My Dad died five years ago, and my mom will still spend 15 minutes haggling over his 10% military discount at Lowe’s over $20 worth of plants. She doesn’t do it anywhere else, just Lowe’s.
JFC, Mom, here’s two bucks, let’s move on.
you should warn her that could be considered a stolen valor crime.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Valor_Act_of_2013
if someone wanted to report her she could face jail time and tarnishing your fathers military legacy.
“you will address me by my deceased husband’s rank”
The only time I would give a military discount would be if you are a military member that meets the following criteria:
- You were conscripted for a defensive war
OR
- You volunteered (as in you weren’t paid) to fight a defensive war
If you fight for a professional army, you’re a professional, and professionals don’t need discounts because they’re doing what they’re paid to do.
As I understand it, it came from the military essentially vietnam vets off at bus stations and then letting the local communities figure out what to do with them from there. It’s been co-opted to some degree, especially by the larger chains, but most of the local businesses near me keep up the practice because the military traps the uneducated into contracts that pay far less than poverty wages. Among many things, it’s a way of maintaining some measure of goodwill between local communities and military bases, and it’s looking more and more likely that we’re going to need every scrap of good feeling we can get as this slow descent into fascism continues…
I’m not from the U.S., but why would people from the military get a discount? If you do that as a store, why not doctors and nurses too? Why stop there and why not include firefighters, government workers or teachers?
And who compensates you as a business owner for these giveaways? If your store happens to be close to an army base, do you just accept the disadvantage of giving away part of your profit?
It sounds pretty stupid. People should get paid enough to pay full price for their stuff. Especially by the government. Especially in a country that allocates an enormous part of their GDP to their military.
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It sounds pretty stupid.
America in a nutshell
If your store happens to be close to an army base, do you just accept the disadvantage of giving away part of your profit?
No they just raise the base price for everyone.
Teachers did actually get benefits in my country until 2016. It was a pretty decent system.
If you are a landlord then having an operational school nearby increases local rent prices so you do get to profit from charging teachers less rent.
Many Americans have an uncanny reverence for the military and those who served. I guess that reverence seeped its way into many a retail store’s management.
I think it’s just about optics for the most part.
I could be wrong here… but around the George W. Bush administration + 9/11 and the government painting everything they do as something to protect “against the terrorists!!!” that’s when a lot of things started happening.
That’s when the view of the military seemed to flip and it’s just been stuck that way. Movies like Top Gun were made as a PR stunt to make the military look better. The same is for basically every cop show out there: make cops look like the good guys. Anywho, every company went out of their way to really show “how much they support the troops” by giving a discount. And every smooth-brain started saying “THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE” every single time. The hero worship was/is real, and it shouldn’t be, and it’s a real problem. (Totally different conversation, but it’s led to an influx of people joining the military, or trying to, who really shouldn’t). Before Bush + 9/11, I don’t recall military discounts outside of, like, businesses that were owned/operated by vets.
I’ve heard that some food joints would offer military discounts back when people were figuring out how bad Vietnam was especially with how many vets were coming back broken and homeless. Theres at least one place near me that’s had a veterans discount as far back as '78, they also let folks camp out in their parking lot since it was a bit bigger to accommodate the firetrucks since they were in a more central location than the fire station at the time.
Rambling aside, veterans discount started out as a way to help conscripted veterans during and after the fustercluck that was Vietnam and then was hijacked at some point.
Ah. So possible it was cranked up to 11 (no pun intended) after 9/11. That, or its frequency illusion, and I just never noticed really before a certain point.
Hard to say without digging up when different places adopted it but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.
Military discounts have been a thing for longer than that. Couldn’t tell you when it started.
“Land of the free, home of the brave”, but with the caveat that those other professions don’t qualify as brave enough is my guess.
why not doctors and nurses too? Why stop there and why not include firefighters, government workers or teachers?
Some places do this.
Who compensates you
In a round about way - everyone else. Though it’s possible you just make less profit 5% of the time.
