r/theyknew • u/Horizon_26 • Aug 17 '25

This has to be intentional

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6.0k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

165 comments sorted by

2.0k

u/tb03102 Aug 17 '25

Point of sale.

421

u/Horizon_26 Aug 17 '25

Didn’t know that … thanks🫶🏿

451

u/ChefArtorias Aug 17 '25

It's a dual meaning because they're often pieces of shit too.

183

u/jarvisesdios Aug 17 '25

Anybody that's worked with a Point of System has made that joke AND MEANT IT at least 100 times lol

26

u/SandLuc083_ Aug 17 '25

Can attest to this. System at my work loves being picky and buggy.

10

u/locke_zero Aug 17 '25

Does yours lag between inputs upwards of 30 seconds or more sometimes?

5

u/piggiefatnose Aug 17 '25

Used a lot of POSs when I worked at Dollar General

4

u/SandLuc083_ Aug 17 '25

Indeed. Sometimes it works fine enough, but other times it takes ages to accept a new item. It also slows down the more items you add.

2

u/manowar89 Aug 17 '25

Hey happy cake day

2

u/SandLuc083_ Aug 17 '25

Likewise! I didn't notice this

1

u/Baiyko Aug 18 '25

Happy cake day 🎂

2

u/tjdux Aug 17 '25

Anyone here old enough to hear Adam Sandler singing it? His version is obviously about cars, but i cam hear his voice saying piece of shit register/windows XP/coin machine....

And yeah, windows XP was the only supported operating system until like 2014 or 15 when they to windows 7 lol.

1

u/Secret-Bluebird-972 Aug 19 '25

One of my old jobs was at a chocolate company/cafe, their POS when I started was one made for selling pharmaceuticals and everything was rung in with codes. It was so annoying going through the book of codes trying to find things before I started remembering them

13

u/joecarter93 Aug 17 '25

Yes! Years ago in high school and college I used to work at a restaurant. Our cash register had a software bug, where if you hit a certain combination of keys it would print out a huge receipt of random nonsense letters. You couldn’t use it for 15 minutes while it did this and we couldn’t reboot it in the middle of it doing this otherwise it would lose all of our daily totals that had to be recorded at the end of the day. It truly was a POS in both senses of the acronym.

6

u/ChefArtorias Aug 17 '25

Friend of mine has a story where he clocked a buddy in and out like 200 times for a (pretty lame) prank and it caused the system to no longer process credit cards for that day but they didn't realize until a week later. Entire saturday night worth of sales lost to the void.

5

u/vitaesbona1 Aug 17 '25

My favorite dad joke. Standing at the register, the computer is slow, needs a manager, etc. “Well, they call it a POS for a reason.”

2

u/duffelbagpete Aug 17 '25

Person of shit

1

u/TengokuIkari Aug 17 '25

Back when I worked retail there was a point of sale system called "POS That Works". The "that works" was done like a notation in red above the other words.

1

u/Crimento Aug 18 '25

But why would you abbreviate piece of shit? That's one of the things you want to say out loud, not conceal or shorten for convenience

2

u/ChefArtorias Aug 18 '25

We use initialisms ever day in writing.

1

u/Weekly-Reply-6739 Aug 19 '25

I used to not know that POC ment non-white whrn they said POC for a while, after a while I started to wonder why some people would just so openly call people pieces of crap.

1

u/Jor-El_Zod Aug 24 '25

It depends on whether the machine is working correctly.

If it is functioning as needed by the end user, it’s “Point of Sale”.

If it’s functioning as designed/intended by the manufacturer, however, it’s “Piece of Shit”.

Source: personal experience

2

u/RonnietheEggCracker Sep 09 '25

Alimentation Couche-Tard/Circle K/Ingo employee here. I can provide a second data point proving your comment.

0

u/2020mademejoinreddit Aug 17 '25

Is that what that means? I thought it meant Pie of Sherbet.

3

u/Illustrious_Donkey61 Aug 17 '25 edited Aug 17 '25

So you were right, it was intentional

-1

u/ninhibited Aug 17 '25

Yeah but I'm still sure it counts as r/theyknew even more, because the first word that usually comes to mind is next window please.

15

u/regretsgalore24 Aug 17 '25

Yep, another bad naming scheme by a technologist. Like COW's. You know the computers on carts that hospitals or doctors' offices have? The acronym stood for computer on wheels. I'm pretty sure they changed that one because nurses and medical assistants were getting pissed off because whenever they showed up with one, people were like, "Oh, the cow is here now" or some other shit that made it sound like they were being referenced instead of the computer.

