For all you "oldies," I'm curious as to how mystery shopping has changed in the last 10-20 years. I recall someone saying that the fees keep getting lower. Were they that much higher back then?

And how do you do reports before the internet? How did you even find out about shops without the internet? Did you have to mail reports and have actual photos made?

Is mystery shopping better or worse now?

Just curious

I second this question. I'd love to hear about the old days, whether good or bad.

I did my first shop in 1995. I'm almost certain it was for Sinclair but don't have any records to rely on to be 100%. It was a grocery store. I found the company through my dial-up AOL internet access, but online forms were unheard of back then. A scheduler called me to offer the shop to me. The survey was mailed to me and when I finished the shop, I called it in to the editor. I think I also had to mail in my survey and receipt but don't hold me to that.

Most importantly, what did it pay?

I am not a full-time MS nor do I travel far. I have shopped for 15-20 years and am signed up with 40-50 companies. There are a lot more I still have to sign up with, and many don’t have shops in my area. I have noticed, like many other shoppers on this forum, that shops today have a lot more requirements for a lot less money. I don't recall purchase and return shops, and I see a lot of those shops now. There were never photo requirements, but that can be blamed on the ease of taking photos with our phones.

As with many other shoppers, my first company was MarketForce. They had a variety of shops and clients that I haven’t seen in many years. Yes, they had fast food, but they also had lots of restaurants with great reimbursements plus eye glass/vision exam shops. MF seems to mainly have fast food shops in my area, with an occasional retail, cell or grocery shop. Of course, I got a shopper appreciation certificate last month - 750 shops! So, they may be transitioning me out the door. I think the overall result is that companies want more for less, and there are shoppers willing to travel, shop and report for very little money. Supply and demand.

Many shops were on paper and mail them in. Fee was never less than $20. And you never had to chase a payment. And you had to photocopy your report in case the USPS lost it. Those were the days when photocopy machines were in every gas station.

I must have entered around the time when most Mystery Shopping transitioned to online reporting, since even in 2004 the companies I worked with were all online. Few required photos and the first ones I did with photos were covert gas stations. I saw dollar signs, and as a newbie, took a boatload of them, thinking, "Hey, this is great." I learned how to use my previously unused digital camera because of that. The camera broke on the 2nd or 3rd visit and I had to cancel, but the company graciously pushed them out to when the camera could get fixed. I can't recall the company name and had them listed as Kern shops because I thought Kern was a company. I think it was New Image Marketing with whom I still work. I found Volition and self-taught myself everything from reading, reading, reading. I did a lot of IKEA shops back then because they were the highest paying and were actually enjoyable with that company (not the current one). I drove far just to get a job with a new company. I bought fish food, not having a fish. I shopped for a company called G3 and actually got paid, unlike many shoppers who lost a bundle when they closed up without paying shoppers. I bought and returned a lot of sunglasses, went bowling and then found Market Force. I still work for Market Force, but I don't buy things I don't need any longer, don't do sunglasses anymore and rarely bowl. I've moved on to golf shops. I also did several casino shops right off the bat. I guess that broke me in real good. I had this clunky mini-tape recorder that I used in the casinos. I bet I could have been arrested for that, but innocense is bliss. Fees have decreased on some shops, like cell phone shops, but bonuses overall have increased greatly. Hey, back then, I didn't know what a bonus was for a long while. I'm still at it and hope to be for years to come.

The biggest difference I notice is that just about every shop now requires a camera, either for receipt uploads or site photos. Without a digital camera, a MSer would be lost.

I, like jonk, started in 1995 and my shops were with Sinclair and were for a well-known chain of grocery stores. They are now done by ICCDS and basically the same report. The pay is still the same which I find remarkable but apparently people are satisfied in getting $12 towards their groceries even though they have to have several interactions with several departments.

