Salutations,

I hope everyone is doing well. You guys have no idea what a mess I was in before I stumbled across this site. Now that I am starting to organize myself using the strategies shared on here. I am seeing improvement in my work.

Now I have a fancy spreadsheet with all the companies I work with my notes. Unfortunately, I started this worksheet after signing up with a bunch of companies, There was a company that offered shops for a membership warehouse store in SoCal. The store was like Sam's Club. Now I have a membership for that store, but can't locate the MSC.

Anyone able to direct me? I beg of you I know I have an account with them, but never did a shop. They use Prophet system.

Muchas Gracias

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2015 05:46PM by Customer_Service_Police.

Hit me with an inbox message.

I have done that shop but can not name the MSC. When I registered with the MSC, the Independent Contractor Agreement I signed had a confidentiality clause. Posting the name on the forum or sending you a PM would violate that agreement.

Just a quick clarification: the client hasn't been named (the Customer Service Police Officer named the client as a warehouse club store like Sam's Club, but not (presumably) actually Sam's Club). You may not want to share the info, and that's your right, but I think you'd be clear as far as your ICA goes in giving the name of an MSC that hires for shops the OP may be interested in.

If anyone still thinks this violates the ICA or maybe the spirit of the ICA, then I'd be interested to hear the reasoning if you feel like sharing.

Oh, I assumed the client was actually Sam's because the shops I did in California were with Sam's . The MSC I worked for is probably not the one he is asking for. Since you have clarified that he does not want the MSC shopping Sam's and I don't know an MSC in CA shopping a similar client, there's nothing to disclose so it ceases to be a problem for me.

I was thinking the OP was asking about a warehouse shop discussed the other day, but that one does not require membership, so I don't know which one he is talking about. One around here is a membership but you can certainly cruise in on a guest pass to get the job done.

To say they are offering shops inside a warehouse club is meaningless without more information. It is possible to stack a shop for a vendor of one product at the location, another shop with a different MSC for the cell phone offering, a third shop for the customer service/sign up at the club itself that could all be done in one visit if they had the same date range. I managed to double shop the same location for different things for two different MSC's once before.

@Flash wrote:

One around here is a membership but you can certainly cruise in on a guest pass to get the job done.

I thought about this, but I don't want to go with a friend. Now that I have a membership, I figured I can add if its along the way somewhere.

Still have not found this company. Thank you to those who offered assistance.

ACE had a large number of shops inside a membership warehouse for a certain vendor but lost the contract a while back. A Sassie company had them for a short time afterwards but I don't remember which one. I haven't noticed the shops in a couple of months.

A San Diego-based MSC has shops for several of the displays inside a warehouse. I'm not sure if their client is the warehouse or the vendors so I won't name them.

ACE did not require a membership. They suggested a guest pass or saying you had to pick up from the pharmacy. The San Diego MSC requires a membership.

Now that I think if it, I believe Goodwin also shops one of the independant vendors and it seems another Prophet company does too.

Hope this helps.

Possibly MSI?

Interactions Marketing does the demo shops inside a warehouse store in my area. Trendsource does the flower vendors and other departments inside the same chain. I've never been inside a Sam's Club but the warehouse club I'm referring to requires annual membership and it's pretty large I don't know how it compares to Sam's Club so hope this helps.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish. . . well you get the idea.



Never lose emails again by using Gmail's forwarding and archiving feature to always have copies of your mystery shopping emails.

I do this by having a unique Gmail email for my mystery shopping. That Gmail account is set that up to forward all my mystery shopping emails to my main email address while archiving, or saving every email that comes to that Gmail account. My main email address is the inbox that I check, save, delete on a regular basis. If I ever lose an email, I can access the my mystery shopper Gmail account and look at all the archived, or saved emails.

It takes a few minutes to set up the Gmail account and then it operates in the background. The peace of mind is well worth it because I have a copy of every email ever sent to that account. The cost is the delay time it takes for forwarding. But that is minimal, just seconds in most cases. It also requires me to identify myself with my shopper email or shopper ID when using my main email account when contacting schedulers.

Good luck

It might be Service Sleuth

@vlade5394 wrote:

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish. . . well you get the idea.

Thanks for the advice vlade.

I have scoured my email, but unfortunately without the company name I'm probably going to backtrack all those companies.

What I've learned from this experience and would share with new shoppers is take detailed notes for ALL the companies you sign up for. A great deal of companies will not be in your area or assignments may not be interesting to you at the time. As we all know Life changes. Now I keep a log with all the companies I apply for.

Some ICAs are stricter than others. Some forbid you from discussing anything to do with their company including the name, the client's name, the guidelines and/or report.

@Sybil2 wrote:

Some ICAs are stricter than others. Some forbid you from discussing anything to do with their company including the name, the client's name, the guidelines and/or report.

It is not my intention to turn a fellow community members into criminals. I would argue most of these companies encourage this kind networking. Streamlining the process for experienced shoppers. As the Great Tom Brady once said "This isn't ISIS...."

@Customer_Service_Police

On my spreadsheet I have the name of the company, the clients ( stores ), my acct log in info, when they pay, and if they don't have any shops in my state I highlight that and put in the date ie: no shops as of 7/15 and update that as I go along. I have so many companies that I registered for that it's hard to remember which companies work with which stores, and as new shops (stores) pop up I update my spreadsheet. It helps to know if I have a toy store I'm shopping for in the mall, I can go to the spreadsheet and see which MSCs have the pretzel shops, or the workout clothes shops or the sweet snack shops etc, so I can go to that MSC and see if there are any shops open around the same dates etc. I'm also pretty new so I'm sure after a few months we will have it down and can recall which MSC is associated with which stores baring no changes in contracts which is inevitable I think. Plus it is hard when so many of them have similar names all starting with Customer and Shopper's, then there is Realty Based, Realty Check!

On some of the systems that is easier to search ( sassie) I sometimes search the whole country to see what type of stores that MSC contracts with and if it is store that is in my area I made a note to see if that local branch will be shopped in my area in the future.

Love Vlade's tip, but too late now, to go and change so many profiles with new email address. At this point I think it is probably easier for me to change my personal email to something else, I have less friends that email me than the emails from all the MSCs.

Another benefit of the spreadsheet with all the companies you apply (or not) is that it will become a time saver. Maybe one or three years from now you will encounter a company that is new to you, or so you think. The reality is that you did encounter it some time before and applied to it or choose not to for a reason. My spreadsheet of companies lists every company that I have come in contact with and notes about it. Those notes include If I applied or not and why. Several times I have researched a "new" company by first going to my list and finding a note about it. Saved me a lot of time. You can do the same.