

Never pay retail again. - gtdwngtdrty
http://www.employeediscounted.com
Employee discounts for all.
======
ryanwaggoner
OK, so let's say I own a retail store and I see that my company is on here. No
problem, I just sign up, have an employee buy some stuff for me so I can find
out who they are, and fire them.

I bet that this violates the agreements most employees sign for discounts,
which probably says they can only buy for themselves (or maybe
family/friends), and that they can't resell the items. So this is fraud,
basically.

Perhaps I'll start a site called "EmployeeOfficeSupplies.com" that hooks up
people in need of office supplies with people working in offices who are happy
to steal them. Or maybe one where I help people "share" their health insurance
benefits.

This is stupid.

~~~
tome
I think this site is a great idea for retail owners. As long as they sell to
employees at a profit, this is a really good way of increasing their price
discrimination.

Most of those people who are happy to pay full price won't bother using this
site anyway. Those that aren't, but are willing to pay the discounted rate
will become extra sales the company would not have otherwise had.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination>

[Edit: I don't believe that employees should do this behind their employers'
backs, just that it's probably a good idea for the employers to let them.]

~~~
kierank
You're missing the fact that the people that are happy to pay full price are
also (as a general rule) also happy to pay less than the full price.

~~~
tome
Only if they know the site exists, and are willing to bother themselves
fiddling with it. The dollar rich are often time poor, so will be willing to
pay full price to save hassle -- after all, they don't collect coupons (for
example).

------
gstar
Sorry to offer criticism, but this is the most unethical thing I've ever seen.
Not only that, the market for this sort of trading is already stitched up by
eBay, and they do it better by not being so blatant about the source of the
discount.

So this product actually does a worse job than eBay - that's no mean feat.

I know sometimes game-changers come about by pushing ethics around - but this
is morally wrong in so many different ways I'm struggling to express it.

Purely out of interest, I'd love to meet the person or people who came up with
this, but only so I could do my grumpy old man bit about the "me" generation.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
_this is the most unethical thing I've ever seen._

I'm guessing you don't watch the news very often :)

~~~
gstar
Fair point, so perhaps I should wind it down a bit: it's certainly the least
ethical website I've seen launched on HN.

------
nopassrecover
Cool idea but this won't last. First companies will sack staff they catch on
here. I guess you could obfuscate the buyer/seller information but eventually
some staff will get tracked down based on their products or the discount they
offer or whatever. Secondly, eventually it will just be filled with companies
themselves selling the clothes on here right and ultimately moving the average
price up. That or this will just work to remove the notion of employee
discount.

~~~
cduan
Companies will sack staff on this site? In this economy, companies will
probably _reward_ staff on this site if they move product. Heck, companies
will probably just put themselves on the site!

~~~
bkovitz
Strange but true: Microsoft encourages their employees to get their non-
employee friends to use the employee discount.

A sale is a sale, I guess.

~~~
pantsd
It would be strange if it was true. Unless things have changed in the past ~1
year, Microsoft does not encourage employees to get their non-employee friends
to use the employee discount. There is some fairly specific stuff about being
able to use your employee discount on gifts, but not in exchange for $s or
products.

~~~
bkovitz
Weird. When I bought MS-Office at the Microsoft store on the Redmond campus,
an employee gave the cashier his employee number while I waited. Lots of
people were doing that, just as openly.

------
chaosmachine
It's a sting operation.

Retailers: Need to cut back on staff, but don't know where to start? Let us
help...

------
diiq
Everything said so far, and also "employee's".

I mean, taking unethical advantage of a benefit is one thing, but poor
grammar? In bodytext frozen in an image no less? Unnacceptable :)

------
knightinblue
Nice idea, but I think it needs a catchier name. Something with a little more
zip.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
EmployeeTheft.com ?

------
tiomka
THIS IS SO ILLEGAL

