Real Tricks Companies Don't Want You To Know

As companies strive for ever-increasing profits, it’s usually the customer who ends up paying the price, literally. But don’t worry, this article will put the power back in your hands. Prepare to get thrifty, as we check out some sneaky time-and-money-saving tricks companies don’t want you to know about.

Secret Price Tag Codes

Ever noticed seemingly-random letters and numbers handwritten onto price tags in stores? There’s actually an important reason behind them. Retail staff will often mark price-tags by hand with letter-number combos like ‘G3’ or ‘D17’.

Typically, the number tells you what price that item is going to be reduced to in an upcoming sale, and is usually used for staff reference and preparation. This is a handy piece of info for eagle-eyed, thrifty shoppers who want to find deals before they’re even announced. When you spot a marked item, you can either hold off purchasing it or try to reserve it until the price drops. Keep your eyes open for these sneaky little codes!

Sorry, We Missed You!

In the modern age of online shopping, we now have the amazing convenience of same-day delivery. However, these game-changing systems come with problems of their own. For example, most of us know the frustration of reading the courier’s online tracking system’s most-despised update: the “Attempted Delivery” alert that claims that you missed the drop off. But as many people know, these attempted deliveries can be a complete lie.

There are a few reasons delivery drivers will occasionally not bother to actually deliver your item to your home, or leave almost immediately without giving you a chance to open the door. Often, they’re required to meet extremely tight quotas of deliveries per day, which includes attempts, and sometimes, their commission is based on these numbers.

So, under these pressures, drivers will falsify delivery attempts, and there’s little you can do about it. That is, unless you get yourself a front-door camera. Or, at least, put up a very bold, visible sign that says something like “smile, you’re on camera”.

A sign will encourage drivers to ensure your delivery is made, while actually owning a camera will provide you solid evidence to dispute a fake delivery attempt. No longer will “sorry, we missed you” be an acceptable excuse not to get your fluffy unicorn slippers when you’re supposed to!

Cancellations Fees Hack

Ever had to cancel a hotel room last minute because of some unforeseen, unavoidable, minor problem? The worst part is that canceling a hotel reservation typically means paying a cancellation fee, often upwards of 50 bucks. But there’s a smarter workaround that just might change your life. Simply call the hotel and move the reservation by a couple weeks.

Typically, hotels try to be accommodating to customers, as they really want to keep their sales, so they’ll usually move the date for free. With the date moved, just wait a day or so, so they don’t catch on to you, and cancel the reservation. As long as you’re outside of the cancellation window, which is usually 48 hours before arrival, there shouldn’t be any cancellation fees.

If possible, talk to two different customer service reps to decrease the chances of someone catching on, but even if that’s not an option, you’ll most likely get away scot-free.

Countdown To Discounts

Discounts are a great way to boost companies’ sales, so it’s no surprise stores plan them out meticulously. But what most people don’t know is that many online stores launch sales at the same times. Generally, deals and discounts are launched between Tuesday and Thursday, with the highest concentration of deals happening in November and January.

So, if you’re looking to do some online shopping, wait for those thrifty mid-week deals. And if you’re looking to make a big purchase, it might be a good idea to hold off until later in the year, because statistically speaking, you’re much more likely to land a better price.

But what if you make a purchase, only to find, days later, the price has dropped on the product, making it considerably cheaper than what you paid? Well, a post-purchase price-drop doesn’t have to be a source of helpless frustration! Many stores offer a price-difference refund to cover the price-drop for up to a month after your purchase. All you need to do is present your receipt, and they’ll either refund the difference, or fully refund the product and sell it through to you again at the new price!

This thrifty tip also applies for online purchases from Amazon, which are even easier to process. As Amazon already has your payment method on their system, this means they can easily refund the price difference without needing you to return the product!

That being said, Amazon only offers this within 7 days of your purchase, so be sure to keep an eye on the item’s store-page price in the week after purchasing! If you miss that deadline, you could technically send the item back for a refund, then buy it again at the lower price.

But for items that aren’t covered by Amazon’s free returns postage coverage, the postage costs could end up being more than the price you save, so be sure to check beforehand. After all, no one wants a discount that ends up costing them more!

