TikTok Ruins Everything
When your Six Flags food hacks go viral, you might be ruining it for the rest of us.
There's a phrase that the TikTok generation may be learning the hard way when it comes to food hacks: "Snitches get stitches." Or at the very least, "If you're going to reveal on TikTok all the ways to score free food, someone might find out and stop allowing us to get the free food and we'll say nasty things about you on the internet." Not as catchy, but still a sentiment worth avoiding.
The latest casualty of TikTok blabbing is the unlimited meal plan at Six Flags. Who's going to break the news to Six Flags meal plan superstar Dylan?
How TikTok destroyed Six Flags’ unlimited meal plan
The Six Flags unlimited meal plan was an add-on to the cost of a season pass. But last Thursday Six Flags announced it is ending the plan, calling it "highly unprofitable," "ripe for abuse," and something that was "making the park experience worse for families," Fortune reports. The reason that families are having a bad time is because TikTok personalities bragging about saving money by eating all their meals at Six Flags has caused crowds to flood the park just for the food every day.
"They ruin the experience for somebody who came in on a single-day ticket with their family...who paid a lot of money to come...now they have 45 minutes to an hour to wait to get a meal while those other people are choking up the line for $80 for the whole season," Six Flags CEO Selim Bassoul told analysts on the company's first-quarter earnings call Thursday.
The company says it might introduce a reconfigured meal plan soon, but ultimately the goal is to attract fewer guests who will spend more. Seriously, where will Dylan get all his meals now?!
TikTok ‘free food’ hacks and other tips causing controversy
In March, a viral TikTok uploaded to Discord displayed codes to use on various food delivery services for free and discounted items. Comments were filled with users wondering how abusing these codes would affect the delivery drivers, reports Newsweek—free meals often lead customers to leave lower, if any, tips on their orders. Others worried that this was a scam.
At the end of last year, Starbucks baristas were speaking out against a hack to get two iced drinks for the price of one for simply asking for no ice and an extra cup, Thrillist reports. They were quick to point out that the taste could be altered by the addition of ice, and that this wasn't a foolproof plan because baristas still have very specific measurements to follow for each drink.
It wouldn't be the first time that a TikTok hack has led users awry. We have the terrible, full-price Chipotle burrito to prove it.
Remember, don't always trust TikTok, and that goes both ways. Don't trust the videos you watch to guide your eating habits, and don't trust that it's the right platform for your own beloved food hacks. Going viral isn't worth losing your favorite Six Flags meals.