Buyers beware: TikTok user Emma Klein (@imemmaklein) found out that she nearly paid double the price for a used painting on Facebook Marketplace in a recent viral video.

Klein begins the video by directly addressing a couple that recently sold her a painting via Facebook Marketplace.

“This morning, when you posted [the painting] for $80, I hit you up and I was like ‘Hey, I know this is a total shot in the dark—would you be willing to do $30?’” Klein says.

The sellers told Klein that the lowest they would go was $50 for the piece, which she accepted but had to decline. “I was like, ‘Cool, I’m gonna have to pass because I’m balling on a budget right now, but if there’s anything that changes, you let me know,'” she recalls in the clip.

Klein explains that the couple eventually contacted her again, offering to sell at her original offer of $30. She then says she met them, picked up the painting, and brought it back to her place, where a bug promptly crawled out of it.

“I’m, like, going to hang it up, and a tiny little bug crawls out from it, which was weird,” she says. “That is kind of an isolated circumstance that grossed me out, but I don’t think it’s an actual issue.”

While the bug was an isolated incident, the actual issue for Klein was what she found on the back of the painting.

“Anyways, I turned the painting over and inside of it was a tiny tag that that I squinted [at]—I’m like, ‘What is that?’” Klein mimes looking at the tag. “It was from Ross… for $30.”

@imemmaklein Every day im blown away #fbmarketplace #storytime #crazy ♬ original sound - Emma Klein !

Conversation in the comments

Commenters shared more concern about a bug infestation than they did about the pricing mishap.

“I’d be more scared of roaches or bed bugs vs paying too much,” one user said.

“MAKE SURE IT WASN’T A BED BUG,” another commenter echoed.

The official Orkin Pest Control account also weighed in on the potential infestation.

“The relief when you said the bug was not the main issue here,” the account wrote.

While the bug was the main topic of discussion in the comments, some users were curious about the painting.

“Show the painting!” one of the top comments demanded. “What are we watching til the end for?”

Klein posted a response to that comment where she did, in fact, show the painting. It appeared to be almost fully white, with sweeping, textured lines in the same style as a zen garden. 

@imemmaklein Replying to @Jill PAINTING REVEAL (ps this is my song playing if anyone wants to go stream ily) #fbmarketplace #storytime #crazystory #crazy ♬ What She's Like - Emma Klein

What did the Facebook Marketplace seller have to say?

Klein made an update video where she detailed her latest exchange with the Marketplace sellers she bought the painting from.

“Live update to the story—this is all happening very fast,” she starts. “So I go and I send them a picture of the tag, and I’m like: ‘Hey, did y’all know that this was only $30 to begin with?’” The seller apologized to Klein, saying that he hadn’t realized the mistake. 

“He was like, ‘I’m so sorry, we have three paintings that are very similar and I didn’t realize that this one was that one,’” Klein recounts. She then says that he seemed really nice, and she told him it was “whatever.” With the price issue cleared up, Klein says that her real concern now is the bug.

“I feel like I should check, honestly, again. I mean, it was just a little fire ant,” she says. “Hopefully there’s not, like, swarms of them. You’d think I’d be able to see them.”

She concludes the video by saying that “all was well.” 

“But that was my quick tea—I thought it was gonna be piping hot, but it’s just kind of a quick simmer down,” Klein says. “Which is good, y’know. Communication is key, always, even on Marketplace, y’know.”

@imemmaklein Replying to @Caiti Kirkman #fbmarketplace #storytime ♬ original sound - Emma Klein !

Are Marketplace mishaps common?

While Klein’s experience was an accident that ended with a nice conversation and a net loss of zero, that isn’t always the case. 

In a 2023 article for Wired, Amanda Hoover writes about her experience being scammed on Facebook Marketplace. She says received multiple identical messages, all oddly-spaced, asking her to accept full virtual payment for a couch.

“The buyer either says they must pay now, so that I would take the item off the listing, or so that their husband/brother/son/mover, you name it, can come pick up the futon later that day,” Hoover writes. While she didn’t accept any of the offers, she speculates on what would have happened if she had.

“It’s likely these people would have sent a phishing link,” Hoover says. “Either as a text to my phone number or in an email—disguised as communication from Zelle, looking to drain me of more money than the couch is worth.” 

Hoover also interviewed multiple internet security experts, who urged users to be wary online—even on sites like Facebook, with seemingly built-in verification and security measures. 

“Experts say the constant evolving nature of scams makes them tricky for companies to defeat,” Hoover notes. The scam Hoover experienced is far from the only type on the platform: as of publication, the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker lists 1,794 scams related to Facebook Marketplace.

The Daily Dot reached out to Klein via TikTok and Instagram direct message.

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The post Woman buys painting on Facebook Marketplace listed for $80. Then she flips it over: ‘What are y’all doing?’ appeared first on The Daily Dot.

If you feel like you’ve been paying too much for contacts, don’t worry. TikTok user Jenny Park (@mohaewithjennypark) might just have a solution for you. 

In a recent visit to the optometrist, Park saved over $1,000 on contact lenses and left with a better prescription. In a recent viral video, she describes exactly how this happened. 

The video opens on Park in her car, on-screen text floating above her head. “You could be eligible for free contact lenses!!!!” the text exclaims.

Park begins by giving viewers a piece of advice. “This is just a PSA that if you are at a doctor’s office, dentist’s office, eye doctor’s office, feel empowered to ask the questions,” she says. “I have such a hard time doing this.”

