OK! So, I just scheduled my first two shops.

One is a grocery store mystery shop, and the other is a grocery store audit (not secret) for out-of-stock items. Both are for the same chain, but two different locations near my house.

Neither pays much, but they will be good experience. I'm printing the instructions, questionnaire and letter (the letter is required for the audit - I am required to show it to the manager) right now. My printer is Busy! Wow... that's a lot of paper (even double-sided) and ink! Good thing I get my ink super cheap on Amazon! Next time, I think an electronic copy of everything but the letter will suffice. If I must print these things, I think a laser printer will save money in the long-run because toner lasts a LOT longer than ink, and costs much less per page.

Do you guys use a tablet (vs. a smartphone or paper) to read all this stuff before you walk into the store? I can't imagine reading all of that on a smartphone... it's too small... and printing takes too much paper/ink.

What about the questionnaire? It's an HTML document which I can save and then open it in Excel to edit/save my answers... but it's not pretty when I open it that way. I could open it in Excel, make it prettier, and save it as an xls/xlsx document which could be opened/edited later in Excel (or OpenOffice on my smartphone).

Do you have a way to download the questionnaire in a way which allows you to enter/save your answers without having to print it and write them on paper? My memory isn't great... so I will definitely need to record answers very soon after the shop! I just don't want to use all that paper/ink before going to a shop... so suggestions are welcome.

The mystery shop will be worth the money... I need to buy groceries anyway, and the store is less than 10 minutes from my house. The audit... well... it only pays $15, and requires me to be in the store for a minimum of one hour. The store is about 15 minutes from my house (30 min round trip), and I can't imagine doing it in an hour. I used to work in a grocery store (for 6 years), and to go around and count every out-of-stock item (which has a shelf tag) in every department will probably take me longer than an hour because I'm meticulous (and very picky about grocery stores due to my previous experience working in one).

I'm mostly interested in the printing-vs-electronic_copy question... and how do you keep track of your answers.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Brian

On the first page where the various forums are listed you will also find a link to Search. Make sure you change the parameters to include all dates because the default is 30 days. It will give you a good idea. As much as I hate wasting paper/ink and avoid it now, new shoppers should probably bite the bullet and print both guidelines and forms in the beginning.

Definitely agree with Lisa that when you begin you probably should print the guidelines and the questionnaire as your insecurity will lead you to look at them over and over and over before the shop. After a while you know well enough what is being asked/expected that you can review the instructions on line, make notes of anything you think you might forget and not print or fill your file with paper.

For an upscale casual dining today my notes were on one side of a 3"x3" post it that I folded and dropped in my pocket. The info on the paper? 2B,A/D,18/50/40 Translation: 2 Beverages (some require 0 or 1 non-water beverage and some 2--this one required 2); A/D is appetizer OR dessert; [different entrees is always a given so no need to note]; 18% tip required; $50 max $40 we could spend pre-tax and pre-tip.

I know the grocery shops you are doing and cannot be bothered with the audit because they are in stores that I mystery shop for another company so have no interest in revealing myself to a manager as being a shopper. The shops with purchase are simple notes on your grocery list to make sure you hit all departments, the restroom and do your checkout counts.

I generally print the guidelines and report the first time I do a shop and then PDF everything after that and keep it on google drive for reference. Saves paper and is always at hand.
I view it on either an ipad or iPhone.

Since you're obviously a techie, I would suggest you take a look at Evernote. I would guess you're familiar with it but if not it'll be pretty easy for you. I use it for tons of shopping related tasks.

@Flash:
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I did print them, and I'll review them before I walk into the store. I have absolutely no fear about doing mystery shopping and/or audits. I'm not afraid of what will happen when I'm in the store. The worst thing that can happen is they kick me out of the store and/or I don't get paid for the job (which would be a very small financial hit, if any).

Even if they suspect that I'm a shoplifter and call the cops, I have a good explanation and have absolutely no reason to believe that there will be any trouble which affects me long-term (after all, I'm not stealing anything... even if it was one of those shops which requires me to put something in the bottom of the cart... BTW, I would LOVE to do one of those!). To be completely frank... I don't really care what people think of me in public. I'm just me, love me or hate me. I'm honest to a fault, but I'm also polite. If someone doesn't like that... then that's their problem. Believe it or not... years ago, I used to be so shy that I couldn't talk to people. Not a problem anymore. I liberated myself from my shyness as I got older.

I love your idea about the shorthand notes. I'll think about making my own abbreviations (or borrowing yours). BTW, I'd love to do some casual dining jobs which allow me to bring the wife. She'd like that too. Are you saying that you get casual dining jobs which allow you to bring another person? If so... please share the MSC where I can get those! I'd snap those up anytime I can! The wife would LOVE those. It would be a free "date night" and my wife is VERY thrifty (I'm a lucky guy). Too bad babysitters aren't shopped. (or are they?) Imagine getting a babysitter for free!?!?

