windshield washer fluid, with the retail of $1.59 and an HHHHHGU under it - you’ll know the cost was $0.97.

  1. Servistar Hardware Retailers (similar to Ace) use the “5” sysyem to code the costs on their labels.

The rule: Subtract the # 5 from the minuend under the retail without carrying. For digits<5 calculate the difference by manually putting a 1 in front of the number.

So the next time you buy a new Stanley 25’ Powerlock Tape Measure for $10.99 and see a “456” underneath the retail on the price sticker, you’ll know that tool cost the retailer $9.01.

Disclaimer:
I blabbed but don’t see it as much of a betrayal. It’s not like people go into hardware store to barter price - they go for the service and convenience the retailer offers. If they wanna save a few pennies, they’ll fight the crowds and wait on a long check-out line at Home Depot or Loews.

2

Hmmm. I teach at a college: So here’s my industry secret:
Finals are a crock only meant to get the students to work like fevered dervishes the last two weeks of a semester…The grades are already in before the finals end :slight_smile: *

Just kidding :slight_smile:
less than two weeks left, y’all can do it, I believe. :slight_smile:

3

Subtitled: My truer passion - Beer

Even though our tap beer is always fresh (OK - I admit that does sound a little bit like thinly veiled self-promotion) there are ways of telling how fresh your bottled beer is.

Last time I checked, Bottling/expiration date codes on the bottle or labels as follows

Heineken: Bottling date Y### - with the ### being roman date

Bass: Bottling date = Day-Day-(Alpha)Month-Year

Sam Adams / Coors / Beck’s: Expiration - MMYY on label.

Molson: Bottling Date - (Alpha)Month/2-digit date/last digit of year, followed by a whole bunch of gibberish.

Some other German biers use notches on the left/right & bottom side of the label. With the 6 sections on the left being Jan-Jun, the 6 sections on the right being Jul-Dec and the bottom being the year.

Long-Neck, Returnable (aka Refillable) Deposit “Bar” Bottles.

Ever see those 2 bands of scratches & chips that encircle a tall-neck bottle of beer? That’s cause during the countless cycles that bottle is filled, drank from, returned, washed & refilled over and over again it’s constantly knocking into & rubbing up against other bottles in the brewery.

To see the year the bottle was made, look for a 2-digit code on the underside of the bottle, close to the rounded bottom edge. I’ve come across some really ratty looking bottles with codes that go back to the early 60’s. I always stop and wonder aloud just how many people drank from that same bottle. Maybe it was once served somewhere unique, like a State dinner in the White House, or the fabled Stork Club. It could have even contributed to the hangover of Hemingway or even Dylan Thomas one night.

4

There was a similar thread a while back that was really neat. Some good surprises and tips.

As for me, I used to work as a TA (teacher’s assistant). It was a work-study deal through my college – I worked four days a week at the elementary school across the street with a second-grade class. I was hired with no resume, no experience, and no recommendations. I tremble to think of how easily a child molester could get a job at that school.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and not too hard. I helped in the library sometimes, took the kids out to recess, graded papers, assembled progress reports, and occasionally read a book aloud. One of the boys got sick and vomited on me, but that was the worst I had to endure. The children were absolutely adorable – I fell in love with all of them and wanted to take them all home with me.

Now I work as a librarian’s assistant. It’s also not too terribly difficult. I most file and help people track down books. Me and the other LAs hang out a lot and talk about anime while stripping magazines.

5

OMG! Here’s another industry secret that’s just been proven out:
Excessive quantites of beer WILL rot your brain and cause memory loss.

I could try and say something like,
duh, I didn’t see that thread last winter in IMHO,
or
oops, I completely forgot about it and searched thread titles here with the wrong keywords.

But that would be bullshit…especially considering the fact I posted to it 2X. I can’t beleive I completely forgot about it being there. My apologies to even sven for not resurrecting his/her thread.

If anyone who works in the pharmacutical or natural supplements industry can recommend a product that has the secret effect of improving long-term memory, I’d appreciate it.