She goes on to explain that she is 31 years old and has been wearing contacts since middle school. “So for a very, very long time,” she says. Park then notes that she recently met with a “thoughtful, thorough, nice” eye doctor who gave her some life-changing information.

When are contacts 'free'?

“He told me, ‘Did you know that your eye contacts should be for free, because they are medically necessary?’” Park recounts. She says that this was entirely new information to her.

“No one has ever told me that, in all my years,” she elaborates. “And he was like, ‘Wow, I’m really disappointed no one has ever told you that.’”

“So starting now, my contacts will be for free,” Park says. “Which is crazy, because I think I spend over $1,000 a year on my contacts.”

What else did Park find out?

Free contacts weren’t the only benefit Park got out of her visit—she also found out that her previous lens prescription was inaccurate.

“Last year I went to Target Optical, just, like, a random optometrist,” she says. The Target optometrist lowered her lens prescription by half a point during that visit, and Park went along with it, despite finding it “a little suspicious.” 

“I was like, ‘Whatever, it’s fine. Like, I’m just gonna do it.’” Park says. However, when she went back to work, she regretted her decision to keep the lower prescription.

“Now that I’ve been going to the office, and I have to look at a screen far away, I notice that, like, I can never read anything,” she says. “Like, it’s always so blurry, which is why I was like, ‘I need to go to the eye doctor.’”

When Park attended her most recent appointment, her new eye doctor expressed concern about how low her prescription was. “He was like, ‘It’s really dangerous that you have been driving around with such poor prescription.’” she says. “[He said] ‘You should not be able to see with the prescription they gave you.’”

Park’s new prescription is two points higher than the one she received at Target, and she claims it works far better for her.

“I have really, really bad eyes,” Park elaborates. “So I most recently was wearing negative point five and negative six, and then he gave me negative eight and negative seven.”

“I see so crystal clear,” Park emphasizes at the end of the video. “Like, I cannot believe this is what the world looks like.”

The audience weighs in

Park’s commenters expressed skepticism and excitement. Some shared interest in applying Park’s experience to their own lives, or told similar stories.

“How do you get eligible to do this?” one commenter asked. “I want to try this.”

“Yesss my eye doctor suggested that my contacts could be free since there was such a difference in vision in both my eyes due to my astigmatism,” another commenter shared. “And they were approved by my insurance!!”

A few users tried to provide necessary context to help people understand if the policy of “medical necessity” was applicable to them.

“This is true, medically necessary contacts are fully covered by insurance BUT you have to qualify!” one user elaborated. “Must have an astigmatism over negative three or distance has to be over negative 10, something along those lines.”

“I have negative 21 and negative 17 (glasses script) & astigmatism, and was told I do not qualify for free contacts,” another user countered. “My prescription is over $1k for monthlies.”

Are contact lenses 'medically necessary' under insurance?

The reason many commenters tended to contradict each other is because different insurance providers define “medical necessity” differently. According to ReVision Optometry, an eye care center based in San Diego, California, “necessary contact lenses are a designation based on criteria set by a third-party payor.” 

To get approved for medical necessity, practitioners must submit the required documentation after an eye exam. If their assessment fits the insurance company’s definition of medical necessity, then the company will help cover the contact lenses.

ReVision also notes that the criteria for medical necessity are “are nuanced and sometimes complex." They note that it helps to work with optometrists when applying for medical necessity. 

@mohaewithjennypark If you wear contacts see if they are medically necessary and if your insurance covers!!!! And feel empowered to always ask questions to your health care provider. Blesssss to all the ones who care about their patients and take time to answer q’s!!! #lifehack #lifetips #lifeupgrades #30sontiktok #freecontacts ♬ original sound - jenny park

Experienced optometrists can “identify situations that would be otherwise overlooked to qualify for necessary contact lenses." However, it might require some prompting on your part. So, if you think you might qualify for medical necessity, in the words of Jenny Park: “feel empowered to ask the questions.”

The Daily Dot reached out to Park via TikTok and Instagram direct message.

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We’ve all been stuck waiting for our food to be delivered at a restaurant, and perhaps some of us have even had the urge to march back to the kitchen and pick it up themselves. 

Well, one man did just that at his local McDonald’s. Tired of waiting for his ice cream cone, Robert (@robert.jeanne) snuck behind the counter and poured his own soft serve while his wife recorded him in a viral video.

The video opens on footage of  Robert standing by the pickup counter at a McDonald’s, shifting from foot to foot. Staff members bustle around the kitchen behind the counter. 

“My husband wanted ice cream,” the on-screen text reads. “But he had to make it himself because they waited too long.”

After a few seconds, a staff member approaches Robert and he leans over to say something in her ear. She straightens up and heads back behind the counter, laughing a bit and telling him no.

“Are you sure?” Robert asks as she leaves.

“I’m sure,” she responds.

“Y’all are no fun,” Robert calls after her. The video then cuts to him speaking with another customer.

“I might help myself,” Robert tells the other customer, holding up his McDonald’s receipt. “It’s already paid, we’ll see how they’re gonna get it to you.” He creeps towards the counter, then stops and turns around.

“Want a good laugh?” he asks the customer behind him. The customer’s reply is indiscernible, but Robert winks and gives them a thumbs up in response. “Don’t tell,” he says.

The soft serve sting

Robert spends a few minutes joking with the other customer, stating that the employees keep getting in the way of the ice cream machine, and telling the other customers to scatter when he says “run.” Then, he meanders up to the counter and snatches a bright yellow safety vest from behind the counter and puts it on.