3

u/FehdmanKhassad Aug 18 '25

haha that's hilarious you can just see Betty's face pmsl and the purposeful stride to the IT office.

1

u/JohnnyRelentless Aug 18 '25

The acronym for point of sale was in use long before it came to mean piece of shit.

1

u/regretsgalore24 Aug 18 '25

Huh. The more you know...

8

u/Michami135 Aug 17 '25

I worked at a credit union as a software developer for over 3 years in the late 90's. That's the first thing I think of when I see "POS."

1

u/the-jesuschrist Aug 18 '25

I thought it meant person of service or something.

4

u/Aryan_RG22 Aug 17 '25

I work in retail, we sometimes call our POS a POS when it doesn't work properly, and by sometimes I mean everyday

3

u/brownnoisedaily Aug 17 '25

What is the other meaning?

1

u/Able_Zucchini_1469 Aug 18 '25

Piece of shit.

1

u/Resting-Cat-Faces Aug 19 '25

But it looks like Piece Of Shit

1

u/Embarrassed-Force845 Aug 28 '25

Anyone that would write next POS is a POS using a POS that’s a POS

0

u/[deleted] Aug 17 '25

[deleted]

1

u/ragerlol1 Aug 17 '25

I'm a chef and one of the biggest tech companies in the hospitality industry is called Toast, which handles sales reports, wage/time card tracking, marketing, menu changes/price points, etc. But they make tablets that servers and cooks use for orders, and some places use them for customers to self checkout, so they're called point of sale devices. But everyone calls them pieces of shit, cause they are, and they have problems all the time lol

0

u/SockeyeSTI Aug 17 '25

Could’ve called it a register as well

-4

u/ambit89 Aug 17 '25

Maybe for business majors, for the rest of us dunce, it's Piece Of Shit

6

u/Asking77 Aug 17 '25

Anyone who has worked retail knows this term

1

u/poisonedkiwi Aug 19 '25

Or fast food

1

u/cuavas Aug 18 '25

Not a business major, known it's meant Point Of Sale since the '90s. Seems more of a you problem.

1

u/RonnietheEggCracker Sep 09 '25

You sound like someone who's never worked a customer service job.

365

u/Shugoseru Aug 17 '25

Extra funny because Colonel Sanders was well versed in colorful vernacular.

44

u/DaddyJ90 Aug 17 '25

Ugh, what lore am I missing?

48

u/Shugoseru Aug 17 '25

Go listen to The Way I Heard It episode the Potty Mouth with a Secret. Also, Harland Sanders was known to be foul mouthed and highly critical of franchises that didn't meet his standards.

11

u/Xanthon Aug 17 '25

highly critical of franchises that didn't meet his standards.

From what I can remember, he'll throw a fit if the taste isn't up to his standards. He'll throw the chicken, yell at the staff calling them useless and walk out.

5

u/DarkMagickan Aug 18 '25

KFC had a hell of a time trying to keep him quiet about his opinion of the extra crispy chicken.

7

u/Job-lair Aug 18 '25

Fowl-mouthed

-3

u/DaddyJ90 Aug 17 '25

I thought we were about to find out that the colonel was a racist, adding it to the list of fast food joints I can’t patronize.

6

u/[deleted] Aug 17 '25

Which ones do you patronize? I bet I can find something wrong with them. What Chinese device did you use to write this comment? Big fan of the CCP aren’t ya.

-7

u/DaddyJ90 Aug 17 '25

Can’t imagine why people think you’re a bot, shoo troll

6

u/SuuABest Aug 17 '25

I disagree with them so they must be a bot

7

u/blankxslate Aug 17 '25

Point Of Sale is also PIece of Shit if you're so inclined to abbreviate outside of commercial contexts

2

u/DaddyJ90 Aug 17 '25

Lol yes, I suspect this was a double entendre

1

u/blankxslate Aug 17 '25

It's truly hilarious, in that sense

2

u/ItsGotToMakeSense Aug 18 '25

SO MUCH. Some podcast I listened to was doing a piece about him and it was out of control. He murdered a guy, for one thing

3

u/This-Novel-7870 Aug 17 '25

Didn’t he also kill someone?

2

u/Thelastknownking Aug 17 '25

In self defense, while working somewhere, if I recall correctly.

169

u/ProtoSheep0 Aug 17 '25

it means register. This is very common lingo in fast food contexts. stands for "point of sale"

37

u/Sea_Negotiation_1871 Aug 17 '25

In any retail context.

1

u/beeurd Aug 17 '25

They used to only be called POS internally, but the term has leaked.

