Now that gas prices are back to being ridiculous, (not that they haven't been so since 2007!), is it changing the way you shop? I have said on so many threads that my SUV gets HORRIBLE gas mileage so everyone should know that by now!
I have changed my shopping by trying to rely more heavily on video shops and high bonused shops, both of which are not as frequently offered as they were at one time. I have talked with my schedulers at the video shopping companies, and they have all said that at the moment, they do not have shops in my area but are expecting to have some in the coming months. Otherwise, it seems to be a catch-22 for me. If I search for shops within 10-15 mile radius, they are not that great and not that many. If I expand it to 20-40 miles, there are 10x as many shops, but then I am back to the gas cost issue. Most of the shops pay in the $10-$15 range and there is distance between them so it may take 2-3 hours to do 3 shops (of course depending on the scenarios) and then another hour or more at home for reporting time. I realize the latter has nothing to do with gas prices, but just had to throw it in there. Net out the pay - cost/time, I am working for near peanuts. Almost as silly as doing a $6 gas shop that is 5 miles away.
Today sent me over the edge. I drove 35 miles round trip to do 1 pretty good paying shop and 1 sorta/kinda pretty good pay. I would not have done one without the other. I wrote detailed instructions....both needed business cards, 1 needed a picture of the outside of the store (I HATE THIS REQUIREMENT!!!!), blah, blah. Well, wouldn't you know, I took a picture of the outside of the wrong damn store!!!!! So, even though I spent almost 2 hours doing the shops, one cannot be submitted because of the picture requirement, which is totally my fault. I can do it tomorrow, but now have to pile up other shops for it to make sense to drive that far again.
Back to the original question......how are gas prices affecting you? What would you do differently if you were in my little situation today?

Most of the msc's I do routes for pay for the gas above and beyond the pay.. The one's that dont only get done if im on a route for an msc that pays for it.

Routing is very important more then ever now because of gas. You need to know the traffic pattern in the area you are going and make sure you are going against the flow of traffic so you are not wasting time and money sitting there going nowhere fast.

Before I go to a new area, I look at their traffic during rush periods to see where traffic builds, which directions, accident prone roads and I look for a possible alternate if the road I want to use becomes blocked.

techman01, between your fantastic bra shop offerings and getting MSC's to cover gas and pay well, you are officially dubbed the master of mystery shopping!
I agree with the traffic considerations. You would not believe how many MSC's are offering shops in downtown Charlotte while the DNC is here. Many roads are closed and parking is nothing short of a nightmare. Considering the thousands that work in downtown, the thousands that are visiting, and no new massive parking decks were built that I know of, why in the world would any shopper go through the extreme hassle to make $10? I guess those that work downtown and shop on the side would, but by the time they have finally gotten to work, I would imagine they are not wanting to fight the crowds for a cup of coffee.

They wanted me to go to Tampa during the RNC last week and I didn't care how much they were willing to pay(it was substantial), there was no way I was going into a security ringed, traffic nightmare.

Now I'm up in the Northeast running a route so traffic planning is very important for when I'm in NY and Boston. It is difference between going 2 miles in a half hour and 2 miles in 2 minutes.

The fee/gas ratio for $10-$15 shops that are further than 16 miles RT do not give any profit anymore. I used to do FF because getting paid and reimbursed was cheaper and than everything involved with preparing a meal for myself at home, i.e., expenses for car gas, fridge, product, stove, heating house while AC is on....

D

I was telling this story to a member of this forum recently, an msc actually suggested I take a bike and do the 32 miles roundtrip from where I would be by bike so they wouldn't have to pay the added costs for a vehicle.

I couldn't believe the msc suggested I use a bicycle!

(i refused and not shockingly, the shops are still not completed)

I am not taking gas prices into consideration for mystery shopping. Instead I tend to curtail driving for personal reasons even though my car average 26-28 mpg. I have to work anyway and tend to look at the same things I always have for a route, drive time/shop time/report time, in order to determine my hourly. In that way the fluctuations at the pump seem to have little impact. I also live in a part of town where gas prices tend to be a bit higher anyway. Driving very far to get gas cheaper is not really cost effective. If my route of shops takes me somewhere that's running 5 to 10 cents cheaper, now we're talking

walmart is offering 10 cents off a gallon if you pay with a walmart gift card. So just go inside buy the gift card and then buy the gas. Their gas is typically cheaper the others in the area as well.

Are they losing money on the gas? The only time I buy anything there is when it is a loss leader and they aren't making a profit off my purchase

Short answer: it hasn't. I drive 50 miles round trip every day anyway for my regular job, and can pick and choose areas just off of interstate exits to shop. I love it when "emergency" jobs come up, and I get to tell schedulers, "I can do it tomorrow...but it's 20 miles from my house...."

20 miles I would have been driving anyway.

As a stay at home mom, every job I take is, unfortunately, some place I otherwise would not usually have to go. I suppose that may be the reason for all of my annoying threads about gas prices. I hope more shops come open as the holidays approach. I loved the days when I could do 10 or more shops in one mall or shopping center.

Incorrigible, but very smart

amie was too quick on the trigger. My comment was for david.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2012 06:49PM by LisaSTL.

I traded in my car for a car that gets great gas mileage. It's my mystery shopping car.

