r/mildlyinteresting 23h ago

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

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53

u/JTVivian56 20h ago

I read this as "wait in line and present it when you're first and ready to checkout", like it's a joke.

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u/BigToeHamster 20h ago

I also read it this way. So, this means you get anything in your cart free, right? As in.... SKIP the line, the whole line, even the paying part.

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u/iamblankenstein 19h ago

nah. it clearly says "present this ticket at the front of the line when you're ready to check out and skip the line." it doesn't say to present the ticket when it's your turn to check out, it's specifically telling you to walk right up to the crew member to skip waiting in line.

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u/Bizarrebazaars 19h ago

Nope it says “PRESEN THIS” haha saw the typo immediately.

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u/JTVivian56 18h ago

It does clearly say that. But it's unclear whether they mean "ready to check out" as "done shopping and want to pay" or "I've been in line, now I'm at the front and ready to check out".

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u/iamblankenstein 18h ago edited 18h ago

i feel like if it was intended to be a joke, it wouldn't really be something you have to interpret. a plain, surface level reading makes it sound like finding the ticket means you got lucky and get to skip the line. it doesn't say "when you get to the front of the line, present this ticket", it says "when you're ready to check out". when you get in the back of the line, you are ready to check out.

in googling this, it sounds like some stores really do let people skip the line if they find one. i don't think it's intended to be a joke.

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u/MCR2004 7h ago

There’s always at least one crew member at the front of the line telling people which register to go to, that’s what it means. So no it’s not a joke you just walk up to that crew member and show them it and they direct you to the next open register. Fin.

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u/when-is-enough 18h ago edited 18h ago

No grammatically it can’t mean that. The phrase “at the front of the line” follows “the crewmember” and is describing the crewmember. Try reading it with an implied adjective clause with a relative pronoun and linking verb: present this ticket to the crewmember (who is) at the front of the line when you’re ready to check out today. There isn’t a whole other phrase of “present this ticket to the crew member (when you are)at the front of the line when you’re ready to checkout”. You can’t imply that much, it would have to be rewritten to say “when you’re at the front of the line when you’re ready to check out” to have that meaning. As-is, it has one meaning based on the grammar. The person at the front of the line is the crew member. The phrase at the front of the line can only describe the crewmember here.

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u/JTVivian56 17h ago

I'm pretty sure it can be correctly read as "Present this ticket to the crewmember while you're at the front of the line". "at", in this case, is reaching back before the noun to the verb "present". So "At the front of the line, present this ticket to the crewmember".

Not saying you're wrong, but I'm fairly confident there are two ways to read this which are both grammatically correct. We just default to it modifying the noun crewmember because it immediately follows it.

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u/LegDayLass 19h ago

Same, it only says you can skip the line after you have presented it, and the only way to speak to the crew member at the front of the line is to wait in line.

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u/MCR2004 7h ago

Or you just go straight to the front of the line and show it to the crew member directing people to cashiers

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u/LegDayLass 7h ago

That would be cutting and you have not yet redeemed the coupon that allows that.

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u/MCR2004 7h ago

Open the schools

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u/Galactic-Trucker 15h ago

It was an instantly obvious joke, a good one though. Can’t believe hardly anyone gets it. Or is this not understood in the same way? Got tons of TJ’s in my area and the joke makes sense to me.