Get Rid Of Telemarketers

Telemarketing calls are never fun, and all too often they’re just scams targeting your wallet. But the next time you get one of these calls, saying something along the lines of “oh, just let me set up audio recording for the FCC” can work wonders.

Mentioning an official body will send non-legitimate callers scurrying, and they’ll likely add you to a do-not-call list as a warning for their fellow scammers. If you live in Europe, simply mentioning “GDPR” will usually have a similar effect. This is because the data protection laws covered by GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, mean companies risk huge fines if they don’t comply with you after you’ve mentioned it.

If those don’t work, the US has a federally-supported, “Do Not Call” list, that lets telemarketers know that calling you just isn’t worth their time. So, finally, you can hang up the phone on irritating telemarketers, for good.

Shop Psychology

In most supermarkets, you’ll find essentials like bread and milk right at the back of the store. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book to get you to spend more. Stores know that, by placing staple goods towards the back, customers have to walk past all their other products. That’s when eye-catching product packaging and marketing kicks in, tempting you into unnecessary purchases along the way. To avoid this psychological manipulation, make a beeline for the stuff you want, keeping your eyes on the prize.

Abandoning Carts Hack

It’s not uncommon to be browsing online, see an item you want, click "add to cart" out of excitement, and change your mind about it at the last second. Or, more likely, receive a notification, leave the app, and just forget about it. Believe it or not, companies track that decision not to follow through. If you abandon your cart, within a couple of days, or sometimes hours, you’ll often receive coupons, or special deals on that item.

Why would companies do this? Well, around 77% of online shopping carts are abandoned, and companies are desperate to lower that number. If that means losing a few bucks on an item that would’ve otherwise not been purchased at all, it’s well worth it to them.

However, this means you can exploit the shopping cart tracking to get discounts on items you want. All you need to do it put the item in your cart and wait, and the company will likely bombard you with conveniently-timed price reductions, all to make a sale. Win-win.

Time For A Bargain

If a stubborn car salesman just won’t budge to a reasonable price on that new vehicle you’ve been saving for, here’s another trick to keep up your sleeve. Most car dealerships set quotas for their sales force, alongside commission bonuses, every month. This means, if you go shopping towards the end of the month, the sales team will be more eager to pad out their numbers. They’re much more likely to cut you a better deal just to reach their targets at this time.

If a certain dealer has already met their sales goals and isn’t budging, you can always try a different one who hasn’t been as successful. Sure, it’s a little sneaky, but I’m sure the money you save will help you forget about that.

Don't Bulk-Buy

While a super-sized, seemingly-super-cheap multipack of items can be a very appealing thing to see on a trip to the supermarket, bulk-buying isn’t always the smartest choice. For starters, when you’re bombarded with signs touting “super deals” and “unbelievable savings”, the question of whether you really need that much of an item is easy to forget. For perishable goods like food, for example, bulk-buying won’t always work out cheaper if the food expires before you can eat it!

Similarly, you might end up using more shampoo from a jumbo-saver bottle than you usually would because of the apparent abundance. This could even lead to you using a larger bottle in the same amount of time as your regular, smaller one!

But even if you do use bulk-bought products in a sensible, timely manner, there’s still a chance you’ll end up paying more. This is because, in stores like Walmart, it’s actually sometimes cheaper to buy things individually rather than in bulk.

Supermarkets know that many people assume a bulk-purchase will work out cheaper. But if you check the price-per-individual item, or price-per-unit of weight for things like nuts, you’d be surprised by how often buying multiple smaller units works out cheaper than a single bulk purchase! So, don’t be fooled, use your eyes, and your brain, before you bulk-buy.

Generic Over Branded

To many people, brand names represent a seal of superior quality, but that’s not always the case, particularly in supermarkets. For certain items, ranging from power tools to toothpaste, the name-brand product you buy in a supermarket like Wal-Mart isn’t the same quality as when purchased from specialist stores.

This is because supermarkets demand especially low prices from manufacturers in exchange for a place on their shelves. To meet these low prices, manufacturers supply supermarkets with a slightly-modified version of their product. In the case of power tools, this might mean a slightly smaller battery capacity, or lower-quality ingredients in shampoo or toothpaste.