I tried to convince my husband to getting a mystery shopping car, even said I would pay for it through my mysytery shopping income, but he did not want to go for it. Due to the size of my family, getting a smaller vehicle means we have to fold up like cheap lawn chairs to go anywhere. Been there, done that, hence the reason for the mommy bus I now drive.

I make the MSC responsible for distance travel, whether it's ten miles or a hundred and ten. If the MSC can't help, I just can't do the jobs. My husband really gets all boo-faced when I end up doing shops that cost us money (and I have, just as favors, before in the past).

Now, in saying that, I find that there's a reasonable way to cost-balance shopping. You don't have to charge an MSC $40 over and above what they're paying you to do the shop in order to break even. There are websites out there that'll tell you the gas cost for the distance you're traveling for your make/model car (http://beta.costtodrive.com/). I think people are typically surprised by how much gas $5 or $10 actually covers. =D

Definitely changes driving for me and has for awhile. I work for an unnamed MSC that lost their main client...they used to pay 20.00 and you did 2 shops in the same store, would give an extra few $$ for gas if I went into Bev. Hills (60 miles rt). They now got jobs, you can do four but it pays
10 per shop with no gas incentive, which is twice the work. I was told the reports are easier, but there not. I got the new scheduler who gave me 5 jobs
(limit is 4) and wrong dating, we got screwed up and confused. I did two shops and shopped wrong boutique in other two, which was his fault, he wants me to go back and redo, for the mileage I don't want too, this was his fault, and my gas and time. Waiting for email....aaawhhhh!

If something is the schedulers fault I will not go back and redo something unless they are willing to pay me again for my time. I dont cut any of the msc's any slack on that. I run an airtight schedule with no room for errors.

A new scheduler for a company I have shopped for a long time made a few errors with the regular routes I usually do, and she insisted she had them all so I went with what she said. Sure enough, she wanted me to go back, out of the 11 she missed, I did a few since I was hitting that same area/street again for someone else but the others I wouldn't go back too.

I still use MapQuest for routing and in includes a gas calculator based on my car's highway and city estimates. If anything it estimates a little high which is fine by me.

It's starting to take a toll on me.

For some reason, the company that I did the gas shops with don't have anything other than audits right now. I wonder if I looked too late.

I am passing up many small fee shops that are further out, because it's not worth it to me. I see that CRI shops have gone fast (even with the minimal fee), and I'm not understanding that. Not many bonused shops this time. I snagged a few, but nothing like July (my best month ever).

My car gets around 26 mpg, but I wish it was more.

i hate mapquest. I use google maps and that allows me to download the locations right to my gps which is powered by google maps

I actually like Google maps, but have had more mistakes with it than MapQuest. I also didn't use it as my primary program because the app on my phone does not have voice directions.

That said, my love affair with the MapQuest app ended this summer. Previously I could create maps easily on the computer and access them from the app. It would separate out the legs of my trip and provided amazingly accurate voice guided directions. Since their most recent upgrade, saved maps on the computer cannot be accessed, segments of the trip are all run together, I have to go into the menu to hit pause and the accuracy has gone downhill. It's weird how I create a route on the computer and then enter the exact same thing into the app and all of a sudden the app is taking me somewhere else.

They suck..

google maps has voice directions. I have an android phone so maybe it's exclusive to their phones.

I think it is. After the disastrous upgrade/downgrade, I searched. Rumor has it Apple is coming out with their own. In the past MapQuest has listened to complaints and made changes to the app. Since they are ignoring them now, it makes me wonder if they are launching a paid version with the missing features. I honestly was willing to pay for the old version and would be willing to buy it if the price isn't too outrageous. Reviews of the other paid GPS apps are piss poor at best.

that is why android rules all. It's free, and nothing beats that.

For years, I have driven economy cars, and my normal shop radius has been 20 miles out. I'm not a road warrior; only if the price is right, will I drive. For my normal radius though, I'm generally familiar with the routes. I use Mapquest, to plug in my stops, get a visual and organize the order of my stops. I've done that for years.

The past several months, I've been doing what delivery companies have been doing. For routes with multiple stops, I plan more right turns, with fewer left turns. Maybe I add a mile or two. But, especially when left turns don't have the benefit of a left turn light, they are gas suckers. Mapping software doesn't do a good job with this. The indication is that the location is on the right/left, but that can be inaccurate. The pinpoint of the location seems not to be the physical building, rather the mail box. Close to home, where the majority of my business is, my familiarity with the areas trumps Garmin, Mapquest, Google, Yahoo, TripTik, etc.

If you have a Walmart credit card, the gas is 15 cents off. You can get the gas, then later in the week go in and pay it off so you don't keep a balance on your card.

Gas is insane! I will not travel outside of my metropolitan area w/o gas pay UNLESS the shop has a base pay of at least $40.

Mapquest always takes me the long way around...my friend who I check with knows the shortest route to anything. Call me old fashioned, it works.

My DH wants me to use one of our motorcycles for longer-distance shops. If I were a better/more confident motorcyclist, I would, but I'm just not comfortable doing that. So I avoid long distance shops unless they pay very well or are heavily bonused. I like to stay within a 10 mile radius of home or work unless it's a good-paying shop or one that I really want to do.