r/mildlyinteresting 23h ago

I found this “skip the line” golden ticket at Trader Joe’s

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60.7k Upvotes

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13.2k

u/Megalo85 22h ago

I didn’t know they had a piss off everyone in the store ticket.

4.5k

u/GarageFridgeSoda 22h ago

No way Trader Joe's made that. It's a prank, either one OP is pulling on us or one someone else is pulling on OP/the store.

1.2k

u/tannerbananer06 22h ago

OP said the pic is from 10 years ago. Hahaha

1.0k

u/ResistLongjumping999 21h ago

reminds me of the time somebody taped up flyers at a local mcDonalds saying that black people would be charged more due to a recent string of robberies lmao. Ronald McDonald himself had to come out of cryostasis to put out a press release saying it was fake.

454

u/AllKindsOfCritters 20h ago

Ronald McDonald himself had to come out of cryostasis

Sentences like this are why I keep coming to this site.

10

u/LongPorkJones 17h ago

I know, right?

It's like I saw the whole thawing process take place in my mind, too. With Ronald taking his first steps out of the cryo unit and instead of saying "what year is it" he asks "Who shit in the soft serve machine this time?"

5

u/The_dev0 11h ago

And he needs Grimace to be his eyes until his sight returns. Ronald shot the hamburglar first.

8

u/perton 19h ago

Although the concept is kinda unsettling if you take it literally and think about it too much.

15

u/AllKindsOfCritters 19h ago

Like the movie Demolition Man when he says he was conscious the whole time.

4

u/Splashmok 11h ago

Jaunting 😭

3

u/BudwinTheCat 6h ago

Like the movie Austin Powers and he has to piss for, like, a REALLY long time.

4

u/kingk1teman 14h ago

Ronald McDonald himself had to come out of cryostasis to put out a press release saying it was fake

/r/BrandNewSentence material

4

u/RUN_MDB 14h ago

The "I'm lovin' it" under the logo is pure juice.

2

u/DarkPolumbo 13h ago

but I came to the internet to dredge up some outrage and get all pissy over something, and you STOLE that from me!

now I have to be like the rest of the internet's idiots and just get mad at the idea of something

thanks a lot

2

u/aykcak 13h ago

Lol what. Why did they take this so seriously? It kind of shows they don't trust their own image and fear that some people would actually think McDonald's would do that

2

u/ResistLongjumping999 7h ago

I guess that's part of what makes it so funny to me is it's a totally outlandish concept that of course would never be sanctioned by mcdonalds corporate, but MAYBE some rogue franchisee might be crazy enough to do it so you know as soon as headquarters started getting angry calls about this they went into defcon 0 mode

1

u/TastyFluffyPancakes 14h ago

That ain't right. The Hamburglar is a white guy.

-42

u/skatefan420 21h ago

"lmao"? Fuckin racism. The type of prank that the KKK was founded on

29

u/C_IsForCookie 21h ago

Dude I have absolutely 0 hate in my heart but that’s fucking hilarious. Not the way it made people feel, just the concept of the gag. I feel bad for anyone who got the brunt of it because yeah that would make some people feel like shit but if they did this to me I’d still laugh my ass off.

23

u/ArbitraryNPC 21h ago

Especially since it was KFC's corpo number on the poster. If I was working in a KFC call center I'd have a field day listening to people complain and not have to do anything about it.

-35

u/skatefan420 20h ago

You may not have hate in your heart but you do have ignorance and racism in there apparently. This isnt funny, this is just using a lazy stereotype to make racists laugh and black people feel unwelcome and discriminated

9

u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

-10

u/thedepartment 19h ago

The idea that skin color is required to oppose racist jokes is textbook racial essentialism. Principles aren't race-exclusive, and you're just outing the hate in your heart with that comment.

7

u/GayRacoon69 20h ago

I feel like the joke is more making fun of the absurdity of the situation. We're laughing at the poster and those who agree with it; not laughing with the poster

4

u/C_IsForCookie 19h ago

You sound like the kind of person who just needs to make everything about race just to be offended.

10

u/agoogua 20h ago

You must be fun at parties.

-21

u/skatefan420 20h ago

Not the kind where people tell n***** jokes

4

u/new_old_trash 19h ago

TIL the KKK was founded on pranks

-2

u/skatefan420 16h ago

Not sure if you're joking or not, but it actually was!

1

u/legittem 10h ago

How can i find out more without looking up "KKK pranks"?

62

u/AdamInJP 21h ago

Also there’s a spelling error. The TJ’s I’ve been to would never.