6

I work for an aerosol manufacturer. We mainly supply the salon industry with mousses and hairsprays, and recently have also been manufacturing shave foams and gels.

If you live in California, any hairsprays that you use are not going to be nearly as good as those sold out of state. The reason for this is CARB, the agency that makes air pollution regulations.

In California the salon industry is only allowed to sell hairsprays with a maximum VOC (volitile organic chemical) rating of 55%, and mousses with a maximum rating of 6%. VOC is caused by the inclusion of alcohol in the formulation of your favorite hairspray or mousse, as well as the type of propellant.

The lower the VOC rating, the less alchohol in the formula. The less alchohol in the formula (we use water in replacement), the longer the drying time of your hairspray or mousse. They also tend to be less sticky, and cause clumping. Mousses also will not foam as well, resulting in a much wetter feel, which affects spreadabillity.

Regulations in the rest of the US (except I believe Hawaii and NY) allow hairsprays at 80% VOC, and mousses at 16% VOC. Internationally you are probably receiving product at 100% VOC, but that depends on the country.
As for information regarding shave gels and foams, the best shave gel to foam out there (IMHO) is Johnson and Johnson’s Aveeno shave gel. Any other product is,again IMHO, booty.

If you ever buy a can of shave gel and during use notice a ‘stuttering’ kind of delivery of product, turn that bad boy over and give it a good downward shake. This will force the product to the head of the can towards the actuator (spout), and force the prop towards the bottom of the can, behind the product.
The ‘stuttering’ is caused by prop escaping, and if you continue to try to actuate product without shaking the can, you are going to run out of prop before all of the product is used up. If that happens, return the can if it is worth it to you. It will eventually end up on one of my co-workers desk and we will have to explain to J&J why the bloody thing dosent work. Our QC lab lives for that.

7

I work in the pharmaceutical industry, but I’ll have to get back to you on that memory pill.

I can’t seem to remember where I put my notes on that particular product…

8

On the Men In Black: Alien Encounter ride at Universal Studios Florida, (a combination ride in which your “car” spins and runs along a track, and you shoot “aliens” with laser guns) there’s a bit where you have to shoot the other car (also carrying riders)- there’s a target at the top. You can also turn around and shoot the target on your OWN car… much easier to hit.

Papa John’s restaurants are actually quite clean. On the other hand, if (at almost any pizza delivery place) you see two drivers enter the walk-in freezer at the same time, one is probably buying pot from the other. (Its fairly common as a tip in some places).

The person filling your prescription at your pharmacy probably isn’t a pharmacist. It might be a tech or even a clerk. The pharmacist is supposed to pull the bottles for you and make sure you’ve put in the right amount and everything though.

If the “modelling agency” that scouted your kid/friend/self the other day charges upfront, its a scam and you will get ripped off.

9

If I can elaborate a bit on this, John, I’ll add that the Month code follows the letters of the alphabet: A is January, B is February, C is March, and so on. Note, however that September is not I; rather, it is J. October continues with K, November is L, and December is M. Thus, a code of M04 means that the beer was produced on December 4th.

Why no “I”? Because it looks too much like a number 1.

The “gibberish” after the date code can be used to further identify facts about this batch of beer, including the shift that produced it and the time of day it rolled out. I used to be able to decipher these codes fully, but it’s been a long time since I worked selling beer.

Incidentally, these codes are standardized among most mass-market commercial Canadian beers (Labatt, for example, uses the same coding system), and some of the smaller ones as well.

10

It’s incredibly easy to steal books from Barnes & Noble.

In order for you to get caught, a manager must see you walk in and NEVER lose sight of you. If you turn a corner, and the manager can’t see you for 2 seconds, you won’t get busted. Even if they watch you grab a book off the shelf, shove it in your coat, lose sight of you around the corner, and you walk out.

The anti-theft tags are only in about 1 out of 10 books. Hold it binding up, and flip the pages toward the floor. It’ll fall out.

I learned this from managers while working at B&N. Fun.

11

Hmmmm…since I was a temping college student at the time I’m not really ratting an industry out.

Publishers have about a 50% Return On Investment or profit for college textbooks.

