Menu audit for$15? Why so much? Really hard?

I found a job this morning that pays $15 just to get photos of the menu board at a place. The place is not named. I looked up the address and it's a grocery store but it's the sort that may have a particular coffee shop in it. Apparently I won't know until I accept the job.

This is a no reimbursement shop. Just take pictures of everything on the menu board. I'm pretty suspicious about getting paid so much just to do that, so my guess it that it's going to be really hard to get the photos without alerting staff/management.

What do you think? Does this sound like a shop you've done? How was it? I'm a baby shopper so I'm nervous about everything LOL

I will know I'm a successful MS'er when I make enough to pay someone else to scrub my toilets.

Create an Account or Log In

Membership is free. Simply choose your username, type in your email address, and choose a password. You immediately get full access to the forum.

More About Audits

Getting perfectly clear photos with no glare and yes, not arousing suspicions can be a little tricky. A few years ago I had to take some menu board photos inside of a fast food restaurant. I got about four shots in until the manager told me to leave, and none of my photos turned out good. I am not trying to scare you, though, because there have been other shops recently where I had to get a few photos of the merchandising area, menu board, overall dining room, and my food where I was successful. Also back when I was doing that fast food restaurant I was using a digital camera, which is way more obvious than a cell phone. And cell phones now take really great pictures. I don't think $15 is too much, it sounds fair enough. If the location is close by that works even better. Maybe you could purchase a soda or cup of tea, or some other inexpensive item and sit at a table or stand somewhere nearby. Make it look like you are texting or reading email on your phone, and when the employees are not looking, snap your photos.

Not enough compensation. I did these awhile back for 50% more and probably wouldn't do them again. Mine were restaurants, though, so I had to concoct scenarios for wanting to photograph their menus. Take multiple photos of each part as anything out of focus at all cannot be used.

Now scheduling travel shops for the day after Christmas through mid-January.

I have done one menu audit and have been shy of doing another one. I felt really obvious taking pictures of the menu while drinking my cup of coffee. The waitress came over and asked if she could have the menu back and then the manager came over to my table to see if everything was OK. I left without getting all the needed pictures and called the scheduler immediately since I was pretty much asked to leave the restaurant. Did the report and got paid but the stress was not worth it to me.

I have always wondered about these. I am glad I read this thread. Won't be doing them.

The menu audits that I have seen require photographs of EVERY menu. Lunch, dinner, breakfast, senior citizen, dessert, drink, late night, etc. While there are people who claim to have easily asked for every menu to show people in the car, I find the likelihood of success to be too low for me to want to bother. I had a scheduler tell me to take the menus into the bathroom with me to photograph them. I am happy to leave all of the menu audits for others.

Years ago, I accepted assignments where I was supposed to go into places like Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, etc. and take photographs of every menu board without being detected,. I was naive. I got detected. I got thrown out (well, asked to leave). Those of you who can do this successfully are welcome to them. I have done a few fast food menu boards where I know the exact layout of the restaurant and know that I can sit down and take photographs without standing in front of the counter. Despite some success, I have stopped doing those also.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

Dang. The one I saw was for a drive thru and it only paid $4 here. Crappy. Although, are these non-reveal? I read over the shop on one on my end but didn't see anything about a non-reveal?

MegglesKat

Clinien - These are generally not revealed. You do not get a letter of authorization. The price surveys are generally from competitors. Think about it. Why would Restaurant A need to send a shopper in to find out what Restaurant A is charging? Maybe if it is franchised and prices are supposed to be standardized, but generally not. On the other hand, Restaurant B wants to know what Restaurant A is charging. They give you $4 and say, good luck, and make sure that every single price is legible in the photograph. Just to be sure that you really, really went to the right place, some will reimburse you $1 for the required POV. No thanks!

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

I did a few of these, mostly at food court locations. After being kicked out, I decided not to do these anymore. Not worth the stress for me.

These are on my 'no go' list as they top the list of assignments done and not paid for. Both companies said the pictures weren't clear enough, although my phone takes excellent pictures. IMHO, the MSC still gets the info and the shopper gets zero fee.