So, if you can’t live without branded stuff, avoid supermarkets if possible. That being said, branded goods are, sometimes, straight-up pointless to shell out extra cash for. This is particularly true for medicine, as the difference between name-brand medicines and store-brand is usually negligible. This is because the FDA and other similar government bodies across the world require generic drugs to have the same performance and quality as brand-name drugs.

As generic and branded varieties both contain the same active ingredients, you’re really only paying extra for the name and fancy packaging. Considering generic brands can be up to 70% cheaper, it’s kind of a no-brainer, but many people, unaware of the identical active ingredients, incorrectly assume cheaper equals inferior. So, if you’re sick of being ripped off for painkillers and other medicine, always choose a store’s own-brand where available.

Dilute Shampoo With Water

At some point, pretty much everyone has wondered why decent shampoo is so expensive. And while there’s no way to lower the price of a good hair product, you can easily extend, and even double, the amount of time it lasts for. Most shampoo is concentrated enough that it can easily be diluted with water and still carry out the same function.

There are usually an overabundance of oil and dirt-removing molecules in store-bought shampoo, and you can often fill as much as half the bottle with water and still get the same effects. Doing this can even be better for you scalp, preventing it being dried out by certain shampoos. Most shampoos capable of producing a lather should be able to be used in this way, making your hair products go much further for less.

Buying Glasses Online

Buying glasses from a high-street optician has always been the traditional route for anyone who needs them. But did you know buying glasses from an online retailer can actually save you anywhere from 30 to 75%? As long as you have your proper prescription form – which, unavoidably, does require an optician – there’s nothing stopping you from ordering your actual glasses online, and saving a considerable amount. If clear vision and bargains are in your sight, check out sites like Framesdirect and Zennioptical.

Use Live Chat For Deals

These days more and more online retailers have a live chat box on their sites that gives you the option to connect directly with their customer service team. While this is useful for queries about the store’s products, few people realize it can also be used to your advantage for saving money on your purchase.

As you’re speaking with a real person, they often have the ability to add discounts to your basket. So, speak to them politely, and when the time comes, don’t be afraid to ask if they can send any discounts your way. They may add one as a gesture of goodwill. Or, if not, they may be able to point you in the direction of a promotion, like 10% off if you sign up to their newsletter. This won’t always work, but it’s worth trying. After all, you’ve nothing to lose, and, as the saying goes, you don’t ask, you don’t get!

Use A Different Name To Register

In our modern world, it’s pretty alarming just how commonly our personal data is traded and sold. Most of the time, this involves information you technically provide willingly being exchanged between companies for a fee. Your info is usually acquired when you sign up with a company if you don’t opt-out of being contacted for marketing purposes.

Seeing as opting-out sometimes requires actively requesting not to have your information shared, it can be tricky to prevent your phone number or email address ending up in some cold-calling company’s database. But you can save yourself some hassle by figuring out exactly who’s selling your data off to the highest bidder, so you know who to avoid.

If you’re suspicious one of the companies, organizations, or services you’re signed up with might be selling your data, here’s a little trick to find out who’s responsible. When signing up for stuff like magazines or clothing stores sites, where you don’t need to verify your ID in any major way, register under a different name.

Preferably, come up with a unique, distinctive name for each, and keep track of which one you used for each company. You’ll know which company has been sharing your info when you start receiving unwarranted emails from unfamiliar companies, addressed to "Flippy Flopperson Jr" or whatever other creative name you come up with!

Angry Customer's Priority

Calling tech support for help and being put on hold is infuriating. But though it seems to go against all rules of politeness, next time you feel a murderous rage building while on hold, go ahead and let it out. Scream and cuss at that phone until your vocal cords start unionizing against you. That's because many companies’ call centers now use Anger Profiling Software that detects screaming and swearing customers and automatically shifts them to the front of the queue.

This ensures that overloaded call centers can help especially irate customers before they return the product in frustration. Sure, it’s technically rewarding bad behavior, but if the chance to get served quicker is already there, I’d say use it! Just make sure you didn’t accidentally call your grandma instead of customer care before you start hollering.

Ghetto Big Mac

Next time you’re particularly hungry at McDonald’s but want to be kind to your wallet, here’s a tip. Order a double cheeseburger, ask them to add Mac Sauce and lettuce, and switch to a sesame bun. You may be shocked to learn that you’ve essentially made a Big Mac, and while the price of extras varies store-to-store, it probably cost you less than $2 total.