Your average jewelry store in the mall marks up their jewelry 200-250% what they paid for it.

12

Coffee (this isn’t really a secret, just misinformation) :

Dark roasts have less caffeine than the same quantity of light roast, because the roasting processes removes caffeine from the beans.

A shot of espresso is about the same caffeine-wise as a small light-roast coffee, because the method of preparation means it’s more concentrated.

Similarly, pound-for-pound, black tea has far more caffeine than coffee but since you use so much less of it per cup, it ends up being much less in the final brew.

13

More of a little known dirty secret then a trade secret, but interesting none the less.

Wells Fargo in California just laid off a bunch of their staff to replace them with lower paid workers in Mexico. That’s right, all your sensitive financial information is now being funneled down South of the border when you apply for a home loan. Over 70 employees in our office alone just got sacked, and it’s 3 weeks before Christmas.

Happy Holidays! You’re fired! Oh boy our stock went up half a point.

Makes me sick.

14

The computer industry keeps increasing the clock speed of the processors but most magazines don’t talk about wait states. The reason for the cache is that memory couldn’t keep up with the CPU. If the info isn’t in the cache the CPU waits.

So is a 3 GHz processor really 3 times as fast as a 1 GHz processor. If the CPU has to access memory a lot, NO. The percentage can change with the application.

2.5 gig CPUs are under $100 now. The fastest chips are not twice as fast and go for $400+. Considering the wait state factor they are probably not worth the money.

I have a hardware book that talks about wait states at 300 MHz. Since used 600 MHz computers are available for $200 is a new 2.5 GHz computer worth the money?

The most extensive benchmark test I have ever seen is in the Jan '83 BYTE magazine. The fastest machine was an IBM 3033 mainframe running assembly language. It cost $1,000,000+ in 1980 and took a maximum of 32 meg of RAM. My 533 MHz machine beat it running GNU C on Mandrake Linux. Assembly language is usually 2 or 3 times as fast as C.

Dal Timgar

15

I work for a large company that does Human Resources and Benefits Outsourcing for a good sized chunk of the Fortune 500 (covering about 11% of the American population). In other words, if you work for Disney or Lucent or Hallmark or Sony, and you have a problem with your Medical coverage or 401(k) or pension - that person on the phone that you’re talking to probably works for my company, no matter what name they gave when they answered your call. And all of your information is stored on our mainframe, not on your HR rep’s computer.

I can’t speak for the HR part or the 401(k) or the pension part, but Health Care Benefits I know.

  1. Yes, the insurance companies really do have their heads stuck up their *$$es. We hate to deal with them too, even though we do it all of the time. OK, there are a few that know what they’re doing, but for every competent one, there’s three unresponsive HMOs running bad code on antiquated systems who couldn’t care less that they never had your kid listed as a covered dependent. And don’t even get me started on a major life insurance carrier that uses a famous cartoon character as their logo. I’ve met some really nice and talented people over there, but they cripple them with horrible management, terrible computer systems, and ridiculously poor customer service.

  2. If you have a problem, call us up and complain. Don’t call your boss, the head of HR, or the CEO. All they’ll do is call us up to scream and shout, and we’ll get pissed off at you before we even start working on your problem. Call the phone number listed on the web site, or at the bottom of that statement you got. You know, the confirmation statement that clearly shows what you’re calling to complain about (which you would have noticed if you had ever bothered to open the envelope), and says to call within 30 days if something isn’t right? Yes, that number.

Tell our customer service person politely about the problem. They might be able to fix it right there and then, which will be way better than the two or three days it will take to get through the official channels over at your company before we even hear about it. They may need to have our admin team run special overrides, or have a system problem corrected. In that case, ask them to call you back when it’s fixed - they do it all of the time. The odds are very, very good that your problem will be taken care of within three days, because that’s our performance standards and we have money tied up in making those. When it isn’t, it means that there’s a larger problem that’s probably affecting many more people than just you. We’re doing our best to get it fixed as soon as possible, and believe me, we’ve told your employer about it and they’re hounding us about it three times a day. Sure, if you don’t hear from us, call us back on the fourth day and check in (though you should have been called with an update at they very least). But we’re definitely working on it.

