Grocery shops (need to vent!)

I will not mention the company, but I just had a shop returned for additional information. I am 53 years old and I have just learned from a MSC that "location and prices" are not valid reasons why I would return to a particular grocery store as a regular customer.

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They probably want like 5 to 8 sentences, location is convenient because prices are great because... Which particular employees stood out, how clean etc. The ones I have done demand like 8 pages of narratives pheww!! smiling smiley
That's true. For mystery shopping location & prices are not real concern. if you were shooping high end retail store would you complain about shirt costing $650? no. That may really be good price on that shirt for that type if store.
I should have written that I did not write my reason as location and prices - editor just told me NOT to do that.
OK, so location and prices were not the reason to return to a "Out-of-the-way: grocery store.grinning smiley How about, "the cashier asked "if I found everything I needed. The cashier offered help. The cashier provided a quick checkout. The cashier smiled and offered a generous concern. How about returning because the Associates were friendly and helpful. Described the meat. dairy, produce department or Associate. (friendly, helpful and smiling, uniform clean)

Most guidelines tell US not to put "location or price" for indicating 'YES, I would return." Even if you answered NO, you can't say "because the store was too far or the prices were to high". But you can write in your narrative---> The store was dirty. There were carts outside the store filled with trash. The produce had gnats flying around them because the were spoil", etc. But the NO answer would have been in your non compliance pictures.

Some grocery shops are about compliance and others are about stocked merchandise, or meeting the needs of the regular shopping customer.smiling smiley

Give the MSC what they want, so you can get paid.
@sun&fun wrote:

I will not mention the company, but I just had a shop returned for additional information. I am 53 years old and I have just learned from a MSC that "location and prices" are not valid reasons why I would return to a particular grocery store as a regular customer.


I feel your pain. In the real world as a regular customer my criteria are indeed price, location and quality. It feels super phoney to go on about the cheerfulness of the checker, the tidiness of the produce display and how sparkling clean the floors are, but you give them what they are paying for you to spew. And as you sip your wine thereafter, contemplating your navel, you decide whether that shop was worth the gag time

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2015 04:40PM by Flash.
I hate that question too. But they are asking about service generally as the employees have no control over price and location. So, I give an answer based on service.
What gets me is when you can't comment on selection. Let's say sales were down in a specific area, for example. If I were a store owner and a lot of the mystery shoppers said they didn't like my wares, I'd probably want to know about it. We mystery shoppers are often outside a business' usual demographic, but not always. If the customer service was good and we knew that the price of the items hadn't really changed, I might have questions like, "Is it the selection?" "Are our customers going to a new location?" "Has some local event or a scandal been disrupting our business?" Oh, well. The client asks for what it wants. If they have follow-up questions, there are still other ways to get that information. I hate when they stifle my narrative, though. Part of the fun of shopping is helping the companies improve, and there have been a few circumstances in which I have seen businesses change things after shops which it's possible I might have had small hand in...certain employees being promoted, slightly better disability accommodations after I mentioned I'd had trouble with something, and things like that. It's not hard evidence, but it does make you wonder. Occupational hazard of mystery shopping. You have to be okay never knowing certain details.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2015 10:51PM by OceanGirl.
Location and price are not a reason in MS land. Nor are personal preferences, the way fries are fried, burgers are cooked. Associates at grocery stores, car lots, - I prefer they leave me alone. Eye contact and a smile are sufficient. Let me seek them out if need be. In real life, I flag down an errant server, rather than wait and measure lap times. Matters not what I prefer, if I'm on the MS clock.

sun&fun, don't know what clarification was requested. I would hope that it was in the guidelines or merely semantics, and not just on the editor's wish list.
@Mert wrote:

Location and price are not a reason in MS land. Nor are personal preferences, the way fries are fried, burgers are cooked.

Except when they are. Some clients actually DO want to know about the shoppers' preferences and whether or not they liked the selection of wares being offered. Unusual to come across this, though the ones that do are actually some of my favorite clients. I liked a couple of them quite a bit even before I began MSing them.
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