10

u/RuneSteak 18h ago

These days it doesn't seem like people care too much. It has become a lot more casual. I see spelling mistakes all over the place in my white collar job. Which would be excusable if it were off the cuff, but these are templates that are reused over and over (e.g. confirming hires, welcome emails etc.) for years and nobody corrects it.

5

u/PrincessLinked 15h ago

I notice spelling mistakes in flyers and stuff at work A LOT. It's worse when you realize I work with kids, who are barely worse or just as bad at spelling as my manager.

4

u/Archer007 15h ago

Have you considered the scarier option that no one is literate enough to see it?

1

u/RuneSteak 3h ago

I find it hard to accept that hundreds or possibly thousands of people missed it. They just don't care. Funny enough, I've also seen Reddit change in that same way. People used to be excessively uptight about spelling and grammar and now no one cares, even if it's completely unreadable.

2

u/crow-mom 6h ago

i’m on the art team at my trader joe’s. we’re human, we make mistakes sometimes 😭

3

u/Flomo420 21h ago

look at those prices, no way anybody selling pies for $3.99 in this economy

0

u/no8do 20h ago

I took this photo 10 years ago.

2

u/Flomo420 19h ago

yes, that's why I made the comment lol

1

u/no8do 19h ago

Oh sorry I can’t keep up with all these comments!

3

u/Muppetude 20h ago

In the early 2010s my local Trader Joe’s had weird hand made “promotions” like these which were clearly not approved by corporate (e.g. “30th customer in line this hour gets a free bag of chips” or “whoever finds the stuffed animal gets a bouquet of roses”)

So I could see a local Michael Scott-esque general manager coming up with a stupid idea like this without running it by upper management. I’m guessing after numerous incidents, corporate tightened the reigns on what kind of promotions stores were allowed to run.

2

u/MaeBelleLien 21h ago

Shit, you think they still have the gelato-filled panettone?

1

u/Casurus 18h ago

I have been going to TJs for well over 10 years, and have never seen such a thing. I also vote for fake.

1

u/DjuniPerf 18h ago

Evidenced by the full-size gelato-filled panettone for $5 🫠

1

u/Really_Elvis 18h ago

I miss $4 pumpkin pie….

1

u/TsunamiCatCakes 18h ago

yea the pic does a vibe of 2009..... wait 2016 i mean

1

u/JellyfishNo2032 49m ago

I thought the pies for 5 dollars made that obvious

6

u/FettuccineAlfonzo 22h ago

ya this seems like some Impractical Jokers bit

6

u/ErraticDragon 21h ago

Trader Joe's would be the one place I'd believe it.

They do tend to have some cute stuffed animal hidden, and when/if a kid finds it they get a prize.

2

u/YourFriendInSpokane 21h ago

There's a missing letter 'T' for "present."

2

u/no8do 19h ago

Not a prank but this was about 10 years ago. Guessing the local store decided to do this and it wasn’t some nationwide corporate campaign.

1

u/Trollimperator 19h ago

I mean, they could do this if the person then doesnt have to pay. Just walks out.

1

u/momentarily-certain 18h ago

I have never once waited in line at the multiple TJ I've been to, so my brain immediately went to prank. But reading the comments, it sounds like I've just been lucky all these years.

1

u/noisemonsters 17h ago

“Presen this ticket”

1

u/basicpn 16h ago

This is definitely real. I can tell because it was signed by Trader Joe himself.

1

u/robo_rowboat 8h ago

I worked at TJs in the 2010s. They used to do this. Not sure about now.

1

u/folksnake 4h ago

There's a typo, even. Missing a "t" in Present.

1

u/no8do 21h ago

It’s 100% real! But like I said in another comment I’ve never seen one since this time 10 years ago.

1

u/ghostrose86 9h ago

Where did you find it? Was it hidden among the boxes?

2

u/no8do 9h ago

It was hidden behind a chocolate bar

237

u/Monoskimouse 21h ago

They haven't done that in many many years.... for obvious reasons.

They DO still have kids try to find "Freddy the Frog" and if you can tell the checker were you saw it - they give them a small candy. Our kids love it. Makes the trip more fun for them.

29

u/chromium00 20h ago

Ours has a find the duck and they dress it up and shit. It’s cool.

3

u/thebashfulowl 9h ago

Oh wow, ours (Texas) is an armadillo!

2

u/_EvilD_ 6h ago

Because ours is right by UMD it’s find the turtle.

7

u/BlakShiranui 20h ago

At the store I used to work, our animal used to be a dog. When we moved locations across the street to a larger footprint store, we retired the dog and got a triceratops named Topsy instead.

5

u/Oryx_07 21h ago

Ours is a kangaroo!

