I gotta say I am liking this board for the tips and pointers I get here.....Today I had a shop at a grocery store that required seven interactions with seven different employees and not only names but descriptions of employees, too. It seemed like too much but I remember a tip someone gave here awhile back about taking a phony grocery list.....this sure made it a lot easier. I also took my cell phone and used its stopwatch function and when I made a few notes on my phony shopping list, I acted like I was on the phone talking to someone. Whoever it was that posted this advice awhile back, THANKS!!!!! I'm in my mid 40's, my memory is not the rapid fire thing it was 20 years ago lol.....

Wait till you get to my age, about 20 years from now.....


Actually I think the shop instructions suggest folding the cheat sheet in quarters and writing a grocery list on the back, if you did the "B" store.

I just bring a mini notebook that I have written a list of departments ( so you don't forget one) and then look like I am deep in thought, studying and crossing items off my grocery list. Nobody ever notices at all if you act like a normal shopper (and actually do some shopping of course). I find the hardest part is trying to get the name from the nametag of someone behind the counter. They frequently wear them too low to be able to read them over the counter top (and I am not short either). I have actually stooped down to try and read them through the glass of the case but then of course they turn right at that moment and I miss it.
I have found the only sane way to do these is with a partner ( tall husbands are best) and one snags the name/ and or description while the other concentrates on the interaction. We get done pretty quickly this way.

I did a grocery store shop this week with about 24 departments you need to visit. OMG I hate them! I like the pay though. Sometimes it takes me 45 minutes and sometimes it takes me an hour and a half! The first several times I did them, I used a mini notebook. My handwritting sucks though, and flipping through all of those pages was so annoying when I got home. I use the jobslinger app on my phone now and keep the times and the notes in there.

jschilz Wrote:
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> I did a grocery store shop this week with about 24
> departments you need to visit. OMG I hate them! I
> like the pay though. Sometimes it takes me 45
> minutes and sometimes it takes me an hour and a
> half! The first several times I did them, I used a
> mini notebook. My handwritting sucks though, and
> flipping through all of those pages was so
> annoying when I got home. I use the jobslinger app
> on my phone now and keep the times and the notes
> in there.

Is this a price audit?

It's so easy to have a cheat sheet on the grocery shops!

itsasecret Wrote:
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> Wait till you get to my age, about 20 years from
> now.....
>

Really, Secret? You "post" so young! I would not think that!

Squire--If you continue to shop the same store you'll eventually know the employees'
names by heart. Then they get real easy! *Sigh* I miss my grocery stores.....

Now that I know I can handle seven interactions, I'm going to see if I can get more grocery shops.....any help in bringing down my food costs is appreciated.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2013 05:53PM by squireparty.

squireparty Wrote:
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> Now that I know I can handle seven interactions,
> I'm going to see if I can get more grocery
> shops.....any help in bringing down my food costs
> is appreciated.


Check the sale papers before you schedule your shops! I've rescheduled from a Wednesday to a Thursday and vice versa depending on what was coming off or going on sale.

25 departments? Really?

I do grocery shops with up to eight interactions, and that is plenty!

AustinMom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jschilz Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I did a grocery store shop this week with about
> 24
> > departments you need to visit. OMG I hate them!
> I
> > like the pay though. Sometimes it takes me 45
> > minutes and sometimes it takes me an hour and a
> > half! The first several times I did them, I used
> a
> > mini notebook. My handwritting sucks though,
> and
> > flipping through all of those pages was so
> > annoying when I got home. I use the jobslinger
> app
> > on my phone now and keep the times and the
> notes
> > in there.
>
> Is this a price audit?


It's not a price audit. I probably shouldn't call it a grocery store. I think of it as a grocery store because it's where I bought my groceries for years. It's more like a Target with a full grocery store. You shop apparel, shoes, three sections of the home department, meat, bakery, nutrition, deli, etc....The individual interactions are pretty short. You can ask where something is. You don't have to ask a product knowledge question. The hardest part is not being able to go in prepared. When I do my other grocery store shops, I know what I'm going to ask in meat, produce and the bakery. With these, you never know where you'll find the person. You have to give them time to greet you, so if you walk down an aisle and see an employee, you only have a few seconds to figure out your question. The one that I did this week was classic. I walk into the garden center and this kid is sweeping. So I give him time to greet me. He doesn't. I interrupt him and say, "Do you have cucumber plants?" He says, "You're looking at them." I now feel like an idiot, and because he didn't actually stop sweeping to answer me, I couldn't read his name tag. So now I've got to come up with something to get him vertical so I can read the dang thing. I ask him for a recommendation on container gardening. He said he has no idea and then goes back to sweeping. The rest of the visit didn't go much better.

Now I'm wondering who has these... and how much they pay after all those interactions.

RiverSong Wrote:
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> Now I'm wondering who has these... and how much
> they pay after all those interactions.


me too...have never heard/seen these....

The assignment for the super store pays $27. There are well over a dozen interactions. They can be killer assignments, especially if you don't catch an employee the first time thru a department, because then you have to return to the department again later. It's a lot of hiking and timing and noting names.

shopgal Wrote:
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> The assignment for the super store pays $27. There
> are well over a dozen interactions. They can be
> killer assignments, especially if you don't catch
> an employee the first time thru a department,
> because then you have to return to the department
> again later. It's a lot of hiking and timing and
> noting names.


I guess I didn't too bad with seven interactions for $20 then......good to know.

I've done the grocery shops w/several interactions. I like the 3 to 9 pm shops. My reason? If you go about 8 pm on Sunday, the pharmacy is closed. And often the meat and deli sections are closing down as well as customer service.

shopgal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The assignment for the super store pays $27. There
> are well over a dozen interactions. They can be
> killer assignments, especially if you don't catch
> an employee the first time thru a department,
> because then you have to return to the department
> again later. It's a lot of hiking and timing and
> noting names.


It's funny that you said they are killer if the people aren't there the first time. I actually go in there hoping not to find people. It's a lot faster for me if no one is in the department. If a person is there, I have to come up with a question and then deal with the person, take the notes and do the time stamp. If no one is there, I just walk through, do a time stamp and come back. When I started doing these, I walked through the whole store first and then did a second run for the people who weren't around the first time. I re-read the instructions the other day, and it said something like several minutes between visits to the department.

Now I break the store up into about three sections. I hit electronics, shoes, apparel cashier and apparel. If I missed someone, I go back. Then I do floral, gardening, the three home departments and the home department cashier. I'll putz around for a few minutes to make sure there's at least ten minutes and then I do a trip through anything that I missed. Which in these departments is usually everyone. Then I hit the food sections and customer service. Usually nutrition is the only one I have to visit twice. I hate the coffee counter. There are rarely customers buying coffee at 4:30 in the afternoon, which is when I'm there. So I have to come up with something stupid to ask the employee. I usually ask if there are nuts in one of the pastries. I skip the pharmacy since they say to only do the pharmacy if you have a reason to be there.

In the beginning, I loved these shops because I had far more time than money. Now, I'm running out of time since I've been doing a lot of editing. I do like buying gift cards though and saving them up for Christmas, so I usually will take the shops when they are open. Between these and a different store with similar stuff but on a smaller scale, I've got about $200 saved up for Christmas. The other nice part is that this place also sells gas, so if we hit a hard month, I can steal from the Christmas fund and buy gas.