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.
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.