Demonstrators

While buying groceries this afternoon, I stopped to see what the demonstrator was offering, and subsequently struck up a conversation. She was professional in appearance and articulate. She's done this for 7 months. She told me the company she worked with and her rate of pay, which was $80 for 5 hours. She talked about the pros and cons, much like we do in this forum. She also mystery shops, but finds its pay is much less per hour.

I searched here for info on her company, but netted no results. I wonder if this pay is typical for demonstrators.

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It sounds a little higher than I normally hear. Usually that kind of stuff tends to be $10/hr with most of the time the demonstrator needing to provide their own card table, table cloth and if it is a cooking demonstration, their cooking appliance, cooler etc. I believe they are reimbursed for napkins, sample cups and plastic cutlery as well, of course, for the product they must purchase from the store to serve.

Mert, I have done many demonstrations over the last several years. The average pay is $10.00 per hour. I have made more at times depending upon the company. Right now I am working for 4 different companie's. You cannot depend on this because you never know when a demo will come in. It is not every week. Sometimes I have no work for several months. When they do show up, I take everyone that I can handle. The jobs are 4 to 6 hours and you have to stand the whole time. Right now my merchandising companie's have cut my hours so much that I am now doing whatever it takes to get by. Sometimes the $60.00 extra comes in pretty handy at the end of the month.

This demonstrator said she averages $15-$16/hour, and 5 times last year she made $30/hour for a 5 hour job. She generally can count on 3 shops per month, in a 10 mile radius. She has to provide a card table, white table cloth, on occasion an electric skillet. She fronts the cost of paper plates or cups, napkins, or "sample cups", and is reimbursed. She said her reports take less than 30 minutes to complete.

Except for the pay that sounds about standard. I assume you got the name of the company she was working for and will sign up with them through NARMS.

Mass Connections is the company, she indicated it was direct application. Not sure that demo is my cup of tea, but pay is good, and more than most mystery shops.

Yes if it weren't for my demo jobs I probably wouldn't have had the christmas I did have, I love Mass Connections and a couple others I have done assignments with but as stated sometimes there are long stretchs in between assignments. I took my first earnings and bought the frying pan, the table and whatever else I had read you might need so that way I am prepared when the assignments come up. Yes 5-6 hrs of standing and repeating yourself allllll day long gets very old but my regular part time job is playing waitress paying 3.00 a hr plus tips so you figure where I would rather be making the money..lol.

I too am a demostrator. But with the company that I work for I have a demo table or can use the stores tables. When I do a demo the company I work for gave me a debit card to use for my purchases like napkins,plates,forks whatever I need. It tells you in the report that you get for each demo. I made about $6000 last year with this company. I had 3 to 4 demos a week. Yes some of them was during the week. And since I am disabled I can sit when I do my demos. But during november and december I didn't have any so I did merchandising jobs. And now since January is here they are gearing up for the new year so far I have had 6 this month. Yes it is boring at times and you have to have appliances for some but I get paid for those appliances and so they pay for themselves.

msplantladi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes if it weren't for my demo jobs I probably
> wouldn't have had the christmas I did have, I love
> Mass Connections and a couple others I have done
> assignments with but as stated sometimes there are
> long stretchs in between assignments. I took my
> first earnings and bought the frying pan, the
> table and whatever else I had read you might need
> so that way I am prepared when the assignments
> come up. Yes 5-6 hrs of standing and repeating
> yourself allllll day long gets very old but my
> regular part time job is playing waitress paying
> 3.00 a hr plus tips so you figure where I would
> rather be making the money..lol.

That is legal? To be paid only $3 an hour???

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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

Waitstaff are expected to get the rest of their income from tips. There are plenty of jobs out there where the personnel are given a base income but are expected to make up the rest with commission.

Dee Shops....I think it should be illegal...being from calif and also being out of the waitress loop for many yrs while I ran my own landscaping biz I was shocked to say the least and it being a small place there are those days where no tips are made so yes I need my MS jobs.
dee

I was in restaurant work for over 25 years. If not for the tips the job certainly would not have been very lucrative. I also did demo's on the week-ends. It was not unusual to make $100 or better a day in tips.

My daughter has worked as a server at a restaurant for three years, high school and now in college. She only makes $2.25/hr., but with tips managed to make $18,000 last year - while going to school.

Bunnytails1, care to share your favorite demo companies, and in what part of the U.S.?

I worked as a waitress when I was 19-21, but I always got minimum wage plus tips.
I made $60-100 a night, not counting the hourly pay.

Effective 1/29/09 the demos conducted in Walmart have been taken over by 2 companies - Crossmark and Campaigners. Apply directly to either company via their web pages. The work is to be scheduled Thurs-Sun and pay is appx. $10/hr for 6.5 hrs(6 hour demo, half-hour lunch break). Ideally there should be a lead demonstrator as well as 3-4 others per store and a demo "station" should be available in-store for use by staff. The other national marketing firms lost their contracts for Walmart(except in the case of a specialty demo such as make-up, skin care, etc). These others (i.e. Prodemoworks, Mass Connections) are still conducting demos in Targets, local supermarket chains, specialty retailers, etc.

I am always amused because there is a MS company I do jobs for, mostly at WalMart, who is checking to see if the demo person is there. It looks to me as though we are checking on folks through Pierce. Interesting (and discouraging) thing is that although I have done about a dozen of these shops I have yet to find a single demo happening in the time frame assigned. Several shopper friends in other parts of the country are doing these as well and one was shocked a few months ago because she DID find a demo happening.

My first (and only) job for Certified was a check on a demo that was supposedly being done at a market 2 blocks from my house. When I got there, the manager told me that the demonstrator had been there the previous weekend. I was fully paid for my 10 minutes (including the driving time) of work.

Joan
Independent Scheduler

The company that I do demos for is NCiM. I have worked for them for over 2 years.
They pay you through direct deposit. And they pay from 60-70 dollars a demo. And sometimes if they need a demostrator out of the area they give you 10.00 for gas. And it dempends on what appliance you use they pay you so much for that. They are out of charlotte NC. I live in Arlington Washington. But they hold demos all over the united states. I have a good repor with my scheduler and from march to November I usually have 4 demos a week. Sometimes my scheduler thinks I can clone myself haha. But they are great to work for.

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Demonstrators

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