I have! I have seen shoppers with price checking lists similar to the ones I have printed. I have seen people snapping pictures of billboards like the billboards I have taken pictures of.

I did, today! Walking through the grocery store, I saw someone price checking. I almost stopped and said hello, but decided to let her get her work done.

Sliver certified in Edmonton, AB

Yup, standing in line to do a shipping shop for one MSP I watched a shopper doing the rice shipping shop for another MSP. Recognized the required box size, the nervousness of the shopper and the address being shipped to :)

Yes, once or twice, walking around full in hand with Trendsource's competitive pricing lists, in a manner they should not have had them open. Other than that, I have not.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

Nice Information

Thanks for sharing this information with us....

Thanks a lot

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spies are everywhere!!

Who is the spy, exactly? Just because someone witnesses something, it doesn't make them a spy.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

I think she meant "spies", not spies. :-)

I saw a woman doing an open theater assignment once. I was new to it but I recognized the paperwork. I asked to see it, and asked her all sorts of questions. I never volunteered that I did the same thing. She was very helpful.

Once I saw a woman walking through a grocery store with a printed email in her cart. I tried to catch up with her. All I saw on the paper was her name. I thought about calling her name and asking if she was a mystery shopper, but I just gave up trying to run to be even with her.

Merchandisers have from time to time told me they were mystery shoppers, also.

QuadOpteron Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have! I have seen shoppers with price checking
> lists similar to the ones I have printed. I have
> seen people snapping pictures of billboards like
> the billboards I have taken pictures of.


dear

not a problem for if customer do not know about your business than again good for you but you want to pleasant them his behavior and pleasant from bill board because both people could make the new relation


thanks

Thanks

Can we ban this spammer?

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

I have also, price checking.I think it's great to see others out in the field.

The problem is that if you can spot them, so can the associates they are covertly supposed to be observing. Many of the shops lend themselves to making shoppers obvious. I remember one shop where for more than 2 years I was to ask about the gift registry baby items for Jill. Unless Jill was an elephant, that was a heck of a lot longer than gestation for a first baby. You ask for help retrieving her gift registry items and suddenly the associates were all over you offering all manner of assistance--yet before you mentioned the name and city they would have been more interested in a passing snail.

Shoppers need to do everything in their power to keep from being discovered. I feel sure that with the particular requirements of a certain series of shops that the associates have spotted me as a likely shopper for a long time, though in all fairness they were doing everything expected/required splendidly and I tried to deal with a different associate every visit so that there was little opportunity for them to get a 'heads up'. Last month I had one who failed miserably and got a fair and honest report of the good, the bad and the ugly. I received notice a few days ago that I was identified and can no longer do shops for the client. With the low number of customers at the place and requirement of a transaction using your real name, it would not take a genius to figure out who the shopper was if you hadn't already due to the required question topic.

Yes, I was in McDonalds and the gentleman behind me clicked his stop watch. I just turned around and looked at him, and smiled. His hand was in his pocket. So I know about the fast food shops.

Yes, I saw another shopper sitting on a bench in the mall, filling out her form. I sat down beside her and told her I was a shopper too and that maybe she should be filling that out in her car. She was very young and seemed shocked that I noticed her.

Hmm...now I am wondering how inconspicuous I really am. I never even print paperwork (unless its a several page detailed audit, then of course) I make my own notes on my own paper and add grocery items to the top of it in bigger letters so it looks like a shopping list and I can make notes with no worries. If its not a grocery, I type notes into my Blackberry, just looks like texting. If Im at a bar and alone, I take a crossword in and write my times and notes into the grid of the puzzle.

Heck, isnt that why we really have to check bathrooms....so we have a private place to catch up our notes?

I have never run into another shopper, but I could nail one every time as a manager for Starbucks and several restaurants....too easy drill sargeant!

jjage that is very interesting how you conduct your shop. I had never thought about texting and using word puzzles as a cover. The cell phone is good, except when the shop requires that you not use your cell phone. All in all you gave very good suggestions of what a shopper could do. Kudos to you.

Sella, I think lots of us do this. Worth doing for sure, unless the MSC instructions forbid phone use. Even then, worth asking what they mean. I did a shop today that someone bonused me for. The instructions said no cell phones, but had very specific surreptitious photo requirements, and wanted it all it to look like it was not happening. I told the scheduler that I use my iPhone for that. She said, yes. Great. I referenced the instructions and she said that as long as I did not talk in it, it was fine with here.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

The issue of a cell phone on a job is multi-part. Many jobs we are to be approachable to, for example, test the 10 second rule or other associate responsiveness issues. Culturally none of us interrupt someone who is on the phone, so being on a cell phone you are denying the associate an opportunity to perform. Similarly, many shoppers think of their 15 minutes on site as 'time to kill' and so tend to make phone calls. The reasoning for time on site is to be attuned to what is happening at the site and making observations. If you are arguing with the kid or smooching the sweetie pie or trying to schedule the plumber you are not attuned to what is happening on the site.

Cell phone use in the process of making observations can be very productive but bad experiences with shoppers has them banned from many shops. Certainly if I am on site NOT to test customer service responsiveness but rather to observe merchandising, a cell phone (dialed to the home answering machine or not engaged at all) makes a whole lot of sense since it screams, "Leave me alone!". I definitely use my cell for clandestined photos by holding it far enough away and using my bifocals as if I was trying to punch in a phone number while I hit the camera button, then put it to my ear as if it was ringing and unanswered.

There are so many paper and pencil activities you can do in a solo restaurant shop. One of my favorites is to play with the order form in the middle of a catalog, making my notes as I 'flip through' the catalog while glancing away to make my observations. It is also a great way to make notes on that order sheet of things to make sure I observe before I go in for the shop. I also have a few text books around that I can make a note of 'homework questions' of observations and be thumbing the textbook to write the answers.