It's always comforting to be able to trust an expert — until you learn that those experts are actually just as clueless as you. Between scammy practices and people Googling answers on the fly, we hope you have an extra scarf on hand, because the wool is about to be pulled from your eyes.

Businesses aren't constantly creating brand-new products — they just rebrand them

Former bath and body works associate here. The scents they "discontinue" will come back with a different name and new marketing. They're just recycling the scents. —xyenz08

Goodwill throws half of your donations away

At goodwill 50% of what you donate ends up in the trash bc we don't have the space for it or we just deem it too ugly–89Oldsmobile

Restaurants are way, way overcharging you for wine

The cheapest bottle of wine in the restaurant has the biggest markup.–ralimar

Ride operators can't simply change the laws of physics because customers want them to

Amusement park ride operator here. If your kid is crying and you want us to stop the ride, even if we want to it's not gonna stop immediately. The carousel will spin a few more circles or the ship will swing a few more times before stopping. The only exceptions is the emergency stop which will absolutely fuck up the ride for a while if we press it. Hence we only use it in actual life threatening situations. The best thing you can do is try to get your kid to calm down as the ride comes to a stop and no, yelling "Stop the ride" at us does not make it stop any faster.–WhatUsernameDoIPut

You don't need a repair person when you have dish soap

Construction boy here. If your windows or sliding doors are tough to open and close. 9 times out of 10, we put your own dish soap on tracks and the thing works perfectly. It take 5 minutes and we charge 150. Dish soap people, its better than wd40 sometimes–lyckadese

In case you weren't already aware, the weight loss industry is pretty much a scam

Weight loss industry. This might be obvious, but most of our business comes from return clients after they've gained their weight back (and then some). To be clear, the plan isn't rigged to make you gain it back, but the fact that it happens easily as a result of dieting keeps us in business.–responsible_hedonist

Most of the fossils you see in museums aren't real

I'm a fossil replicator and apparently the industry secret is the fact that we exist. So many people are blown away to learn that most fossils they see in museums are replicas. —Katy-L-Wood

Firefighters occasionally wing it

Firefighters are trained on several areas and can specialize deeper into certain disciplines. Most of the emergencies we get called to are situations we have never been trained on, but with 4 of us on a firetruck we can normally figure out a solution.–roofshepard791

Musicians make most of their money from merch

I'm a musician. It's not really a secret but 90% of our revenue is from merch. Spotify plays, show guarantees, etc. — everything is menial in comparison to shirt sales. In fact, a big reason bands tour as often as possible is because we can sell more shirts when we're in front of people. —loocaswoodland

Close your eyes: you're freaking out your hair stylist

Almost every hairstylist gets the heebie jeebies when we shampoo your hair and you just stare up at us. CLOSE. YOUR. DAMN. EYES at the shampoo bowl!–picklemetimberzz

Toothpaste marketing is a scam

I'm a dentist. Here's the lowdown on toothpaste. As long as it has fluoride they are all basically the same. When I was in dental school the Colgate lady came by and said that everything that says Colgate Total on it is all exactly the same, the only difference is the packaging. So whether it says whitening, or gum protection, or whatever else it is all exactly the same. The exception is sensitivity toothpaste typically does have an extra active ingredient. KNO3, which helps with sensitivity. Don't ever feel obligated to buy the expensive toothpaste because you think it will be better for your teeth, just buy whatever you like best.–therock21

Flying a plane isn't rocket science

Any individual part of flying an airplane isn't difficult, it's 100 small things piling up makes things difficult. As opposed to, say playing the trumpet. Hitting that high note repeatedly is difficult and physically demanding. Landing is easy once you've practiced it a bit, but when it gets difficult you just nope out of there and land somewhere else.–CaptValentine

No, the store doesn't have more of an out-of-stock item "in the back"

Whenever you tell someone to check in the back of a grocery store they go back there and stand for a few moments and come back out… 99% of the time of its not on the shelf we are out but we know you won't believe us so we go "look" for it so you feel a bit better even though we already knew there was none back there.–-PoorJudgement-

HR is looking out for the company, not you

Human Resources: we exist to protect the agency from the employees, not the other way around–TrustworthyEnough

There's an easy way to get out of your seemingly ironclad gym membership

Gym membership contracts don't mean jack shit. Cancel your credit card, or change it to a visa gift card with no balance, and ride off into the fuckin sunset–BigALCasey

[Read more insider secrets on Reddit]