The only difference is one less piece of bread in the middle, and yet the Ghetto Big Mac usually costs less than half the price of a legit Big Mac. Oftentimes, companies realize the value of a named product and inflate the price based on a deceptive combo of familiarity and convenience. But don’t be fooled! Instead, be a little ghetto next time you’re in Mickey D’s.

Pizza Hut Pepperoni Hack

An equally-genius pizza equivalent of the ghetto Big Mac technique was shared on Reddit by ex-Pizza Hut worker, Zekken, in 2019. Zekken revealed that a pepperoni pizza would sell for $5, while ordering a double pepperoni cost $8. Asking for extra pepperoni on a regular pepperoni pizza, meanwhile, only cost $7 total. Despite what most customers assumed, that second option was literally the exact same thing as a double pepperoni pizza!

Most people were paying a dollar more than necessary for the mere convenience of a specifically-named menu item. Only one customer Zekken served ever figured this out, but maybe you can swing those numbers and save on your salami next time you take a trip to the Hut!

Prices Ending In 7, 8 or 1 May Indicate Clearance

Few shoppers realize that the final numbers of an item’s price reveal more than meets the eye. While a price that ends in a 9, like 4.99, is usually a standard price, prices ending in a 7 or 8 are a different story. These 7 or 8-ending prices are code for “Discontinued Item”. Knowing this may give you grounds to barter the price down further, as stores are often instructed to get rid of discontinued stock as quickly as possible.

This goes double for any price that ends in 1, which is used for very old clearance stock. If you see these prices, get ready to barter your way into a better deal than ever, or to ask some questions about why exactly those products were discontinued! Either way, when it comes to thrifty shopping, knowledge is power.

Basket VS Shopping Cart

To the uninitiated, shopping carts seem like a great idea, letting you carry more products with a fraction of the effort. But next time you go to the store, consider just picking up a basket. Shopping carts are specifically designed to make you want to buy more. While their initial conception in the 1930s was indeed a matter of convenience, a more lucrative, secret function has since taken over.

Since the 70s, the average shopping cart has almost tripled in size. The larger our carts get, the more we spend, as we’re naturally inclined to want to fill it to the brim. In fact, studies show, when the size of shopping carts is doubled, the average price of a shopping trip went up by 40%. So, if you want to avoid being psychologically swindled, best to keep your grocery runs small and to-the-point.

Skiplagging

Air travel can be extremely expensive, and depending on the time of year, you may end up planning your entire trip on when you can actually afford to get there. But here’s a trick that airlines really don’t want you to know, because of how much you can save.

When buying flights to a location, it’s worth checking whether any cheaper flights to other destinations have a layover in the place you’re going to. If they do, simply get off the plane at the layover destination, and don’t board the plane for the second part of the journey. If you don’t check your luggage into the hold, there’s nothing to stop you leaving the airport.

There’s even an app for this type of travel called Skiplagged, which automatically finds the right flights for you. While it’s technically legal, airlines really don’t like this practice, so make sure not to repeat it too many times, especially within a single airline. As long as you’re subtle and smart, though, you could save hundreds!

Misleading Laundry Caps

Everyone likes the smell and feeling of clean clothes. But very few people realize the ‘fill’ lines on detergent caps recommend way more detergent than is required. This is a sneaky tactic on the part of detergent companies to get you to purchase bottles way more regularly than necessary. In reality, though, modern washing machines are efficient enough that only between one-eighth and one-half of the amount your detergent cap recommends is actually required for a good clean.

In fact, using too much detergent can lead to mold and mildew buildup, leaving an unpleasant odor in the washer and on your clothes. The best approach is to considerably reduce the amount of detergent from your usual amount, then gradually increase that amount if your clothes aren’t coming out as clean as you’d like. You’ll probably be surprised by how small of an amount you actually need!

The only exception to this is if your area has particularly hard water, meaning a high mineral content, in which case you may actually need the recommended fill-line amount. But whatever your situation, you could save yourself some serious cash with a fun bit of experimentation next time you do the laundry. Who said laundry has to be boring?

I hope you were amazed at these trick companies don't want you to know! Thanks for reading.