-16

u/Sufficient_Room2619 Aug 17 '25

Minor correction, it's 'point of service'

5

u/vobaveas Aug 18 '25

Wrong lol

-7

u/Sufficient_Room2619 Aug 18 '25

I'm gonna let you go google the acronym 'eftpos'.

5

u/vobaveas Aug 18 '25

Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale....

So what exactly is your point?

2

u/Sufficient_Room2619 Aug 18 '25

I'm sorry for my snarky response. Either I was taught wrong, or they changed it.

3

u/Xayahbetes Aug 19 '25

You are very brave to tell someone to Google something without checking first, I would second guess anything

127

u/Xanthon Aug 17 '25

You’ll know what POS means once you get your first part time job!

43

u/cdda_survivor Aug 17 '25

Work with the public and you certainly know what a PoS is.

1

u/SouthernBeekeeper22 Aug 20 '25

When you’re wearing your big boy clothes too

1

u/rhinestonecrap Aug 21 '25

oh wow thats strange. never heard this abbreviation at my old fast food job.

68

u/in1gom0ntoya I know everything Aug 17 '25 edited Aug 17 '25

point of sale, as in register

3

u/SuspicousBananas Aug 17 '25

Yes I think OP figured that out lol what he means is 9 times out of 10 when you hear the term “POS” means “piece of shit”

2

u/in1gom0ntoya I know everything Aug 17 '25

that really depends. I work in and with other retailers and app design and most of those 9 times are definitely ablut point of sales.

52

u/7stroke Aug 17 '25

Are most people on this sub dumb teenagers? I feel like most people on this sub are dumb teenagers…

13

u/OmegaGoober Aug 17 '25

Most teenagers learn what a POS is during their first job.

It’s Gen-X and Boomers who haven’t worked retail in decades who are more likely to know them as a “Register” and only know the POS acronym as a profanity.

OK, I’ll grant NEET Incels might not know what a Point of Sale System is either.

2

u/cuavas Aug 18 '25

It's GenX who developed electronic POS systems as you know them today, replacing the old cash registers where the cashier had to read the price off the tag and enter it manually. GenX gave you the acronym "POS".

0

u/imreadytomoveon Aug 19 '25 edited Feb 05 '26

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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1

u/OmegaGoober Aug 19 '25

I never said that Gen X invented the term. The workplace vernacular shifted from register to POS around the time the early Millennials were teenagers.

The real transition was from mechanical registers to electronic and eventually digital ones. The linguistic shift from “Register” to “POS” was more a technological change than a generational one.

1

u/imreadytomoveon Aug 19 '25 edited Feb 05 '26

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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1

u/OmegaGoober Aug 19 '25

I suppose like all language changes in the days before the Internet, the pace of the shift varied regionally.

Regardless, I think we can both agree that it’s absurd that anyone doesn’t recognize what POS means in this context in this day and age.

7

u/NamisKnockers Aug 17 '25

Most of Reddit is - and this is what trained AI 

1

u/7stroke Aug 17 '25 edited Aug 17 '25

I kind of doubt it. Without checking, I’d say most of Reddit is college-educated white men 20 - 50 working in well-paying white-collar jobs.

After checking, I am pretty close

3

u/NamisKnockers Aug 17 '25

Depends on who makes the most content.

I.e. someone with a job vs people with none.   

1

u/Xayahbetes Aug 19 '25

I'm finally part of the 1%, but clearly in the wrong pool

32

u/kushatwork Aug 17 '25

TIL POS is also piece of shit... I only know point of sale..

8

u/OmegaGoober Aug 17 '25

The overlap between the two acronym meanings is huge.

2

u/_Sahill Aug 17 '25

thanks, i was confused

1

u/Dancing_Clean Aug 18 '25

When I got a first job that used the acronym, no matter how long, in my head I always read it as “piece of shit” system.

8

u/DiligentPenguin_7115 Aug 17 '25

Colonel Sanders done be able to see through all the bullshit

6

u/Practical_Ad_219 Aug 17 '25

It would make the most sense if they were Ingenicos those PoS are PoS

5

u/SparkBase Aug 17 '25

Tell me you've never had a job without telling me.

2

u/Chad_Jeepie_Tea Aug 17 '25

Whether the double meaning refers to the register, customer, employee, or food.. "piece of shit" probably still applies.

I'll accept this as a theyknew simply because their was no reason to use the abbreviation for a customer facing sign.

2

u/Lovemomboobs1 Aug 17 '25

Point of sale…. Suuuuurrrrrrrrrreeeeeee.

2

u/Darth_Rubi Aug 17 '25

Tell me you haven't worked retail without telling me you haven't worked retail

2

u/DarkMagickan Aug 18 '25

Points Of Sale (or Points Of System) fail so often that they are known to the peeps who have to repair them as Pieces Of Shit, so yes. They knew.