My first shop was in 1991. I found it in the Special Announcements section of the Want Ads in my newspaper. It was purchase and return for Dillards department stores. Purchase at one store, return at another. I had to have my own microrecorder and initial supply of tapes. There was no written report. I mailed in the tapes and after the MSC was done they mailed them back. I could do the stores repeatedly because they sent me to different departments.

They never offered anything but Dillards. Never saw another MSC in the Want Ads. I found my 2nd shop by luck - I was at a meeting and we needed some photocopies. One of the attendees said she was a mystery shopper for Kinko's and could do all our copying for free. So, I began doing Kinko's. That MSC also had the Postal Service (letters, not packages), and Starbucks (but I hate coffee and didn't want to spend $40 on a scale). I did my reports on a typewriter and mailed them in.

Can't remember how I found the 3rd MSC, but they had Braum's Ice Cream stores. The form was a PITA - a 4-part carbonset. They crammed so much stuff on the form the lines were too narrow for a typewriter. I had to do lots of tiny writing and press hard. Talk about hand cramp! And if I made an error I had to put whiteout on each of the 4 pages and because the carbon was gone, write the correction 4 times.

After I got a home computer I did a search for secret shopper, mystery shopper, etc. That opened a whole new world for me!

I started in 98 when I broke my foot one weekend and ended up scouring the internet just to read anything for entertainment. I knew about mystery shopping having worked at Arby's in high school/college (70s-80s) but didn't know how to start...anyway found an aol message board and read every last post. Signed up with a bunch of companies (for that time) right away and got a call within a couple of days for a Mexican restaurant from Jancyn. I believe it was reimbursement only. I also did a lot for Satisfaction Services right away. I am pretty sure those were handwritten out and mailed but fairly quickly shops went to being faxed in. Shopnchek (now Market Force) was one of my beginning companies although can't recall what I did for them and so was Service Intelligence.

Glad everything is online now.

Liz

I started in the late 90s. I remember when companies used to fax the shopper forms, and I would fax it back with the receipt. One company did everything via the mail and I would mail back the forms. The owners would usually schedule the shops by calling me, or I would get the shops automatically every month. The pay was high and I felt like I was truly valued as a shopper by the mystery shop companies.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

I started in 2005. Companies have stopped shopping but new ones have popped up. I lucked up and got Red Lobster twice and I used to do the Pappas before they were bought out by that big company. My mom keeps asking for those shops as she would be my guest and pig out.

I started in 2002. I filled out paper reports, phoned in reports and sometimes faxed reports. Pay has gone down

Does anyone still fax reports? I do not think that I could stand to listen to that sound. Reminds me of AOL and the 90's - haha.

I had to fax in an apartment shop.

I have been doing shops since 2009. All shops were done on the internet, so this "oldie" knows how to do shops.
I just did a car shop and received $65.00 for doing the shop. Yes, it was a challenge; however this is the highest amount I have been paid. The scheduler was extremely helpful and I was paid within a week.

It anyone does not like doing mystery shops then they should not do them. I write to my schedulers when there is a need. They always get thank you notes from me when they have truly helped me.

It is just like any business and if you do not want to do the quizzes that they ask us to do today, then just do not come into this industry. Good luck to you, what ever you do.

I started in the early 90's. I saw a want ad in the Little Nickel. It was for the New England Mystery shopping co. You first had to hand write an application, because they wanted to see if your handwriting was legible, I guess. I was mailed the form, shopped, and mailed it back in along with the original receipt. I kept going to one shop several times, and waited for them to get more. It was a souvenier type shop. I had small children and they sold beanie babies, so that was my main purchase option. I also got a couple of gifts, mugs, etc., and a Monopoly game. It was probably a $10 or $15 payment/reimbursement. Hmmmmmm, not much more 20 years later. I never tried to find other companies. I guess I thought they were "THE" mystery shopping co in the entire world.

