The "Olden Days" when we had to actually write a report and then mail it in
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I could call in some reports. Later I faxed them in. There was a magazine for mystery shoppers. If I remember correctly, it was called "Shop Talk". I got addresses of companies from it and made packets to send to them telling them about myself. I included a photocopy of a map I drew, showing my travel area. I think I had four mystery shop companies. One was Beyond Hello. One client was the grocery store. Through the years, it was the client of three companies. I wish it still used mystery shoppers.
For some reason this thread reminds me of an old story. In the 90's I worked at my local Sears in the electronics department. My mother owned a store that was located in the same mall and sometimes I would walk down and see her on lunch breaks. Apparently a lady she knew, that I did not know, was a mystery shopper for Sears and had just shopped me earlier that day. She wasn't aware of who I was until after her shop was done and realized that she knew my mother. She stopped by my mom's store and told her that she just shopped me, that I made 100, but made sure my mom couldn't tell me who she was. For some reason I always found that pretty hilarious. My mom and I have laughed about it a couple of times since I started mystery shopping.
There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind
At the moment only demons come to mind
When I was a teen, my mom worked for one MSC that had the Jack in the Box account. She would bring me on the shops, put me in charge of the stopwatch and notes, then give me the food as my 'payment' for typing up the reports. I guess that's where my dislike of FF and shops that don't pay a fee started...
Anyway; I honed my typing skills on those reports. I remember having to feed the carbon paper into the manual typewriter so we could keep a copy and then mail another in. Looking back I'm sure my mother was breaking a number of rules rules bringing me along and having me fill out the reports, but it was a blast when I was 12!
Many years after college I was thinking of ways to bring extra income in and googled 'mystery shopping' to see if it still existed. I found the V-site in that search and spent an entire weekend getting up to date on MSing.
Anyway; I honed my typing skills on those reports. I remember having to feed the carbon paper into the manual typewriter so we could keep a copy and then mail another in. Looking back I'm sure my mother was breaking a number of rules rules bringing me along and having me fill out the reports, but it was a blast when I was 12!
Many years after college I was thinking of ways to bring extra income in and googled 'mystery shopping' to see if it still existed. I found the V-site in that search and spent an entire weekend getting up to date on MSing.
SteveSoCal Wrote:
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> Anyway; I honed my typing skills on those reports.
> I remember having to feed the carbon paper into
> the manual typewriter so we could keep a copy and
> then mail another in. Looking back I'm sure my
> mother was breaking a number of rules rules
> bringing me along and having me fill out the
> reports, but it was a blast when I was 12!
If the shop rules/description don't say anything about "no kids" or specifically say your allowed guest has to be an adult, it may have been okay. If it wasn't, surely they would have invalidated one of her shops because of it (unless we are talking so long ago that they would not have had video to check).
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> Anyway; I honed my typing skills on those reports.
> I remember having to feed the carbon paper into
> the manual typewriter so we could keep a copy and
> then mail another in. Looking back I'm sure my
> mother was breaking a number of rules rules
> bringing me along and having me fill out the
> reports, but it was a blast when I was 12!
If the shop rules/description don't say anything about "no kids" or specifically say your allowed guest has to be an adult, it may have been okay. If it wasn't, surely they would have invalidated one of her shops because of it (unless we are talking so long ago that they would not have had video to check).
DrSquash Wrote:
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> If the shop rules/description don't say anything
> about "no kids" or specifically say your allowed
> guest has to be an adult, it may have been okay.
> If it wasn't, surely they would have invalidated
> one of her shops because of it (unless we are
> talking so long ago that they would not have had
> video to check).
I'm pretty sure was no video back then. The MSC was happy with the output from a 12 year old so they were not that discriminating.
I seem to recall the shops paying about $25 at the time and this was the 70's, so that was a pretty good fee. At the time I returned to shopping, JITB had their own internal shopping program (no wonder) where they hired you as an employee and paid around $12/hour so my understanding of their policies is based on that.
I should probably add that back when I was a scheduler, I had to bar my mother from taking shops because she didn't like to follow the rules of the MSC. My ethics clearly come from my father's side.
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> If the shop rules/description don't say anything
> about "no kids" or specifically say your allowed
> guest has to be an adult, it may have been okay.
