Should Mystery Shoppers Unionize?

"again the question is what needs to be done to firm up wages at the bottom end so MS can become a more reliable and equitable source of income."

I don't want that to happen. Why would I? If wages get "firmed up" on the bottom end, there will be more mystery shoppers, albeit not very good ones. It's the commitment to excellence, its taking responsibility for my work, and its the fact that I can take or leave any particular job that makes me a go-to shopper. (I assume I am, considering the amount of phone calls and emails I get).

I don't need any union firming up wages on the bottom end. I can just not take a job that doesn't pay enough. Sooner or later its going to go up. If it doesn't, someone else must have benefited in some way from it. And I'm ok with that.

Mystery shopping is not for the faint of heart, and that is one of the reasons I love it. Let's not allow union nannies to steal our fun.

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right again, billbryanincarthage. my dad dies three years ago. he s hopped and he also got retirement checks (he was a retired policeman). dad got $74,000/year from retirement, still got social security, got some disability too. dad got me into shopping, and dad said that he could afford to shop for less because of all the other money he got paid. dad didn't mind $5 sonic shops because dad was living on the coast in south carolina and said he could afford to be a shopper. all of dad's friends his age were shoppers too.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2015 12:03AM by MDavisnowell.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2015 12:03AM by MDavisnowell.

What if all shoppers in a certain area, say 50 mile radius refused to do any shops
for less than 25 dollars. Could the msc accuse shoppers aka contractors of price fixing?

I've successfully talked other shoppers in the past into not taking shops for less and since
we were the only ones doing them it boosted the price the msc had to pay us to do the shops.

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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

Yes, you could do that if you had a lock on everyone doing a particular job. And yes, it would be price fixing.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

I think price fixing sounds like a great idea!

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I do not think you can make a generalization about how or why people shop using their age or employment status. I work almost full time at another job. I earn enough money in my other job and I am within retirement age. I, like every single shopper regardless of age or employment status, have my personal reasons for mystery shopping and it does not include doing shops for $5 an hour in my case. I for one set a value on my time and it is a lot more than minimum wage so I will not accept lower paying shops unless I am testing it out for some reason. To assume that only seniors or employed people take those low paying jobs is not a good assumption. Likewise to assume that those who take the low paying jobs are seniors is also not a valid assumption. I would think many, many out of work younger (than senior) people take lower paying jobs because they need the money and in some cases do not have the background to find a better paying job at this time or at the location they live in or because they have other things that get in the way of a full time regular job. Really for every person the reason might be different no matter their age.
Unionization....you would lose your independence as mentioned and from what I have read on this forum the majority of shoppers value that independence highly.

I've said it a dozen times here: people shop for different reasons. What works for you doesn't work for other people.

The way to get the prices up is to reduce the number of available shoppers. Period. This is Economics 101 in action. The market will correct itself. If people find they are wasting time taking cheap shops, they'll go get a job at McDonalds instead. If enough of them find other jobs, there will be fewer shoppers and prices will go up. when prices go up, more people will be attracted to mystery shopping and prices will go down again.

It's not rocket science, just the law of supply and demand.

Time to build a bigger bridge.

"50% of those earn more than $50,000/year in non-shopper income."

Where did the CEO of MarketForce say that was non-shopper income? The profiles we fill out just ask for either our personal or household income, not the sources.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

@Yohan wrote:

The problem is low wages (at least as first offered on many MS jobs) combined with shoppers (oftentimes newbies) willing to perform the work for well below minimum wage. ?

Why not do what YOU can? Start your own MSC? Contact the CEO of some MSC to talk about this situation?
Forward the emails with low pay to the executives of the MSC to explain what you need to perform the shop and help educate them? Start your own forum to educate shoppers as to the low pay situation?

Taking action is the sign of real success.

I'm doing what I can and am having my own success.

.
Mike T
Looking for shops in Western Canada

"Life is good because the alternative is forever "

No one knows exactly how many shoppers are "elderly" (how old is that, anyway?). But what we do know is that anyone can refuse to accept a gig that doesn't pay enough for them. When I first started I did a bunch of low-paying shops just to get my feet wet and establish credibility with MSCs. Over time I've learned how much time I really need to do a given shop (travel, report + actual shop) and have stopped signing up for shops that don't meet my minimum. I don't begrudge anyone accepting less, whether they're 25 or 80. I'm happy to wait around until the MSC pays enough bonus to make it worth my while. Usually works out, sometimes not. Your mileage may vary.....

For the record, "elderly" is anyone twenty years years older than me

I didn't realize there WERE people twenty years older than you.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Elderly is when you read the obits. Not for fun but to see if you know anyone. And then you start to notice that many of them are your age. When they are all younger than you are then you are in the catagory of wise. Some of us can add a three letter suffix to the word wise that starts with an a even before we are elderly.

Elderly is 75 or older. I decided.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

Bloogers, thank you for your input. Please refer to complete forum rules below. Welcome to the forum.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

Welcome, bloogers.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2015 04:05PM by AustinMom.

@LisaSTL wrote:

For the record, "elderly" is anyone twenty years years older than me

Watch it you young whippersnapper!

.
Have PV-500 & willing to travel.
"Answers are easy. It's asking the right questions which is hard." (The Fourth Doctor, The Face of Evil, 1977)

"Somedays you're the pigeon, somedays you're the statue.” J. Andrew Taylor

"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him." Galileo Galilei

You've been gone a few days. I was beginning to think you were snowed/iced in somewhere.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2015 11:06PM by MDavisnowell.

Mary, I've been following your ice problem up north. We escaped the ice although it's rained and been cold - but fortunately not cold enough to freeze on the days it rained. I'm thinking of all of you in Dallas. And the forum members on the east coast. Everyone be safe.

I finished up my month on Friday. Roads are bad here today so not many people are getting around. The whole week looks to be strange with thunderstorms on Tuesday followed by more snow and/or ice. Luckily there's nothing I can't put off until everything stabilizes. Look at it this way, it's March so nothing is going to last much longer

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2015 05:01PM by LisaSTL.

Be careful out on those icy roads. I wonder if the bonuses will climb with fewer people willing or able to get out on the roads. Be safe!

Lisa and Austin, glad to hear you're safe.

I don't know about the bonuses but that does make sense. I had three jobs remaining when the ice hit here. I tried to get to them one morning and had to turn back.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

Bloggers, just in case you missed it there is a connection with these posts to the topic at hand.
For the "elderly" part of the conversation that was in response to the claim that a good part of the
reason for low wages (and therefore the call for unionization by the op) was all the elderly people
who apparantly have nothing better to do and arewilling to work for little or no money.
I am sure there are some of them but by far not all.
As for snow and ice this is also a topic this time of year as it limits work for those affected. If you
have no interest in the actual persons who are on this forum and only want information than a
forum which is set up to have a back and forth and share is not the place for you.

Someone needs a hug.

Someone needs to smack Bloogers

Why is it every time I see that, I miss the "L?"

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