Christmas time Mystery shopping, is it any different?

Hi,

This will be my first christmas season as a mystery shopper. I'm wondering if it is any different than otherwise? Are the number of shops available any different? Are shoppers taking more shops? Is the pay better? Anything I missed?

Thanks

Happily shopping Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut

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In past years many shoppers have quit shopping around Thanksgiving to get their homes and families ready for the holidays. This generally included a fair amount of entertaining and gift shopping. With the economy where it is right now, many of my long time shopper friends are doing minimal entertaining, minimal gift buying and planning on working through the season to make ends meet. Rather they are going the route of cash and checks that can be used to pay bills or buy in the after Christmas sales. Even gift cards are being avoided because of retailer specificity in their use.

In the past there have been somewhat fewer shops and more merchandising around the holidays, but this year the merchandising does not seem to have picked up for the holidays. I have done $5 shops with a $50 bonus during Christmas week in past years, but I doubt that will be happening this year. Normally substantial bonuses are needed to get me near the stores around Christmas because of the lines and the crowds that turn a quick shop into a lengthy ordeal. I don't anticipate that being a problem this year as I expect stores to remain fairly quiet and I also anticipate that fewer shoppers will stop for the holidays.

This will be my 5th Christmas season mystery shopping. I do notice a few extra shops popping up such as the Hickory Farms kiosk at mall shops during the holidays. I don't notice a decline in availability of shops for gas stations, restaurants,retail and grocery. Some shoppers do scale back because of being busy w/the holidays. I know that I do. Of course, remember malls get busy during the season so some locations can be hectic for the shoppers. (With the economy the way it is.........might not hold true this year) In the past, I have avoided any shops at malls the week before Christmas because of how crowded they get.

I went back to shopping a lot just as the semester ended last year a couple of weeks before Christmas. We needed the money, and it fit my weird teaching schedule well, since I could schedule my time. I signed up with a lot of new to me companies then, and cleaned up doing a bunch of shops that others flaked on. This year its not looking as promising for that, but we can hope! :-)

I am sticking with ones that pay, or reimbursments for restaurants I would go to if paying on my own, though. No GC's for me.

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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton

hi will i want to no waht to do now?

Yes, you must learn to spell correctly.

You took the words right out of my mouth. It took me a moment or two to find the spell check for this forum, but if I can find it rennie you can too! Don't give up.

You have to know what word you want before you can spell-check...

I don't know if it's because of Christmas, but I'm seeing a lot of offers from MSP's that I've never seen in my area. Could it be that a larger volume of store are shopped before Christmas?

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Christmas time Mystery shopping, is it any different?

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