Vest on, Robert slowly moves in towards the ice cream machine. He eventually sneaks behind the counter, makes a hasty, deflated ice cream cone, takes off the vest, and heads back to his original spot in the lobby. 

On his way to the door, Robert jokes with other customers who witnessed the operation.

“It’s free—well, I paid for it, but I can get you one,” he says, pointing at his melting vanilla cone. He raises the ice cream in cheers towards the counter. “Thanks!” he says. “For fast food, it ain’t fast. Good, too!”

The video ends with a triumphant photo of Robert standing in the McDonald’s, eating his ice cream.

Many commenters laughed at Robert's antics and commended his handling of the situation.

“Honestly as an employee I would’ve loved this,” one commenter said. “He wasn’t weird or rude he just nervously made his snack and left what a king.”

“I love that he did the high visibility sneak in,” another user added.

Other users criticized the McDonald's staff for making Robert wait so long.

“Why didn't the girl who told him no just make the d*mn ice cream real quick?” one commenter asked. “It’s takes less than 30 seconds to make a cone.”

Why are McDonald’s wait times so long?

While Robert's gaffe pokes fun at the long wait times sometimes experienced at fast-food joints, it also points to a larger labor issue.

On the McDonald’s website, the fast-food corporation answers the frequently asked question: “Do you have a time limit on serving time?”

“We do not set time limits on completing orders due to the vastly different busy periods,” the company responds. It states that due to the changing nature of orders, they don’t have a specific time limit protocol to manage wait times. McDonald's note that they “do have internal measures though to help [them] deliver better service,” though they don’t specify what those measures are.

McDonald’s posted this policy in 2018. A few years later, the entire fast food industry faced a labor shortage due to the pandemic. Some outlets speculated that the shortage put pressure on McDonald’s “internal measures” that the company still hasn’t recovered from.

The Washington Post published an article in January detailing recent child labor violations committed by various U.S. fast-food franchises, including McDonald's. The Post hypothesizes that these franchises overworked underage employees in response to the pandemic labor shortage.

“Since the widespread labor shortages of the pandemic, fast-food companies have illegally scheduled thousands of teenagers to work late and long hours and to operate dangerous kitchen equipment,” the article reported. 

@robert.jeanne

# Mrs Lewis loves Mr Lewis 4-ever

♬ original sound - Robert ❤️ Jeanne

As of January, McDonald’s “has averaged 15 violations per 100 stores since 2020, ranking among brands with the highest rates of violations.” McDonald’s franchises’ continued reliance on precedents set during a severe labor shortage could indicate that the company is still struggling to keep up with customer demands.

The Daily Dot reached out to Robert via TikTok comment and direct message, and McDonald’s via email.

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The robot uprising may be closer than you think: one woman shared her shock at the Checkers’ AI drive-thru "getting sassy" with her in a viral video.

The video starts with a drive-thru kiosk telling TikTok user Jaz (@jasmeekah_) that her total is $1.79. Text on the screen asks “Did their virtual system just get smart with me?” The next line states that “People really about to be out of jobs this is sad.”

In the clip, Jaz asks the kiosk if she can add two apple pies to her order. The drive-thru voice pauses for a moment before responding, “Alright, what else can I get you?”

“Are you an automated system?” Jaz asks the kiosk. When it answers with a yes, Jaz expresses shock. “Wow,” she says slowly. “Wow.”

The sign on the kiosk reads: “This mic is recorded to ensure our best service. If that’s ok, please order through our virtual assistant. Want a live person? Just say 'team member.'"

After a moment of silence, the kiosk speaks again. “What else can I get you?” it prompts.

“Is she rushing me?” Jaz asks. “The automated system? Wow, um…” She trails off as she asks her passenger if there’s anything else they want. When she doesn’t receive an answer, she turns back to the machine. “That’s it.”

“It’s $17.13, thank you,” the drive-thru kiosk says. “Please pull up to the window.”

“OK, thank you,” Jaz says as she pulls through the drive through. She ends the video with a hearty, shocked expletive.

In the caption, Jaz posted a line of laughing-crying emojis, followed by: “This is so crazy to me.”

Jaz’s comments found the presence and tone of this new technology shocking.

“Y tht automated system sound irritated,” someone asked.

“They tried to make it as realistic as possible,” a commenter added.

“Even she don’t wanna be there,” joked another user.

Some users observed that AI was becoming more prevalent in certain aspects of customer service.

“I work at an urgent care and we have a virtual receptionist,” one user said. “Technology really taking over our country…”

What’s up with AI drive-thrus?

Checkers is not the only fast food chain experimenting with AI voices in drive-thrus: McDonald’s, Del Taco, Carl’s Jr., and Wendy’s have all been beta testing AI across the country. 

For its drive-thru technology, Checkers partnered with Presto Automation, a company specializing in “A.I.-driven automation for drive-thru restaurants.” Despite being founded in 2008, Presto says they found their niche during the pandemic, when the service industry was facing a labor shortage.

“Spotting an opportunity, Presto applied its extensive experience deploying restaurant technology at scale to a nascent yet promising new field,” the company states on their website. “Generative Artificial Intelligence. Presto Voice was born.”

However, Presto Voice isn’t entirely independent of human labor—in December 2023, Mia Sato at the Verge reported that “off-site human workers are stepping in and completing over 70 percent of orders.”