  1. Sometimes when you want us to change something we have to turn you down. It’s not personal at all - there are governmental restrictions that we need to hold to, and we’re legally obligated to administer your plans following the rules that your employer lays down. Ask the phone rep for an appeals form. Your benefits manager, unless they are mad at you for some reason, really wants you to be happy with the coverage you get. Half of the time they’ll approve the appeal with little or no fuss. When they don’t, there’s usually a legal reason why not.

Yes, the government really and truly legislates that you can’t drop your dental coverage unless you have a good reason that falls on their list of reasons. And no, lousy coverage that isn’t worth the price isn’t one of them. And yes, the government does audit your company once in awhile and they’ll get in trouble if they allow that change.

  1. You missed changing your coverage during Open Enrollment, despite the four notices you received in the mail? Call anyway, if it’s within a couple of weeks of the end date. Many employers have a “uncommunicated” end date - an invisible extension for people who do the same exact thing. Unless of course, they’re mad at you for being such an idiot - and yes, that’s exactly what they’re thinking when they disallow your appeal. Idiot.

  2. Not to repeat myself, but call us up and complain, complain, complain. Politely. You’ll be amazed what we or your benefits manager will let you do or have changed, as long as it doesn’t fly directly in the face of the lawyers.

  3. Yes, there’s probably a very good reason why your neighbor up the street has a plan available to them that you don’t. Availability is very, very complicated and involves a heck of a lot more than just where you live. Don’t bother calling up to complain unless you really, truly desperately need to be in that other one, in which case we’ll probably have to get your benefits manager to approve it, but it’s really no big deal on our systems.

  4. There’s actually a reason why you’d take COBRA coverage in a Health Care Account, but you need to know how your benefits work to know it, so hardly anybody does. You need to have a major medical expense coming immediately after your termination in order to make it worth it.

COBRA is a set of laws that says that your employer has to offer you continued coverage in your health plans after an involuntary loss of coverage (such as being terminated, though there are lots of other reasons too). It usually costs 102% of the premium (price = what you pay as an employee, premium = what the coverage actually costs, a.k.a., what your employer pays.) As an example, medical coverage that used to cost you $30 a month might cost you $510 a month under COBRA. You can drop that coverage at any time.

A Health Care (Savings / Spending) Account allows you to put aside a certain amount of pre-tax money which can then be used for medical expenses not covered by your plan, such as copays. A little known provision of a HCA is that you can use as much as your yearly elected amount as you want right away, regardless of whether or not you’ve contributed that much yet. For instance, you can elect $3000 a year (to be deducted in equal amounts from your paycheck each week) during Open Enrollment. You can use that entire amount in January, and then drop that goal amount down to $0 as long as it’s for an allowable reason, such as getting married. Your deductions stop, and your company has to eat the difference between what you paid and what they paid you – it’s the law!

Now for the combination. If you get fired, you loose the account, unless you take the COBRA coverage (at 102% of what it would cost you as an active – in other words, you’d be putting in $3060 in order to take out $3000). But if it’s still reasonably early in the year and you know that you have a major medical outlay coming up pretty soon, you can take the COBRA coverage (you pay it in monthly chunks, so it’s still not the full amount upfront). Have the surgery or what-have-you, get paid the $3000, and then drop it right away. They still have to eat the extra cost.

16

As a stay at home mom, here is my dirty insider trading secret:

I can surf the web all day, avoid housework and not get fired.

17

I work for a Midwest Bank, and while I’m not going to reveal any security secrets rest assured that we have at least half a dozen ways to prevent, stop, and track robbers and robberies.

That being said, the first piece of advice would be to visit your bank often, and be nice. With direct deposits autowithdrawls and debits we see fewer customers regularly, most people come in only to bitch at us. But if you come in and talk to us, and are very nice we will remember you. What does that mean to you?