It’s plain old jingoism. Just point and laugh at it.
Years ago I used my USAA card to pay for food at a mall food court and the cashier gave me a military discount since my dad used to be in the army. Only time that’s ever happened. I didn’t ask for it, but I certainly didn’t turn it down.
I’m so glad I gave all of my 20s to get shot at on the other side of the world in a desert, and now live with crippling PTSD, anxiety, and gastrointestinal disorders. But really, it’s all worthwhile because I get 10% off at the Gap.
Ah but you brought freedom and democracy to a bunch of dumb dusty people, right?
Lol no.
But you helped money to flow in the right direction, right? You helped them dusty dummies to understand that’s our stuff under their sand, right?
Maybe I’m weird, but I guess I don’t care about military discounts. I probably just don’t have much experience with veterans. But like we give senior citizens discounts some places, because it’s expected they don’t have much money. And there’s lots of old folks who need it. Haven’t military folks traditionally had a hard time reintegrating? Like isn’t that the plot of “the forever war”? If it helps the ones who need it then good. Helping people in need is a good thing. I’m probably missing something so let me know what it is.
There are two ways to look at it, as I understand:
-
Many (certainly not all) vets have a chip on their shoulder and expect white glove treatment. Kind of like a less whiny Karen.
-
Many are of the belief that we should not reward people for aiding the government in its atrocities.
I think the meme is an exaggeration of those positions.
-
That’s not what a military discount is or does. It’s for active duty only, or full time retired, meaning you need an active and valid military ID on your person that matches YOU. Not your wife, not your friend Larry, not your brother Darrell, not your OTHER brother Darrell, YOU. It’s one of the things that makes life harder for people who leave the military. And while your in it, it does you little good.
I know this because I’ve managed stores with military discounts. The only thing worse than having to say ‘‘we don’t do that’’ is ‘‘Yes we do’’ Because the reality is that unless your talking to an old guy in a military insignia cap, or a surprisingly young enlisted person in uniform or military sweats, they aren’t getting the ID. You got your shins blown off in Vietnam? Well fuck you, the discount is for active enlisted and CAREER officers. No one the fuck else. Guess how many dessert storm, Vietnam, Iraq, Korean War, or WWII vets like hearing that shit explained to them. They are LIVID. They want ass pats and bjs they don’t want to hear they can’t save $0.07 on a pile of lumber because they didn’t make being drafted a career just got PTSD and forever shrapnel. I LOVE telling people no discount for anyone. It’s fantastic.
Ah I get it now, yup that is shitty. I have some compassion for someone who was stupid enough as a kid to enlist. But only for active members? Love how in America we all get fucked over, unless you win the wealth lottery.
Yeah and while your in, you don’t have the free time or money to use a military discount for anything significant.
Why would they get a discount for choosing a job that involves them attacking other countries?
But…why? I never faulted people asking for any sort of discount when I worked retail. Why blame them for simply asking if there was a way to get something cheaper? I couldn’t give a fuck if corporate was making less money while my fellow citizen saved some cash.
Based on the stories I have read some people are quite rude about asking for it.
Being able to deny rude people their request is a power play that customer service people can enjoy using.
Oh, well, that’s a different situation from the one I interpreted here, I guess. Yeah, unreasonably rude customers of any kind are awful.
Stories like what?
“Dependapotamus” and “dependa” should yield some results.
Stories posted on AskReddit when people are being asked about their jobs.
I don’t really use reddit at home anymore so I don’t have any exact links.
A lot of them just assume that everywhere bends over backwards for them. It’s incredibly obnoxious. Source: was a bartender for a decade
Source: was a bartender for a decade
Thank you for your service 🫡
Wait, people asked for a vet discount… at a bar?
I can see a restaurant, but a bar!?
Oh heavens yes, some people have no shame
Seems appropriate. Much faster service for your medication than at the va.
Facts
Because they are military and some people do not like that.
Certain! I’ll be honest. We’d start putting way less shame on not knowing and encouraging asking.