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the type of person who would keep a parrot." Mark Twain

@clinen11 wrote:

Dang. The one I saw was for a drive thru and it only paid $4 here. Crappy. Although, are these non-reveal? I read over the shop on one on my end but didn't see anything about a non-reveal?

I did one of those a couple of nights ago. It was also about $4. That was super easy. I just walked up to the drive through menus, stood between the cars there and snapped the pictures LOLOL I think standing right there inside the place trying to do it would be super challenging

I will know I'm a successful MS'er when I make enough to pay someone else to scrub my toilets.

How weird. Why don't they just hire a revealed auditor. Sometimes I can't figure out these directives. Nonsensical.

Shopping & Auditing Western Colorado, North Denver, the Central Rockies ~~~ and all stops leading to Aspen & Vail.

It is probably a competitor shop.

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.

I used to receive a lot of emails on those shops. I was never interested in them so I just deleted them. Guess they got tired because I have not received any invite lately. Taking photos of menus, store interiors, washrooms, etc. are on my 10-foot pole.

I tried the McDonalds drive thru where the APP only allowed you one photo of the menu board and with my old Samsung Galaxy Light with a 5 MP camera, it was not high enough resolution to read all of the prices with a perfectly framed and non-blurry photo. You *NEED* a good quality 8 MP or higher camera to do a drive thru sign in a single photo.

I'm not buying a new phone for under paid $4 menu photos. High end restaurant flash photos of the food look great with this phone and that is all I care about.

All my menu photo shops have paid $15 or more. I find them to be easy peasy. I use a pro cam. No real report.

$15 is not enough to get me out there to complete one of these. The pay should be at least $25 to make the trip, the report/photo upload and submission, and the stress of an unrevealed "audit" worth it (to me).

@Sybil2 wrote:

All my menu photo shops have paid $15 or more. I find them to be easy peasy. I use a pro cam. No real report.

What is a pro cam?

I will know I'm a successful MS'er when I make enough to pay someone else to scrub my toilets.

I have done a several different menu audit shops. Most have been relatively easy to complete. Some of the in-store ones I had to claim I was texting my hubs to ask what he wanted, or something like that. I did the $4 drive thru one the other day with no problems.

BUT... I did really mess up by accepting a package of drive thru menu board audits from a different company. I figured it would be similar to all the others... Just get clear pics and you're good... NOPE... Once I got home then I had to record the price for EVERY SINGLE item on the menu board. I should have looked at the full instructions as soon as I was assigned the shops... I would have dropped them. This package of 4 restaurants ended up taking 5+ hours easily. I hate when i make an oops like that!

@MrsJennyK wrote:

@Sybil2 wrote:

All my menu photo shops have paid $15 or more. I find them to be easy peasy. I use a pro cam. No real report.

What is a pro cam?

professional camera

Some of these I think could only be done if you work there.

Yeah they only pay $6 in my area not worth my time or effort.

Do it! I've done many a menu audit for the same cost. It's easy to do with cell phones. Just make it look like you are either engrossed in your cell phone. No one will think twice.

Some are worth it most are not. Business only open for lunch and that was the only menu that they had. No Breakfast menu no dinner menu. Lots of emails for me to go back and get those. Took a year to get paid for that job.

The $4 ones are super quick shops using the Presto App. As far as work they are easy, but the pay is crap you are right. What I do on these is if I am driving by one, I grab the job right then, do the job and upload. I just ask a question in the drive through lane, then pull out of it. Weird but pretty easy. Don't do on rainy days and max out your camera resolution to get several really clear ones. The goods are no scheduling, absolutely no questions and pay like 2 or 3 days later. The bad is the app has to generate a geo code that you are there, to proceed with the shop, which it does, bu then crashes on me a lot so I have to go to Chrome and do it in browser on phone or do the upload of the pics once I get home on PC.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2016 04:16PM by MavenMom.

For the full menu audits, I have gone in and said I work at this office building and we have lots of meetings. Would it be okay to get a few pics of their menus because we want to order lunch in a lot for large groups and want to have them available so we can make to go orders. Trust me they will say Here take the menu, keep it here's my business card, no problem.

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login

Menu audit for$15? Why so much? Really hard?

Create an Account or Log In

Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies

Mystery Shopper Magazine