I'll also consider putting the notes on my shopping list for the secret shop. No reason I can't do that... nobody would suspect anything of a shopper looking at his/her shopping list.
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@miketfse: Yeah, I could do a PDF too. I use an Android phone/tablet, and could use them... but I was thinking about how to make it something easier to read and record my findings electronically so I don't forget anything (I'm very forgetful - I guess that's typical of a techie geek/nerd like me). Perhaps I'm over-thinking it. I'll find out when I go for the shops. I intentionally scheduled them for the weekend so I have plenty of time, and the required hours are very open... basically any daylight hour is OK. In the future, I would like to do some shops on my way home from work. I have a very easy commute which is 35 miles each way. My commute is 35 miles in 35 minutes... almost always very light traffic, and could stop at lots of places along the way.

@LisaSTL: I'll look deeper into the search feature of this site. So far, I'm finding this site very lacking compared to other forum sites. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places. It's definitely different from other forums in which I participate.

@bgriffin: I already use Evernote. Great app for shopping lists, especially for someone like me who can't remember the three items I need to buy at the grocery store (I actually forgot to buy shaving cream, dental floss, and Sudafed on my lunch break today... I guess I should have entered them in Evernote, but I forgot!). I especially like the ability to use voice recognition in Evernote to enter the info. Never thought about using it for mystery shopping. Thanks for the idea.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2014 04:56AM by barnabas1969.

barbnabas,
Just keep signing up with lots of MSCs. There are many, many that require a second person for their casual and fine dining shops. Some have reimbursements that do not cover 100% of the required items; many do. Newbies are definately not recommended for the fine dining shops that may require three hours of highly detailed narrative to be submitted before midnight on the night of the shop. For that reason you may want to avoid Coyle fine dining shops until you have done a few dozen other fine dining assignments for less persnickety MSCs.

There really are no short cuts to finding out what MSCs do what shops in your area. Large chain restaurants may have a different MSC in every region or large city area. Some just are not shopped. Others may be shopped once a quarter, at most. Fine dining is a niche in the MS world. Some love it to the point of addiction; others, myself included, couldn't care less.

Now, for fast casual ( Five Guys, etc) or casual dining (Chicken Wings, sit-down burger places, etc) you will find those thick on the ground once you have signed up with the MSCs most commonly discussed on the forums. So, you may want to take a quick look at the number of hits on any given MSC; the most discussed often have the most nationwide shops. Spend a few hours reading the most popular recent threds; dicard unsubstantiated rants; sign up with five MSCs per day; you're on your way.

@walesmaven:

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely spend more time looking at the most popular threads discussing MSC's. Not sure what is classified as "fine" dining in the mystery shopping world. When I say "casual", I'm talking about the standard fare like Chili's, Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday, Carrabba's, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc. The big chain restaurants are mostly what I call "casual".

Places like Five Guys, Hooters, and some of the other chicken wing chains don't really register as a "date night" location for me... but I'd be happy to get paid to eat at those places too.

Most, if not all, of the restaurants where I've eaten and considered them "fine dining" were locally owned... definitely not chains. I wouldn't think that locally owned restaurants would hire mystery shoppers... but I could be wrong.

What type of places are considered "fine dining" vs. "casual" in the mystery shopping world?

Okie dokie... I did my first shop today. It was for a grocery store chain that I have refused to shop at (as a consumer) for many years because their stores were always filthy and their employees were rude... in the past. Today, I was impressed! They actually provided better service than my favorite grocery store chain. At least, this was true at the particular store where I did my shop. The store was also very clean. I might try shopping there for my normal grocery shopping!

I know the feeling. I left my bank of 2 decades when shops showed me what the competition was doing right!

Prepare yourself for LOTS of surprises.

barnabas1969 Wrote:
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> OK! So, I just scheduled my first two shops.
>
> One is a grocery store mystery shop, and the other
> is a grocery store audit (not secret) for
> out-of-stock items. Both are for the same chain,
> but two different locations near my house.

So how did the grocery store audit go? I use a basball pitch counter for these to speed up the process. A click for the home team when an item is OOS and a click for the away team when I make a mistake.

I won't do OOS audits for my local stores, but I shop 4 different grocery chains within 15 minutes of my home. I'm tired of buying lunchmeat, though.

Good luck.

@Mcreader9: Surprisingly, I finished the audit in 1 hour, 2 minutes. I kept the numbers in my head. There was a section on the form for each department in the store. There were a couple of times when I got interrupted by a customer (asking me if I work there, etc)... so I quickly jotted down the number on paper so I wouldn't forget it, and then started from that number when I resumed counting.

I thought about getting one of those mechanical counters. I've never seen one for baseball, but I've seen others (back when I was a kid). I have no idea where to buy one like the ones I saw when I was a kid. I suppose the baseball counters would be available at the sporting goods stores like Sports Authority and Dick's.

Yep, got mine at Sports Authority on clearance I use it for movie/theater checks, too. I would NEVER be able to remember an ongoing count like that. Good for you.

You made good time. Would you do the OOS audit again? How did the grocery shop go? What are you planning to try next?

When I did my first one I was totally unprepared for the unfriendly looks I got from both the customer service associate and the store manager. I tried to maintain my perky but professional attitude, but I kind of felt like a pariah. Not so much of a pariah that I wouldn't do them again, though.

Locally owned restaurants are shopped! I define fine dining as $100+ a couple restaurants that have known chefs. I prefer to shop these. Fees are low. I do it for the experience.