Well first of all we have control over what gets paid and what gets returned when your checks come through. If you don’t have enough money and are continually a problem, we will return the check as many times as it comes through (ususally only twice, but electronic checks can come through more) and each time we return it we’ll charge you. But if you’re nice, we’ll probably pay it for you and wait for you to come in with the money to cover it. Alot of the time we’ll even reverse the fees for it. We also reserve the right to charge your account $25 per return item and per DAY if you stay overdrawn.

The especially mean customers get their debit cards pulled, and the bitchy ones get thier accounts closed and reported to Chex systems (making it VERY hard to get another account anywhere) and we’ll do this on the FIRST OVERDRAFT if we really hate you. “No ma’m I know you’ve been with us since 85, but this is just our policy”

How do we remember who we like? We have notes that we can put in the system, anything from, “Do not charge fees, Pay checks against insufficient funds” to “Customer is uncooperative feel free to act likewise.” We have notes for customers AND non customers, so if you try to pull crap at one location, and it doesn’t work, then usually we just turn you away. But if you get bitchy we’ll put notes under your name, and whatever account you were trying to operate under. If you are stupid enough to tell us that you’ll just go to another office to try and cash the check, that garentees not only notes about you, but an e-mail to all the other branches thats usually sent before you leave the parking lot.

To nice customers I have given Free checks, money orders, phone balance transfers, Cashiers checks, copies, long statements, copies of checks, and pretty much anything else that I was supposed to charge for.

So it pays to be nice.

Oh and another thing, It tells us when you check your balance, and everytime you check your balance. So if you come in a week later saying you didn’t realize you’re account was overdrawn, and we see phone, or on-line inquiries, YES we know your lying, YES we take it personally, and YES we will close your account given even the slightest chance to.

And for Pete’s sake, If you storm out saying you’re going to close your account, CLOSE IT. We don’t want to see you or hear you bitching anymore, we don’t care if you pull your money out we have MILLIONS and MILLIONS more. If you don’t close it out, every single time you come in we talk about you after you leave.

18

Ottoerotic cool! :slight_smile: I was about to reveal much the same about my Dad’s work (before he retired.) He left the bank before a lot of computer programmes took over the decision making process on dishing out loans. He saw that the programme would overlook certain things, one customer was about to be refused a loan because the computer hadn’t checked all his accounts with the bank, Dad corrected that. And he did a lot more for his favoured customers e.g. waiving fees in his last year. So, do be nice to the guy behind the desk! :slight_smile:

From my own experience? Not a lot I know for sure, cept that all those market research companies have a lot of staff who either fill in their own survey forms to save time when on field work or a lot of bored staff who just couldn’t be bothered typing up every one of your opinions. Remember that’s what the + or - 5% is for on opinion poll results!

19

There is no spoon

Home remodel:

If you want to help, we charge more. Sorry. I don’t have anything against semi-skilled labor. It’s just that it takes us more time to finsh the job. Hint: unless you really are skilled, please stay out of our way. It’s better for you, better for us, better for your house.

We’re not just taping things off for painting. We’re also “back filling” the tape edge with caulk. Done properly, this prevents paint from migrating under the tape so you get a nice straight edge. Pretty basic, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t know this.

Decide before the wood goes up whether you will paint or stain. You can paint stain grade wood, but staining paint grade looks like shit.

Not all windows, doors, storms, garage doors, etc… are created equal. If it feels flimsy, it is flimsy. On the other hand, double the price doesn’t always mean double the quality. Do your homework.

In almost any given town, many of us in the trades know each other. So, if you’ve been a real pain in the past to a contractor, craftsman, or their help, word gets around. A reputation for slow pay / no pay is a kiss of death. No one wants to work for no pay. A reputation as a problem (for whatever reasons) gets you higher bids. Period. If it’s gonna be a pain in the ass job, I’m darn sure gonna get paid for the aggravation.

By the same token, no one should ever accept sub standard work. Get references. Do your homework. There are some real unscrupulopus types out there. They give us all a reason for caution.

20

Unscrupulopus!

Hey! You try mixing Nyquil and NoDoez. It’s more harder than you might think it’s hard.

shit