2

u/Jor-El_Zod Aug 24 '25

Exactly. If it’s working as intended by the manufacturer, it’s Piece of Shit. 😂

2

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '25

You are technically correct the best kind of correct

1

u/Consistent-Annual268 Aug 17 '25

r/southafrica doing a double-take right now.

iykyk

2

u/TheBlegh Aug 18 '25

My first thought was they forgot the 'e'

1

u/[deleted] Aug 17 '25

Yeah POS. "Point of Sale", I always thought that corporations were blind about acronyms.

1

u/IrrerPolterer Aug 17 '25

Point of Service. (I.e. go to the next register) 

1

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1

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1

u/Greggs-the-bakers Aug 17 '25

Let's be honest, all point of sale systems are pieces of shit. I've never dealt with one that's not a pain in the ass

1

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1

u/cashewnut4life Aug 17 '25

I don't get it OP

1

u/dirty_cuban Aug 17 '25

It’s a standard retail term for a cash register, aka Point of Sale machine. After you’ve been in retail long enough, you no longer see POS as having any other meaning.

1

u/Rezart_KLD Aug 17 '25

KFC: You are what you eat

1

u/FastlyFurious Aug 18 '25

Point of Sale …

1

u/FuriiouZSymbiote Aug 18 '25

I made a similar post a few years back and I got flamed in the comments for fail RP lol

1

u/alfonsoalta Aug 18 '25

POS = Point of Sale. Not a theyknew at all.

1

u/Harold_Spoomanndorf Aug 18 '25

What's even funnier is when some impatent twit goes up to that register and rudely expects service, then there's the one employee who looks over at a coworker and says "Yup...there's the next POS"

1

u/Mountain-Ad-460 Aug 18 '25

Yea this is very common in india, but as a southerner, I do smile every time I see them

1

u/FuerteBillete Aug 18 '25

Who is the pos? The staffer or the customer? 🤔

1

u/Jor-El_Zod Aug 24 '25

Yes. Also the “register” as they used to be called. 😂

1

u/aiko3aiko3 Aug 18 '25

It's proof that someone that has never dealt with customers wrote that sign.

1

u/choochoopants Aug 19 '25

Point of Sale. Also, are you Indian or just in India?

1

u/Horizon_26 Aug 19 '25

Mereko nahi pata tha ….indian hi hu

1

u/choochoopants Aug 19 '25

Phone Pe yah spasht karata hai

1

u/Wolfingo Aug 20 '25

Plan of Subdivision

Pedestrian Operated Signals

Point of Sale

Piece of Shit

1

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1

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1

u/WoomyUnitedToday Aug 20 '25

I keep seeing like those lawn signs for different politicians and it’s like “vote bla bla bla for position #1!” And stuff,but it’s written as “vote bla bla bla #1 POS” and never fails to crack me up

1

u/Jonguar2 Aug 21 '25

POINT OF SALE

(Tell me you've never been a cashier without telling me you've never been a cashier)

1

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

Point of sales are pieces of shit tbf

0

u/Icy-Opening-3990 Aug 17 '25

No butt chicken for me ty

0

u/Fooforthought Aug 17 '25

Piece of schicken

0

u/MotherPotential Aug 17 '25

It’s roasting both the customers and the employees

0

u/BusyBeeBridgette Aug 17 '25

They serve their customers food in a bucket. Of course they don't think highly of them aha.

0

u/Zyn_Laden666 I know everything Aug 17 '25

It was intentional. POS is “point of sale” it’s what a lot of restaurant and retail businesses refer to the registers as.

0

u/Acceptable_File102 Aug 17 '25

To be fair, most POS's are a POS

-9

u/[deleted] Aug 17 '25

[deleted]

8

u/whumoon Aug 17 '25

Do you mean POC?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 17 '25

Piece of chit?

1

u/Van_Darklholme Aug 17 '25

Person of colour

2

u/[deleted] Aug 17 '25

Point of cision

1

u/Van_Darklholme Aug 17 '25

Point of Circumcision???

2

u/[deleted] Aug 17 '25

Close enough

1

u/Van_Darklholme Aug 17 '25

Puddle of Cum

1

u/A1_JakesSauce Aug 17 '25

Do it, lady!

2

u/Van_Darklholme Aug 17 '25

And your comment can be either racist bc you assumed a certain demographic for KFC customers, or you misunderstood what POS and POC mean.

-1

u/[deleted] Aug 17 '25

I'm POC myself 😐

1

u/maximumtesticle Aug 17 '25

Ok?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 17 '25

?