frank860, thanks for your concern. I'm on top of my expenses to do this and I understand the cost of doing business. As to going somewhere on an errand and picking up a shop on the way, that's not how I do it. I schedule my work and then I tuck my errands into my work route. The only personal driving I do that doesn't involve my work is to attend family events. Whenever I'm feeling well I do large numbers of shops. For example, I have done 108 so far this month for Maritz plus seven additional. Yesterday I took an off day; today I'll be back out there.
This is not real lucrative work, but it pays better than any part time job I could pick up in my area. I don't understand the continual stress that many shoppers have that this doesn't pay well enough. My question is, well enough for what? After all, this is not brain surgery. This work is simple and the entry level investment is almost zero. Most of us already have a car, a phone, and a computer so we're good to go. Yes, we'll wear out the car and the computer and we have to consider that. I do consider that. Since beginning to do this work, I've replaced a car and bought five computers (two of which are working great and another one will limp along).
My main argument to prove this pays well enough is that we have too many shoppers. Yes, the entry level investment is almost zero and that brings many new shoppers in, but regardless of the turnover we still have too many shoppers.
If shoppers can earn more money doing something else, nine times out of eight they will opt to do something else. More shoppers stay in the pool than are needed and that's why fees don't have to go up to fill jobs. If the Dixie Pig can hire all the counter help it wants and needs for $10.00 an hour why should it pay $15.00?
Those who are successful in this will figure out which shops they want to do and how to make that work. The answer is with the individual and not with the business overall. At every level, everyone is trying to do a better job to generate more profit at the end of the day. The shopper, at the bottom of the pile, is not exempt from needing to make this effort.
If I spend an hour on a ABC job and Joe spends thirty minutes on the same job producing the same quality work, Joe has done much better. I can whine about how much I make an hour on the job, but Joe makes twice as much because he's twice as good at the same job. ABC is indifferent whether they pay me or they pay Joe as long as they get the report they need. Why should they pay me twice as much because I'm only half as good?
If we want to do better and make more money we have to look to ourselves to make that happen. There will be no freebies from up the line to make up for our disorganization and incompetence. We are responsible individually for running our own businesses and supervising ourselves. We have to expect the same performance from ourselves that we would expect if we were appraising the quality of the work and cutting the pay check. If we accept mediocre performance from ourselves we will see a mediocre check. If the mediocre check is not what we want, we have to address the issue at home.
Most of my career background was in retail sporting goods management, high volume convenience store management, and sales. I found all those fields challenging and much more frustrating than this. I absolutely love the way this business is set up and consider this the best job overall I've ever had. I love being able to move from job to job and company to company at will. The flexibility is necessary at this point in life but it's really hard to find. I appreciate the opportunities here and I find the constant complaints about the state of the business to be unexpected and surprising.
Any time spent complaining about a situation rather than actually doing something to improve our own position inside the situation is a waste of time and energy.
I'm not driving an electric golf cart but I am driving a Toyota Camry which gets respectable mileage. The price of gas is not a factor for me as I do enough shops with reimbursed gas to cover my gas expense. Whether gas is $1.50 or $4.00 a gallon, I don't feel it as long as I get my gas reimbursed on shops. If gas is eating you alive, I suggest you consider adding some station shops each day to get the benefit of reimbursed gas along with some extra cash inflow.
I find it inefficient to do a lot of different types of shops in a day and that may be a reflection of my age. I prefer to do the same shops over and over on any given day and I certainly don't like to reinvent the wheel by doing a "new to me" shop in the middle of the day. I like to book my work well in advance so I know what's coming and I can organize it. I hardly ever pick up a last minute shop unless it's a real sweet deal. Most of my work is base pay shops and I do lots of it. You'll find other shoppers who won't touch base pay and do fewer shops and bring in just as much or more money per day.
I'm not saying this is perfect. What I'm saying is that anything that gives me flexibility and lets me bring in from $100 - $200 a day is okay for a part time job for the elderly or anyone else who can use that money. For those who feel underpaid at this, my question is: Why do you stay? If you find yourself underpaid here and more valuable elsewhere, you should make the choice of being more valued elsewhere.
Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2015 01:01AM by MDavisnowell.