Pictures Required

So, I am fairly new to shopping and brand new to the forum. I recently did a restaurant shop that required pictures of the food, the bread display, the pastry display, the coffee area, soft drink area, and condiment area.

How does one get said pictures and remain anonymous? It took me an hour to discreetly take the pictures so as to not "out" myself.

Wasn't worth the small fee and reimbursement. But its a convenient location.

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You will probably find more shops that require you to remain unrevealed but also require you to do things that would make it quite obvious that you are a shopper. In my opinion, I just do them without worrying too much about being revealed. It's not my fault the MSC and client wrote such ridiculous guidelines. If someone comes up to me and asks if I'm a shopper (which has never once happened) then I'll still say no, but if someone looks at me taking pictures of everything and thinks, "That guy is probably a shopper," thats not my problem.

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Seriously, nobody cares that you're offended.

If you use a cell phone and turn off the flash, you will be just like eveyone else who is sending a friend a picture of everything they eat, or even consider eating. Just fon't try to do those with a camera or with a flash "on."

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

FYI: A customer on line in Chiptole was told "No pictures" by an employee when trying to snap a pic of the assembly line food arrangement. Not likely this was a mystery shopper, but there were other postings about up tight restaurants forbidding customer s from photographing their food. I believe it is more related to customer internet reviews as opposed to fear of ms..

Discreet cell phone pics: Once heard that I Phones have some type of way to discreetly take pics. I don't own one and have no specific info, but it was mentioned on this site months back.

Also ask your msc what their acceptable level of pic mixapels is. Some cheap cell phones only take 1.5 MP. Not sure if the acceptable msc pic requirement is 2MP and above????

Happy Easter to all.

Even turning off the sound and flash, it can look obvious because you're pointing the phone at the item.
Dear restaurant-The stores have video...look at the salsa bar, pastry area, etc on it...just let us send you the receipt or exterior pic.

Most smartphones made in the past few years have good cameras with zoom abilities.

I won't accept assignments with photos if they are picky about the photos, because they have to understand you're indoors with sub-optimal lighting, and sometimes can't get closer. (If you use zoom it usually lowers the size or quality of the photos.)

Because you won't use flash, many cameras will get a slightly blurred shot unless you are resting the camera against a stable surface.

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MSPA Gold Certified. Areas: Louisville KY, Lexington KY, and central KY.

Thanks for all the input. I agree that for pictures of the food itself it isn't too out of the ordinary to take pictures of it, but when they are having me take pictures of the soda dispensers and condiment racks. The first reply to me is the one that really resonates. If they choose such obvious tactics, then why should I bother to care? And if someone actually asks me, I can just deny being a mystery shopper.

Any shop that requires a photo inside, whether it's the menu on the board, the washroom, the food, etc.
I don't normally accept. There are exceptions of course, but as soon as I see the emails about the shop, I delete them.
If I don't enjoy doing them, why should I bother? And taking pictures inside the establishment is a big turn off for me. Believe
me, there are other shops available.

I have a tablet that fits perfectly in my shirt pocket with the camera just sticking out. I kick it into video mode and just walk around and record everything, then transfer the video to my computer and pull stills out of the video. No one is the wiser.

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Some times you just have to turn around, give a little smile, toss the match, set the bridge ablaze, and walk away.

Silver Certified on the Carolina Coast. You want fries with that?

I've gotten photo's with permission by asking the manager: scenario, my daughter is getting married, we're going to have it catered; I'd like to send her photo's of the food so that she can pick out the items from your menu. At this point, we aren't sure which company we will be working with.

..........Oh, I'm sorry to be a bother, but being the 'mom", I got stuck with this job.

Always works because they felt sorry for me.

If the MSC have ridiculous expectations I do not really worry about employees seeing me taking piks. I do the best I can - but really for $7.00 do you expect me to be 007??

Uuugggghhhh, I do not like pictures for secret shops. But I'll do them, depending on the pictures.

just wear your google glasses and just say snap while your
walking around and it will take all the photos you need.
People will just think your into technology.

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There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots
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When you try to please everybody, you end up pleasing nobody

jonchance Wrote:
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> I have a tablet that fits perfectly in my shirt
> pocket with the camera just sticking out. I kick
> it into video mode and just walk around and record
> everything, then transfer the video to my computer
> and pull stills out of the video. No one is the
> wiser.

I haven't had shirt pockets that wide since calculater and pocket protector days, man I'm old.

I have one i have to take pictures of price changes and theres usually about 10 to 2 a time. i go to this shop once a month to do this, so far no ones spotted or said anything and you do get good in the end at taking pics unnoticed

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