> If it wasn't, surely they would have invalidated
> one of her shops because of it (unless we are
> talking so long ago that they would not have had
> video to check).
I'm pretty sure was no video back then. The MSC was happy with the output from a 12 year old so they were not that discriminating.
I seem to recall the shops paying about $25 at the time and this was the 70's, so that was a pretty good fee. At the time I returned to shopping, JITB had their own internal shopping program (no wonder) where they hired you as an employee and paid around $12/hour so my understanding of their policies is based on that.
I should probably add that back when I was a scheduler, I had to bar my mother from taking shops because she didn't like to follow the rules of the MSC. My ethics clearly come from my father's side.
I can't remember how I started with mystery shopping, but the Internet did exist when I started. I think it was during my couponing days and I read about it on some message board. Even though the Internet existed, I was still filling out reports with a pen and then faxing them in. I don't know how they ever managed to read my reports! My handwriting is horrible. I remember having to call BestMark on specific days of the month to get shops. I soooooo love online scheduling now!
SteveSoCal Wrote:
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> I seem to recall the shops paying about $25 at the
> time and this was the 70's, so that was a pretty
> good fee. At the time I returned to shopping,
> JITB had their own internal shopping program (no
> wonder) where they hired you as an employee and
> paid around $12/hour so my understanding of their
> policies is based on that.
>
Wish I'd been MS'ing back then! Can you imagine making $25 each back in the 70's for these shops?!!!
-------------------------------------------------------
> I seem to recall the shops paying about $25 at the
> time and this was the 70's, so that was a pretty
> good fee. At the time I returned to shopping,
> JITB had their own internal shopping program (no
> wonder) where they hired you as an employee and
> paid around $12/hour so my understanding of their
> policies is based on that.
>
Wish I'd been MS'ing back then! Can you imagine making $25 each back in the 70's for these shops?!!!
I did a little MS'ing in 2004. You could request shops online, but the reports were all handwritten and faxed. (Back then, I actually had a fax.) I started making money at my other business, and with a school-aged child, I just didn't have time to continue. When I looked at MS again last year, I was very happy to see that everything could now be done online. It doesn't seem as though the pay has increased much at all, though, since 2004.
So, am I fortunate or unfortunate to have never known what the pre-Internet era was like in mystery shopping?
My understanding also is that merchandising as it exists now with SPAR, Castforce, etc. having these little reset/revision type jobs to do didn't exist back then and store employees did all that. Is this correct or am I mistaken?
My understanding also is that merchandising as it exists now with SPAR, Castforce, etc. having these little reset/revision type jobs to do didn't exist back then and store employees did all that. Is this correct or am I mistaken?
AustinMom Wrote:
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> SteveSoCal Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I seem to recall the shops paying about $25 at
> the
> > time and this was the 70's, so that was a
> pretty
> > good fee. At the time I returned to shopping,
> > JITB had their own internal shopping program
> (no
> > wonder) where they hired you as an employee and
> > paid around $12/hour so my understanding of
> their
> > policies is based on that.
> >
>
> Wish I'd been MS'ing back then! Can you imagine
> making $25 each back in the 70's for these
> shops?!!!
Not only that but the "kid" seems to have done the bulk of the work. Wish I could find a kid like you Steve...Have my kid do the timings, type the report for me, eat the not so great burger, get a whole lot of entertainment value out of it and collect $25! Love it.
-------------------------------------------------------
> SteveSoCal Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I seem to recall the shops paying about $25 at
> the
> > time and this was the 70's, so that was a
> pretty
> > good fee. At the time I returned to shopping,
> > JITB had their own internal shopping program
> (no
> > wonder) where they hired you as an employee and
> > paid around $12/hour so my understanding of
> their
> > policies is based on that.
> >
>
> Wish I'd been MS'ing back then! Can you imagine
> making $25 each back in the 70's for these
> shops?!!!
Not only that but the "kid" seems to have done the bulk of the work. Wish I could find a kid like you Steve...Have my kid do the timings, type the report for me, eat the not so great burger, get a whole lot of entertainment value out of it and collect $25! Love it.
I did them when we could write and fax or at times call in our reports. The interesting thing to me is that the same grocery store chain is still being shopped but by a different MSC and it still pays the SAME. You would think they would have upped the comp after 20 yrs.
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