rwb1965 Wrote:
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> It just really seems to me that someone has to be
> making the money. Companies spend milllions on
> market research each year and this is part of it.I
> personally will not do a shop for less than $15
> and certainly not do one for reimbersment unless
> it is something I need and I do not need a free
> lunch. Especially if I have to wait 6 weeks to get
> my money back.Can anyone tell me who is paying? I
> would love to make a little more than 2 bucks an
> hour then have to wait to get the money 4, 6 or
> even 12 weeks.
No doubt there is a lot of gross profit being made on our labor, but when you consider the cost to obtain that profit . . . . Right off the top of my head you need:server space, the software that manages the job postings and reports, editors, schedulers, client contact staff, sales staff, office space of some sort even if most of the operation is run from ICs homes, liability insurance (never mind what the ICA says, an MSC would be insane to send a shopper onto a location uninsured). It appears to me, and I am talking strictly on supposition, that Prophet may be a leasable operating platform to run an MSC but there is still a cost.
On top of the costs you need cash flow certainty to cover your first 3 or 4 months payroll since the clients will definitley lag their payments as long as possible after receiving the shops, and the first time you delay paying your shoppers you might as well hang it up.
I agree with you on the food - I haven't eaten fast food in probably 20 years and have no desire to start now. However the Dinosaur BBQ shops are great - good food, big reimbursements, 40 days or so to wait for pay isn't bad.
If more of us just drew a line in the sand as you amd I have done at a set price and simply not take shops under $xx.xx we might see some slight increases in pay, but there will always be people broke enough to need a free McD lunch in return for too much work and too much gas. It would seem that there are also shoppes who truly don't understand or don't have the personalities to take advantage of the fact that we are not employees and can negotiate payment rates. In some areas the MSCs have the upper hand because there are more shoppers than shops but in many others there are shops that can be bonused 300,400,500 percent due to location.
Anyway hang in there - there is more to life than a free donut and a report
Art