Daniela Sirtori-Cortina at the Portland Press Herald noted that Presto Automation didn’t necessarily stop human labor in drive-thrus, they just moved it to offshore locations like the Philippines. 

Are AI drive-thrus here to stay?

McDonald’s recently announced an end to their AI drive-thru partnership with IBM, after two years of field testing. This may sound like the company is giving up on the new technology, they put out a statement expressing hope for developing drive-thru AI in the future.

“As we move forward, our work with IBM has given us the confidence that a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future,” McDonald’s stated in its June 2024 press release.

People online have speculated that McDonald’s ending its IBM partnership may have something to do with the AI messing up customers’ orders or occasionally becoming overwhelmed by them. However, it’s clear that even though the fast food giant is pausing development now, they aren’t giving up.

@jasmeekah_ 😂😂😂😂😂 this is so crazy to me 😂 #viralvideo #explore #CapaDeAlbum #xybca #fypage #ai #virtual #foryou ♬ original sound - Jazzzzzz Talks 🥰

As of publication, Checkers has made no statement about ending AI use in its drive-thru locations. It’s safe to assume that this technology might be here to stay.

The Daily Dot reached out to Jaz for comment via TikTok and Instagram direct message, and Checkers via email.

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The post ‘They tried to make it as realistic as possible’: Checkers customer slams automated order system for giving her ‘attitude’ appeared first on The Daily Dot.

You’re not crazy: Froot Loops are getting smaller. One Kroger merchandiser revealed that Kellogg’s cereal prices were dropping because the company was rolling out new, tinier boxes.

In the video, TikTok user GothicMoon (@gothicmoon0686) stands in front of a grocery store shelf lined with Kellogg’s cereal boxes. She asks, “So you know that boycott we just finished on the first of this month for this company right here?” 

The boycott in question was the “Let Them Eat Cereal” movement, started in response to Kellogg’s CEO Gary Pilnick recommending poor families eat cereal for dinner. 

Kroger worker restocks smaller Kellogg's cereal boxes

Let Them Eat Cereal called for consumers to completely cut out Kellogg’s products from April 1 through June 30. Now that the ban is over, GothicMoon points out that Kellogg’s products remain cheaper, but are also getting smaller.

“I am currently coming into stores and doing resets—they had this planned,” she claims. “Do you wanna know why their prices are coming down? ‘Cause we’re shrinking their box sizes again.”

GothicMoon pans over from the shelf to a shopping cart next to her, filled with dozens of old cereal boxes. 

“These are all products that have been yanked off of the shelves, and I am putting smaller boxes back up,” she explains. “So, they’re shrinking again! And that’s why the prices are going down.”

“Let them eat cereal,” she declares.

GothicMoon made a second video detailing the exact size difference between the old and new cereal boxes.

“So here’s a little follow up,” she starts, camera focused on a Froot Loops box in the store. She zooms in on the bottom right corner of the box, showing the ounces listed. 

“You see this? 8.9 [ounces]. I’m removing this from the shelf,” she says. She shifts focus, holding a new shelf label up to the camera. The label lists the size of the new cereal boxes as 7.8 ounces. GothicMoon did not note the cereals' new price.

“They’re taking over an ounce, again,” GothicMoon states. “This is the second time in less than a calendar year that I’ve done this for Kellogg’s."

What’s happening with Kellogg’s cereal?

The Daily Dot couldn't confirm whether Kellogg’s is officially rolling out smaller boxes nationwide, but the company does have a history of participating in "shrinkflation."

Shrinkflation is the practice of downsizing the product while keeping prices the same or higher. Sometimes companies do it blatantly, with reduced box sizes and blatant price increases. Other companies do it subtly, with smaller box sizes and a sale price that’s disproportionate to what customers were previously getting.

A recent Guardian article detailed the findings of Australian researchers who tracked the change between Kellogg’s boxes in 2019 and in 2024.

“Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut cornflakes, which has considerably more sugar than the brand’s regular cornflakes, jumped from $6 to $10 in the pandemic inflationary years, even as its family-sized pack shed 30 grams,” the article said. “This equates to an actual price increase in excess of 73 percent.”

Other Kellogg’s cereals also jumped in price: the actual cost of Froot Loops increased by 35 percent, and the Australia-only Sultana Bran increased by 82 percent. Local news outlets in the U.S. reported similar tactics.

Still, commenters on GothicMoon's video agreed that the box shrinkage was a victory for Let Them Eat Cereal. Many noted that their boycott won't end anytime soon.

“I just noticed this, this week at my store while putting cereal product away the boxes are thinner and less wide,” a commenter said.

@gothicmoon0686 #letthemeatcereal #kelloggs #shrinkflation @TallGirl6234 ♬ original sound - GothicMoon

“The prices aren’t really going down if the package is smaller,” someone else commented. “It’s a forever ban for me though.”

Most commenters echoed this mentality.

“They could give me a lifetime supply of my fav cereal and beg for forgiveness… still a forever ban for me,” someone said. “Love this for them.”

The Daily Dot reached out to GothicMoon for comment via TikTok comment and direct message, and Kellogg’s via email.

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The post ‘I just noticed this’: Kroger worker says Kellogg’s cereal prices are going down—but there’s a reason why appeared first on The Daily Dot.

Mental health influencer Lexi Hensler (@lexihensler) accused another influencer and two VidCon staff members of robbing her booth in a viral video last week.