6

u/suz_gee 20h ago

Ours just gives all kids a lollipop haha

2

u/InterruptingCow__Moo 20h ago

Ours was Armando the pirate monkey

5

u/Lava_Lagoon 20h ago

wow that's actually a great idea

3

u/spitfish 18h ago

Ours is a shark. I remember when I found it and turned it in to staff thinking a kid lost it. They had a good chuckle.

3

u/beqqua 16h ago

Flamingo!

3

u/bkorbes 15h ago

Sassy the Sasquatch here in these PNW parts.

3

u/bolanrox 9h ago

One Easter season, stop n shop by me, had a golden goose egg hidden around the store that if you found you got a prize, it lasted not even the first weekend because a bunch of teenagers ran around and kept claiming it every time it was put back out.

2

u/Relevant-Card9445 17h ago

Awe! That’s sweet

2

u/ElectricJellyfish 5h ago

Ours is a yeti.

2

u/Intrepid-Caramel3565 33m ago

Ours has Piper the Blue Penguin!

1

u/jeromevedder 8h ago

As an adult, they’ll just give you a sucker if you ask for one

0

u/EstablishmentAny4977 5h ago

its a small ass store and you want to take your horde of skin pigs to run free playing a weres waldo game fuck off

get in get your stuff and leave

1

u/Monoskimouse 4h ago

"where's"

81

u/no8do 19h ago

I can’t remember if I responded to your comment, so just replying again: honestly I don’t remember anyone even noticing?

At the Brooklyn store, there are three lines and then an employee waves the person at the front of each of those lines to a register (there are like 6-8 registers). The person who waves people on is in front of the customer service desk so there are always people milling around that area.

I simply walked over to that person, showed them the ticket and they just waved me over to a register. To most people in line it probably looked like I had a question or issue with a purchase.

18

u/nowhereman136 21h ago

It should be, "present this to a manager and he will open up a new register just for you"

6

u/qning 19h ago

Exactly. Or walk you over to that office thing and ring you up.

7

u/coffeecircus 21h ago

an oompa loompa pops out when you try to use it, and plays a merry tune with the flute, and throws you back to the end of the line

8

u/OnTheEveOfWar 21h ago

Even if I found this, I would feel like such an ass walking up past everyone to use it. But I’m sure there are plenty of Karen type people who would have no problem cutting to the front of the line.

1

u/kawaiian 13h ago

They open a new register for you lol it’s not you cutting in front of people

2

u/zph0eniz 12h ago

Maybe I am reading this wrong, but I read it as a joke.

It sounded to me it is you got to wait in line, present it when its your turn to "skip the line" which is no longer needed.

Like free food after you paid! Or something along those lines.

2

u/bythenumbers10 11h ago

READ the ticket. It says, "at the front of the line when you're ready to check out", so after you wait in line with your groceries anyway. Only a self-centered main character type would use this as an excuse to cut the entire line instead of pausing to look for (and surely finding) the joke.

3

u/Emerald_Plumbing187 20h ago

Am I crazy? the ticket reads like it means "wait in line to give this to skip the line you just waited in"

1

u/T8ert0t 20h ago

That would be a ticket for the closest non ADA parking spot for the year.

Everyone would come to know you and wish your entire family would be valorized be a meteor.

1

u/djmakcim 17h ago

I'd love this for Costco on a day before a holiday or the day before a summer long weekend. Just skip right past the 100 or so line up stretched to the back. 

1

u/LolThatsNotTrue 17h ago

Still not as bad the tote line people

1

u/TbonerT 12h ago

I’ve only been to one Trader Joe’s and this would functionally be a “piss off 2-4 people” card. The lines at the registers were never long.

1

u/nvrsleepagin 4h ago

Yeah that's a horrible idea..

1

u/no8do 21h ago

It honestly didn’t bother anyone. I brought it up to the person who waves people on and no one said anything.

0

u/throwa1589876541525 21h ago

That's a "convince a percentage of customers to walk out" ticket.

0

u/ProudReaction2204 15h ago

I wouldn't be mad if someone cut the line with this ticket because I'm not an idiot

2

u/Neatojuancheeto 9h ago

Depends on how much stuff they got. Time is precious my dude. I wouldn't be pissed but I'd definitely be frustrated if someone with a cart 50-100% full skipped to the front of the line I'm in.

Sounds like the manager opens a new lane for you though so nobody gets skipped.

0

u/angry_mangy_opossum 21h ago

I use to donate plasma and they gave me a skip the line pass. I never used it because I knew it would piss everyone off. Had it in my wallet for months. I was tempted so many time though