On the yellow stations, I received notice this week that due to too many complaints from stations in my area for being too critical--they are really pathetic in the Atlanta metro area--I was being removed from doing those shops. I have been doing the shops for the past four years with few complaints and I average about 200-250 of these shops every year.
Another auditor who does the same stations that I do in the odd quarters (you normally can't do the same location two quarters in a row) has been giving these stations free passes, probably to make the shops easier to debrief (the program requires two photos of each basic area of the station (overall, store, counter, restroom, dispensers, etc.).
On the Red/Blue stations that the OP referred to, those audits are easy to do because you only have two interactions with station personnel: one to present the intro letter and one to get them to sign the audit form and ask them about the phone number and hours of operation. There are 10 required photos assuming all elements are present at the station (often you can get by with about seven) plus photos for each discrepancy. I usually have about 25 photos with these stations but I don't have to worry about receipts or subjective questions like there are on the Yellow stations. This client is the oldest client that Maritz has and one of the most prolific with three different types of shops available (audit, mystery shop and debrand). The only drawback is that the mystery shop and audit shops are mutually exclusive--you can only do one or the other and if you are one program you have to wait until the next year to switch programs.
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One buzzard to another while circling high overhead (paraphrased), "Patience hell! I want to shop somewhere."