“So I got robbed this weekend,” Hensler begins the video, speaking straight to the camera. “Not just me but my small business, my small mental health company, got robbed.”

Hensler’s business is Hugz, a line of weighted plushies intended to help customers manage “anxiety, depression, stress and sleep.” Every month, Hugz features a specific stuffed animal and donates 10 percent of the proceeds from that animal to mental wellness charities.

“I’m bringing [the situation] to the internet because it was an influencer,” Hensler states. “I don’t know what her name was, and I need help finding her, because I just wanna have a chat.”

The video cuts to footage of Hensler’s booth at the annual content creator convention, VidCon, in Anaheim, California. The video, taken by the vendors next to Hensler's booth, shows a woman in a floral romper walking over to a table at the booth, picking up a bag of stuffed animals from underneath the table, and walking away.

“And then she inspired more people, because then some of the people who worked at Vidcon actually came over and stole a few,” Hensler adds. 

In the video, two women in purple “Crew” shirts stand on the other side of the booth, looking through a lineup of Hugz plushies. The footage shows one of the women opening and closing a Hugz box, but does not show either of them walking away with any plushies.

“Look at them taking their sweet time shopping,” Hensler narrates over the footage. “They’re like ‘which ones do I wanna steal?’”

Hensler plays the footage again, focusing on the first woman who stole from the booth. “I know she’s an influencer because she’s wearing an influencer badge,” Hensler elaborates. “And the expo hall was only open to influencers during this time.”

“And you know the funny part is if this girl had just, like, DM’d me asking for an animal or for a discount, I probably would’ve sent her one,” Hensler says.

“They stole six of them, which isn’t that many, but we are a small business,” Hensler says. Considering the plushies are priced at $54.99 each, Hugz lost over $300 from the incident. 

Hensler ends the video with a call to action: “I would just like to know who she is. Don’t send her any hate, just let me know—I wanna have a chat, maybe send a bill.”

Chaos in the comments

Commenters were eager to help Hensler solve her mystery, and many of them accused singer and influencer Louisa Melcher of committing the theft.

“That’s gotta be Louisa Melcher she has all kinds of rompers like that and that’s her style,” one commenter said. 

“Louisa Melcher cause she had the same clothes and her response is crazy…” another commenter added.

Most viewers suspected Melcher, but some people weren’t convinced.

“Swear I don’t think it’s Louisa Melcher because just because of the video she posted. The flowers on her romper in the recent video are much smaller than the ones on this one,” a user rebutted.

A few comments accused Hensler and Melcher of faking the drama entirely.

“Wait is this some meta marketing strat bc this seems like the type of thing Louisa would make a video about and shes wearing the dress in her latest tiktok,” a commenter theorized.

@lexihensler

I never thought this would happen

♬ original sound - Lexi Hensler

Louisa Melcher responds

Melcher made two response videos about the situation. In the first video, she says VidCon took away her creator pass, which she calls “very public” and “very humiliating.” 

“What you don’t know as a creator going to VidCon—it’s like you are in a zoo,” she starts. She says she was overwhelmed by public attention and decided she no longer wanted to attend the event as a creator.

“Yeah, I exploded,” she says. “And someone who is actually very kind who worked at VidCon was like, ‘Well if you don’t want to be acting as a creator at this event, you have to give up your creator pass.’” 

She states that she already had “all the free stuff that you get from being a creator,” so she agreed to give up her pass.

In the caption, Melcher wrote: “Ironic how they invited tons of mental health brands to come and sell products, and yet, it’s normalized to pester and badger influencers, even though it harms them psychologically.”

Melcher’s second video is a response to a comment accusing her of stealing from Hensler. The video shows her in bed, wearing a face mask and clutching a stuffed elephant (not a Hugz product). The on-screen text reads “Taking a self-care day bc hundreds of thousands of people in my comments are accusing me of stealing from a small business at Vid Con.”

@loulouorange Replying to @Worm fidget toy Y’all wanna cancel me so bad 🥱 #vidcon #vidcon2024 ♬ Apple - Charli xcx

Who could it be?

Content creator and industry reviewer Amanda (@swellentertainment) stitched Hensler’s video to give viewers more context about the inner workings of VidCon. 

“I was not a featured creator at Anaheim, I was a plus one,” she says. “I was a plus one, and I also had a yellow badge.” 

Amanda explains that she didn’t qualify for a “Featured Creator” pass: a yellow badge which gives attendees access to the influencer-only space where Hensler's booth was. Rather, Amanda's friend was invited to be a Featured Creator, and she tagged along as his guest, thus receiving all the same privileges.

“That’s one of the things that I really wanted to point out—because a lot of people are, like, trying to think it’s an influencer, but it could not be an influencer,” she says. “It could just be someone’s plus one: a speaker, a chaperone, or an invited guest.”

As of publication, there has been no confirmation of the thief’s identity. 

The Daily Dot reached out to both Hensler and Melcher via TikTok and Instagram direct message and to VidCon via email.

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One shopper shared her shock at a local thrift store’s exorbitant price markup on a Target item in a viral video.

“Very few things shock me now at the thrift store—AKA: the prices,” TikTok user Taylor Beagle (@drab.to.dreamy) began, filming in the middle of her local thrift store.

“I am not at Goodwill,” she confirms. “I know everyone always says, ‘Oh, Goodwill’s the worst, their CEO makes billions of dollars.’ I am at a local thrift store in my town, and at the front, by the cashier, you can see they have these glass displays—you are not going to believe what I just saw in there. And the price? One second.”