I also started in the late 90s. Some of the MSCs still hadn't made the transition to online reporting. I remember having to handwrite some of my reports and fax them in. For one MSC I had to write my narratives on some Excel-based report and the instructions warned us not to press 'Enter' while typing or else our report will get submitted unfinished, lol. Submitting photos and receipts were not required. I think the lowest shopper fee I saw back then was $10.

I shopped a brewpub near my college when I was a sophomore in 2000. My friend's cousin worked for an MSC that had the brewpub as a client. We used to take turns shopping it. We emailed our reports to his cousin and snail mailed our receipts to her. I did that shop a few times. Then I didn't mystery shop again until I lost my finance job & rediscovered mystery shopping. Been shopping part-time since January 2013.

I started in 2007, at the tail end of the era in which Shop N Chek was still Shop N Chek and not Market Force. Back then, and up until maybe 2-3 years ago, SNC/MF wanted a scanned copy of the CPI for payment. Now, they have wised up and allow electronic submission of the CPI, which means technically I don't have to print it to paper if I don't really need to (but I usually do anyway as it's the only thing that has the location's address on it).

Still finding it hard to believe that I went 6 years before actually getting a single shop for a company using the Sassie platform. (It only took me about 4 years for Prophet.)

Actually super far back Shop n Check was mail in on paper form.

Started in 2004. I believe most shops were online at that point but not as reliable and not as user friendly as today. Some of the websites were pretty crude. I remember companies like Speedmark and Service Intelligence, plus ShopNChek. Shop fees were higher.

I was shopping beyond hello 6-7 yrs ago. The total reimbursement including the required coffee drink was $11.50 then, now it's still $11.50 but the drink cost was up, to over $4 now, and meter parking are 100% higher.

Phoebe70 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For all you "oldies," I'm curious as to how
> mystery shopping has changed in the last 10-20
> years. I recall someone saying that the fees keep
> getting lower. Were they that much higher back
> then?
>
> And how do you do reports before the internet?
> How did you even find out about shops without the
> internet? Did you have to mail reports and have
> actual photos made?
>
> Is mystery shopping better or worse now?
>
> Just curious
In the "old days" they call me a "consultant". The pay was much higher as I was investigating many different issues and offering a much more detailed report. I did both under cover and revealed visits. My job was not to "make heads roll" but rather to blow the dust out of people's brains. I worked for attorneys who looked for evidence in some cases. I worked for management who wanted a fresh objective look.

I was shopping iwth Shop 'N Chek back when they would call me wth potential assignments and I would mail in reports. A simpler time! You are making me nostalgic. It was mainly FF and gas stations.

I can't remember if it was 96 or 97, but the shop was faxed. Since I had a home office, this worked for me. There was a basic questionnaire, and the responses were numbers or narrative (not multiple choice). There were a few yes or no responses as well. I can't even remember the name of the company, but I am fairly sure I still shop for them periodically. Most of the companies that I have worked for are still plugging along. When I started, the assignments were few and far between. The pace has since picked up

I started in early 85 - 86, one of the gals that I worked with was working for a private detective agency; all they had was Burger King's. My friend lived an hour south of me so she had me make contact with the company.

This was long before access to the internet and before any soft ware was developed.

My weekly mission was to complete a drive thru and a walk in, weekly; I had six of them.

Once I spoke with the company they sent me via, postal, print outs of what had to be covered. I then filled those out and sent them back to the agency.

Pretty much the same criteria as now except there was no timing; how long in line, etc.

I remember doing restaurant shops for 40 dollars, 20 years ago, that now pay 25. I believe there was emailing of forms, but mailing in the results.

I also did quite a few post office visits at 10 dollars each. I believe those were mail in reports as well.

All payment was through the mail too. I remember my friend saying I got more checks than bills in the mail!

I worked for Maritz, briefly, in 2008-2009. I remember faxing the reports and then, snail mailing the hard copies and invoices to them. Quite honestly, back then (only 5-6 years ago), I had no idea what I was doing and I wonder if they were new to MS as well.

(heart)