I had an American ask me if he could get a military discount.
In Canada.
Actually that is not that insane. Canadian military often gets to take advantage to discounts in America.
That something happens in America is not an indication that it isn’t insane.
The idea that I should care about a corporate losing money is laughable to me. I’ll give anyone a discount when allowed by the company without hesitation.
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Oh, I’m all in for spending company money. But I’d rather not incentivize murderers.
As a military veteran, this makes me a little sad… but the whole military discount thing has always made me feel weird. I mean, I’m no hero. I spent 20 years sitting at a desk, fixing computers. Why should I deserve a discount over any other office worker?
I currently live in an area far away from any military bases, so I’ve mostly stopped asking about military/veteran discounts. Most people here aren’t used to military being around this area anyway so there’s rarely a discount to offer. And I don’t really care if I get a discount or not; it doesn’t hurt me to pay full price.
But I’ve definitely worked with service members who would boycott businesses near our bases if they refused to provide a military discount. Some people get really entitled about their status. Those were the worst people I had to deal with in the service.
Seems like if you run a business near a military base then you would just set your prices X% higher than you really want to set them, and then offer an X% discount to all the people who shop there, knowing that everyone will wind up paying what you originally wanted to charge anyway
Related: JC Penney very publicly stopped pretending everything was always on sale, and just set everything to the “sale” price.
Despite the publicity of the move, sales tanked. Just a few months later, everyone involved was sacked, and they went back to pretending everything was always on sale.
Wait, was that the same as the ‘not setting prices at 0.99 instead of 1.00’ company?
TIL that was part of it as well
I worked at a popular restaurant near a major VA hospital, and this is how I explained why we only had a military discount for active duty, not veterans. Surprisingly, it seemed like a satisfactory explanation more often than not.
But I’ve definitely worked with service members who would boycott businesses near our bases if they refused to provide a military discount.
that seems like a plus
I know you got paid to be there, but still. A country without a military, even in times of “peace”, is a scary thing. Especially given the direction the world is heading these days… sure you sat behind a desk but who knows what you may have been needed to do if called upon in a worst case scenario, and so for that I say thank you for your service 🙏
The Facebook moms found us — who’s making the next link aggregator?
👅💦🥾✨
Reading this made me cringe.
lol
“Thank you for your service” cringe apart, you are right, militaries are paid for the inherit risk their profession carries, even if unlikely.
Also, on a little more distopian way, if incentivized, people are more likely to enroll in your military. And I’m guessing these discounts are on the shops, so it’s free benefit from the state.
You can’t get your discount without going through the ID me website anywhere corporate nowadays anyway… it doesn’t work nor have human contact points, it’s impossible for older veterans to use and it says half of us don’t even exist so basically military discounts have become enshitified as well . It does however take millions of dollars from the government in subsidies to ID me to obstruct Our discounts and your unemployment and disability benefits. We’re both working class and in this together whether you give me my 10% off on hardware or not.
I love people getting upset when someone says fuck the troops 🥰
make sure you mean metaphorically
Fuck Reddit and Fuck Spez.
Fuck Reddit and its suppression of non-western narratives.
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Elon murder Luigi innocent assassinate Musk kill Donald eat the rich French treatment RFK guillotine violence Mangione jury nullification Trump die go to hell Brian Thompson deserved wealth tax use Lemmy.
FTFY
This is .world. You can say these things
Fuck Reddit and its suppression of my freedom to say removed
Yeah, auto-censored Lemmy instances are peak freedom, indeed
I censored it myself as a joke
I guessed, because probably
Fuckwould also be removed. That’s on point, stillAh dang, I didn’t even think about that. It would’ve been funnier if I said “removed” instead of fuck too lol
do you feel better after saying that now?
Idea for any leftist bakeries out there: charge military members even more, veterans even more still. Refuse to make them cake! Make a big deal about it. Enjoy your free national media attention. Send me a little cut.
A little cut, as in a slice of cake?