The video cuts to show a glass case filled with keepsakes.

“OK, so I’m at the front,” Beagle states. She focuses the camera on a pink and white bottle. “Do you see that body spray? Do you know what this is?”

“This is the Frenshe body spray that is at Target for $14.99,” Beagle whispers. She explains that she’s trying to remain quiet because she’s so close to the cash register.

“Let me show you how much this is, you’re going to lose your mind.” When Beagle zooms in, the price tag reveals that the bottle is $12.99. 

“Do you see that?” Beagle asks. “Are we joking? I’m sorry, what?”

“That body spray, brand new in the store, is $14.99,” she says, then repeats herself for emphasis. “That body spray, brand new in the store, is $14.99.”

“What’re we gonna do?” She asks. “What’re we gonna do?”

It's not the first time this has happened

Beagle has posted about finding overpriced items at the thrift store before. Last April, she spotted a $6 Target purse for $9.99 at Goodwill. Other thrifters have reported markups as high as $10 more than the original price at their local Goodwill stores. 

Commenters were equally shocked, and some shared similar experiences they’d had at their own local thrift stores.

“Goodwill was selling Lululemon FREE shopping bags for $29.99,” one of the top comments read.

“I see things at the thrift store for $5 when it was bought from the dollar tree. Brand new would be $1,” another user added.

One commenter discussed her own experience working at a thrift store. “I worked at a thrift store for two and a half years…” she said. “I priced miscellaneous items, and the higher ups pressured us to overprice to make more profit and wouldn’t let us price below a certain amount…”

Why are thrift stores marking up their goods?

Shoppers across the country have witnessed a rise in thrift store prices over the past few years. Maddie Duley at Yahoo Finance wrote a piece last August that compared reported Goodwill prices to retail prices at Walmart. She concluded that in some cases, it’s actually cheaper for people to buy from Walmart.

People often blame the online reselling market for the recent price hike at thrift stores. Apps like Depop and ThredUp have created an internet community of people who buy and sell fashionable thrift store finds for an upcharge.

While it can be tempting to blame individual resellers for the rising prices at thrift stores, Michigan Daily columnist Olivia Mouradian urges people to focus on the corporations setting the prices instead.

“Considering only about 20% of the clothing Americans donate ends up being sold to consumers, the argument that resellers create scarcity within thrift stores is a limited one,” Mouradian writes in a 2021 article on the subject.

@drab.to.dreamy My jaw is on the actual floor…..this isnt even GW. This is a LOCAL THRIFT STPRE 😳 #thrift #thrifted #thriftstore #thriftwithme #thriftfinds #thriftfail #goodwill #goodwillfinds #goodwillhaul #thrifthaul #wtf #fyp ♬ original sound - drab.to.dreamy

She points out that many thrift stores, despite being nonprofits, abide by corporate practices. A new one of these corporate practices is the Goodwill Marketplace, Goodwill’s online storefront that is available on eBay, Amazon, and their website.

Some online users have reported that Goodwill saves high-end items to sell on their online storefront, using eBay to price them similarly to other eBay or Amazon resellers So, reselling might be behind thrift store upcharging, just not in the way most people think.

The Daily Dot reached out to Taylor Beagle for comment via TikTok and Instagram direct message.

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If you’re a big fan of true crime podcasts, maybe you should consider switching your morning listening to NPR’s Car Talk. A sign of increasing paranoia, one woman was concerned her car was the site of a crime after finding something she thought to be unusual in the exhaust pipe. 

TikTok user Kimberly DeFisher (@arcticfoxdaily) found a frightening string of matted hair stuck in the bottom of her aunt’s car that, upon thorough investigation in a viral video, turned out to be the car’s “muffler hair.”

The video opens with text onscreen stating that DeFisher and her aunt “decided [they] should call the police. This was so creepy…” Behind the text, DeFisher plays footage of her aunt pulling a string of matted hair from her car’s exhaust pipe.

The next sentence reads, “My Aunt called me over because she was freaked out about what we had assumed were the remains of an animal coming out of her vehicle’s muffler…”

In the footage, DeFisher’s aunt continues to pull hair out of the exhaust pipe. DeFisher guesses that the hair might be from a decomposed animal, and her aunt motions at a piece of hair that looks like it might have dried blood in it.

“This is human hair, Kimberly,” her aunt says. She continues to turn the hair over in her gloved hands. “I’m really scared, like, seriously.”

DeFisher’s aunt reaches back into the exhaust pipe, and grabs another piece of hair, confirming there is still more left. “This is like, chock full,” she observes.

“I just don’t know what animal that would be,” DeFisher says. “The only thing I can think of is like a skunk, or cat, that would match that, but…” Her aunt cuts in by saying that she can’t feel any extremities left over from an animal, and DeFisher suggests taking the car apart, but her aunt shoots the idea down.

“I wish, but see, you can’t take that apart,” her aunt motions to the car’s muffler. “Because it’s all full.” 

DeFisher’s camera follows her aunt’s hand, zooming in on the muffler, and the text on screen says that they’d “started to wonder if somebody had stuffed ‘evidence’ in [there].”

The pair eventually consult DeFisher’s teenage cousins, stating that the boys “def. know more about vehicles than us…” Her cousins establish that the pipe with the hair is attached to the muffler.

What is the “hair” inside an exhaust pipe?

