“Right,” Blair says with a giggle. “I’m mainly doing it for the thrill of the hunt. I want to know I can win; I want to know I can conquer. And I want to be noticed, hopefully, by management. The actual incentive is just a vendor dollar, usually.”

She has to explain vendor dollars, too, and I’m dumbstruck.

“So—wait. Let me get this straight. The prize for going as fast as you possibly can for an hour is a dollar coupon for some—but not all—of the vending machines in the building?”

Blair shrugs, saying she’s seen it go up to two and even three dollars. “And someone figured out you can put it in the machine and get change back, so you can get a regular dollar—that’s what a lot of people do.” Plus every time you win, they enter you in a drawing for various Amazon gift cards, which can be worth up to $500. “That’s really cool, especially since the number of pickers is dwindling. I think that’s why people are mad at me—my odds are a lot better to win that gift card.”