As DeFisher’s aunt pulls out another segment of hair, one of the teenagers, Willie, cuts in: “Are you sure you’re not just pulling out the muffler?” DeFisher’s aunt asks why all of that hair would be in the muffler, and Willie responds “Because that’s what all mufflers have in them.”

The duo was shocked. “Are you serious?” DeFisher asks.

DeFisher’s aunt responds even louder, turning to Willie and yelling, “Are you kidding me right now?!”

Willie suggests they start the car, and if it’s loud, then they will know that they pulled out the muffler. As he goes around to start the car, DeFisher starts to laugh with her aunt. “This is a great video,” she says. “I got all this.”

The video ends with a screen recording of DeFisher searching “muffler hair” on Google Images, and showing countless examples that matched their experience.

The comments were equal parts surprised and amused.

“I had so many guesses, all of them wrong, and not a single one came close to muffler hair,” one person said.

“What I’m 54 years on this planet and I’ve never heard of muffler hair. Are we supposed to take it to get a haircut or something?” another joked.

A couple of commenters pointed out that DeFisher’s cousins were there the whole time, watching her aunt pull out the hair without saying anything.

“Love how he watched you do this before saying anything,” someone commented. “We all learned something today.”

Finally, one commenter got to the root of the problem: “I think we watch too much true crime.”

Is “muffler hair” a real thing?

Muffler hair is not a new phenomenon. Car Talk hosts, mechanics Tom and Ray Magliozzi, have addressed the issue on their show multiple times. 

Once, in a 2008 column for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Ray stated, “It's not hair. It's probably fiberglass, or some such thing. It's used to keep the baffles in the muffler from rattling when the muffler starts to get old and the parts loosen up.”

Tom added on a warning: “But when the interior of the muffler really begins to disintegrate, the baffles no longer hold the insulation (i.e., muffler hair) in place, and it gets pushed out the tailpipe.”

So, if you see hair in your exhaust pipe, you should probably worry about getting a new muffler, not about being roped into a murder case.

The Daily Dot reached out to Kimberly DeFisher for comment via TikTok and Instagram direct message.

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TikTok user Andrew (@medievalfilthcauldrons) called out a landlord’s practice of renting out “luxury amenities,” such as ceiling fans or dishwashers, on a monthly “subscription basis” in a viral video just a few days ago.

Andrew begins the video by stating, “Just watch, and I’ll be back.” He then plays a clip of a video by Thomas Cruz (@tcruznc), a landlord who makes TikToks about financial and real estate advice. 

In the clipped video, Cruz says he makes extra income by purchasing low-cost ceiling fans and renting them out to his Section 8 tenants on a “subscription basis.”

After the clip ends, Andrew returns, confirms that the audience heard Cruz correctly, and elaborates. “If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ve probably seen a video or two featuring that guy, a landlord, who shares his wisdom about how to squeeze every dollar they can about tenants in Section 8 housing.”

Section 8 is the U.S.’s program to provide rental housing assistance to low-income Americans. In 2022, over 9 million people utilized housing vouchers via Section 8, per Yahoo! Finance, despite a total 38 million living in poverty.

Andrew then switches back to Cruz’s video, where Cruz shares that tenants also rent “food disposals, dishwashers, [and] other luxury amenities that aren’t required by the Section 8 program.”

“You heard that correctly,” Andrew cuts back in. “Things like dishwashers, garbage disposals, microwaves, are considered ‘luxury amenities.’” 

Andrew summarizes the rest of Cruz’s video, explaining that Cruz does quarterly inspections, and takes down any renter-owned ceiling fans he finds. 

“If you don’t wanna pay for the ‘subscription service’ for a ceiling fan, and you hang one of your own and they see it, not only will they fine you, I believe, but you’ll have to take it down. And if you don’t, they’ll evict you,” Andrew says.

While Cruz doesn’t explicitly mention fines in his video, he does state that he cites any tenants with ceiling fans he didn’t provide, and that if the tenant doesn’t comply, he evicts them.

“And you’d have to go find another property with an eviction on your history,” Cruz states. “Which is not ideal.”

Andrew expresses his frustration with Cruz’s practices. “Housing should not be a way for people to make money,” he states. “This person is the perfect example of why we’re in the situation that we currently are with this housing market.”

“That person owns, I think, a few hundred properties,” Andrew elaborates. “That’s how they’re all set up: basic amenities are considered ‘luxuries,’ and you have to pay a ‘subscription service’ to access something like a microwave or a ceiling fan.”

“It’s no wonder everything is on fire, and we’re all gonna crash and burn, very, very soon,” he finishes.

@medievalfilthcauldrons

Landlords, especially this one, are the worst.

♬ original sound - Andrew

Commenters agreed with Andrew’s outrage, and some began questioning the legality of Cruz’s practices.

“The for profit housing industry fuels my anger and animosity….” one user said.

“What he’s doing is completely illegal for Section 8. Would be a shame if a bunch of folks reported him,” another commenter stated.

“I literally had my landlords banned for life from HUD in 2002 after they charged me for ‘appliances’ monthly. If I remember correctly it was around $160. Rules are strictly enforced for this,” a third user added.

Landlord TikTok’s foray into Section 8 housing

Landlord content has run rampant on TikTok since the pandemic; there are now over 156 million posts under “Landlord TikTok.”

In an interview with the Daily Dot, Andrew expanded on his motivation for making his video: namely, a recent trend of divisive TikTok real estate advice meant to teach people how to profit off of Section 8 housing.

“I’ve been vocal about my disdain for landlords and the role they play in exploiting renters and harming the housing market for pretty much as long as I’ve been on TikTok,” Andrew said over TikTok direct message. He noted that he’d seen Cruz on TikTok before, mostly in the landlord’s videos selling online real estate courses. 

Andrew added that he’s seen many different accounts selling courses like Cruz’s lately. 

“I’ve made a tremendous amount of content about how exploitative and harmful this behavior is,” he said. “People selling online courses about how to become a Section 8 landlord to extract every dollar out of tenants who are struggling, possibly disabled and unable to work, or are living off disability or social security.”

Andrew ended the interview with an assertion: “I believe housing is a basic human right. The economy in the United States continues to widen the wealth gap, and we’re seeing record numbers of evictions and people battling homelessness. It shouldn’t be this way.”

Can landlords charge extra for appliances?

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides official Housing Quality Standards (HQS) that dictate what criteria properties must meet before landlords can receive Section 8 payments.

According to the HQS, there must be “adequate circulation in the dwelling unit,” and ceiling fans are an acceptable way to accomplish this. Similarly, “facilities and services for the sanitary disposal of food waste and refuse” are required, but it’s up to local governments to determine exactly what those facilities and services are.

If the living space fails to meet these standards during the annual inspection, then it isn’t viable for rental. However, landlords are not required to use ceiling fans to meet the ventilation requirement, and it’s implied in the HQS that, in most areas, garbage bins and dumpsters take care of the food and refuse disposal requirements.

HUD provides an inspection checklist on their website, and the amenities Cruz lists are only mentioned under the “Special Amenities” section. This section is for optional use, designed to “collect additional information about other positive features of the unit that may be present,” and can potentially be used when considering the “reasonableness of the rent.” Special amenities include features as basic as a dishwasher, garbage disposal, or microwave. 

The Daily Dot reached out to Cruz for comment via Instagram direct message and email.

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If you feel like you’ve been spending too much money on groceries lately, don’t worry—you’re not alone. TikTok user Dakota Neifert (@sewerlidd, they/he) shared their shock in a viral video about how a month’s worth of groceries from Walmart nearly quadrupled in price over the past two years.

“I feel like I’m gonna be sick,” they state in the clip, showing their Walmart app in the background.

Neifert had been looking through their Walmart order history when they found an order from two years ago for a month’s worth of groceries.

“45 items cost $126,” they elaborate. “A whole month of groceries, just for me, basically.” The old order confirmation at the top of their screen notes “53 items received,” with an order total of $126.67. No delivery fee or sales taxes were charged.

Neifert explains that they realized there was an option to reorder that exact purchase, and they were curious to see how much the order cost in 2024.

“Now? This order of 45 items for one month would’ve cost $414,” they say, slowly revealing the number on the screen. “That is four times more.”

They finish with a rhetorical question: “How the f*ck—how? Like, what?”

Commenters commiserated with Neifert, sharing their own experiences with price inflation at the grocery store.

“I used to spend $180 for two weeks for my family of four and the dog,” one user said. I am now spending upwards of $430 and trying to figure out what else I can cut. sorry kids you don’t get barbeque sauce.”

“And this is why I went from buying healthy food back to only buying sandwich materials,” another commenter added.

A few users expressed relief at seeing a similar experience. One user said: “Thank you for sharing this. Now I feel a little less gaslit about the grocery prices cause it HAS gone crazy and it’s NOT just me!”

Neifert made a few video responses agreeing with some comments and pushing back against others.

“Yeah, bro, like looking back at that order, it was interesting to see how many unhealthy, little single-use f*cking things I got. Like little mac and cheese, rice bowls, y’know, all those little f*cking things,” they say in response to the comment about buying only sandwich materials. 

They go on to note that they’ve started buying fewer conveniently packaged foods over the past two years and are still spending more money. “Every month I’m buying less and less sh*t, but I’m paying more,” they say.

One user tagged Walmart in the comments, asking them to explain themselves. Neifert responded: “What really is to blame is all the f*cking people that run this economy of ours, deciding to take advantage of the pandemic.” 

Neifert theorizes that companies capitalized on the public’s cabin fever and distraction during the pandemic. “They’re making it worse and worse, but just so subtly that you barely notice, y’know. Freakin’ frogs in the pot of boiling water.”

@sewerlidd #greenscreen #groceries #economy #inflation ♬ original sound - Sewerlidd

How much has inflation impacted grocery prices?

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that average food-at-home prices in 2023 were 5 percent higher than those in 2022. This yearly increase is actually an improvement, as average food-at-home prices rose by 11.4 percent from 2021 to 2022. However, both of these are higher than the historical food price inflation average of 2.5 percent annually.

While the pandemic may have negatively affected food price inflation (the price inflation for 2020 was 3.5 percent), the USDA believes a specific set of negative circumstances in 2022 caused the current high inflation in food prices.

In the summary of its Food Price Outlook for 2024, the USDA writes: “Food prices rose partly due to a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreak that affected egg and poultry prices, along with the conflict in Ukraine, which compounded other economy-wide inflationary pressures such as high energy costs.”

2022 saw the highest food price inflation in the U.S. since 1979, and the echoes of it are likely still affecting market rates, despite the inflation rate slowing down over the past year.

The Daily Dot reached out to Neifert via TikTok and Instagram direct message, and Walmart via email.

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The post ‘How?’: Walmart shopper finds receipt from 2022. He’s shocked at how much $126 of groceries costs today appeared first on The Daily Dot.