Casual mystery shopping as a way to supplement income?

I'm totally new to mystery shopping (haven't actually done it yet) and am trying to figure out how I can fit it in in a way that makes sense. I work a regular 9-5 job and have a family so I'm trying to find ways I can do shops on my lunch hour. I work in a very built-up commercial area with lots of national chain restaurants, retailers, etc...so it would be easy to hit a place for lunch, a cup of coffee, or to try out a new cell phone. Is this possible or is mystery shopping usually more scheduled than that? Are there companies that are more geared toward fast food/fast casual restaurants and big box retailers (that's what's around me) than others?

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Yes there are. Feel free to sign up with the companies on the list in this forum, and you will likely find these shops available to you. Good luck!!

Try companies that use Mobi Audit to enter report results, such as IPSOS. You won't be able to do any for Marketforce because they want their reports submitted within 6 or 8 hours after the shop was completed, and I haven't ever tried entering a shop for them on my phone but I don't think it would be easy since they don't utlize any apps for that. You just wouldn't have enough time to do their shops and submit the results before going back to work. Trendsource is another company that you could try. They use the MSI Mobile app to enter shop results. You might be able to pick up a few shops on the way home from work, too...

And then there are weekends, but I hate shopping on weekends because the stores are so busy and it takes so long to do the shops it isn't really worth the money.

I sit at a desk all day so doing reports immediately afterward is no big deal. Thanks for the suggestions!

You have a scanner at work, I hope? And your boss won't mind you doing reports on office time? Some shop reports could take an hour or more to do, especially when you first start out. The companies I listed in my post have pretty brief and easy reports so it's a good starting point.

I wouldn't exactly be advertising and I have a lot of autonomy, so it would be fine.

Hopefully your office is very quiet with few distractions.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

You have a scanner at work, I hope?

You don't need a scanner if you have a modern smartphone. Most companies will accept photos of receipts. There are also scanning apps for phones. I've been shopping for 8 years and completed hundreds of shops. I haven't touched my scanner for a shop since 2010.

I have a modern smartphone, just not a steady hand. I will take photos of my receipts for shops I can report using my smartphone, but I love using my scanner to ensure that there will be no question of acceptance of my reports, and that way I also have an image of the receipt saved on my computer. Marketforce in particular doesn't like photos of the receipts, it seems.

Hi You might want to start off slow first before scheduling alot of shops. Try out one shop first to see if you would like doing it part time. There are phone call shops or web site shops that come up from time to time. It takes a while to become confident to do the mystery shops since the shops require different instructions. Sign on to jobslinger.com. They post various mystery shopping jobs from different mystery shopping companies, list the requirements for the MS and can sign up with the different mystery shopping companies.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Marketforce in particular doesn't like photos of the receipts, it seems.

Where do you get that idea from? I have never used a scanner for receipts. I use my smartphone or an actual camera depending on the situation/subject matter. I have always submitted photos of receipts to MF. I have never had a report sent back for clarification or declined.

@Badfish740 wrote:

I'm totally new to mystery shopping (haven't actually done it yet) and am trying to figure out how I can fit it in in a way that makes sense. I work a regular 9-5 job and have a family so I'm trying to find ways I can do shops on my lunch hour. I work in a very built-up commercial area with lots of national chain restaurants, retailers, etc...so it would be easy to hit a place for lunch, a cup of coffee, or to try out a new cell phone. Is this possible or is mystery shopping usually more scheduled than that? Are there companies that are more geared toward fast food/fast casual restaurants and big box retailers (that's what's around me) than others?

I work a FT job - 10 hours a day, four days a week. I love my three-day weekends so I rarely will MS on weekends unless it happens to be end of month with ginormous bonus offers. I will MS real early in the am before work, during my lunch break and after work. I do not do FF shops at all and I cut back on the fine dining shops due to other priorities in my life.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Marketforce in particular doesn't like photos of the receipts, it seems.

So far, I haven't found a single MSC that doesn't like photos of receipts. When I started MSing in 2008, I used a scanner, but I very quickly realized that photos with my cell phone were much easier and faster. Service Sleuth used to require a pdf, so they were the only MSC I used my scanner with. But they now accept photographs of receipts. My scanner just sits unused.

As for Market Force, why do you believe they do not like photos of receipts? I've photographed all receipts I send them since 2008 and have never (knock on wood!) had one that was not accepted.

I thought I read a post about some shopper complaining about it awhile back. Maybe I am mistaken. I personally have always used my scanner.

If it was one shopper my guess would be they either used it as an excuse or just weren't good at photographing receipts. Back in the day I often had to take more than one shot. Now I can take a pic of a business card or receipt while driving off the lot.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

I use either my scanner or my camera for receipts. The other day my scanner did a horrible job on the receipt (maybe because of the colored background?), so I shot it with my camera, and it was much better. I find it about the same amount of time either way....

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

There is one huge advantage to photographing POV immediately, if somehow the receipt/bc gets lost or damaged you still have it.

I take my photos immediately and e-mail them to myself.

I used to always take photos of my receipts, but now that I bought a fancy-schmancy printer/scanner for MSing, I usually use it. For basic receipts and business cards, it doesn't really matter, but larger documents like bank records come out better (for me) when I use the scanner.

Shopper in California's Bay Area

I do most of my mystery shopping on my lunch break, then reports at night. Totally doable. Occasionally I'll take a longer break and get several shops done. I make a few hundred a month plus reimbursed meals, services, merchandise I needed anyway.

For suggestions on which companies to sign up with, I'll give Jacob's magazine a free plug here. You can sign up for it somewhere right on this site. One recent headline article covered most of the MSCs with shops that seem to fit right around where you work. (I don't see any reason to go to all the work of signing up with 200 companies if the top 5-10 cover what's available to you.)

I also second the suggestion that you take one shop and try it. You might hate it, you might love it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/2016 02:21AM by ceasesmith.

There are a lot of good reasons to expand your horizons beyond the top five or ten companies. Getting away from those is where you will more often see pay commensurate with work and stand a better chance of working as a partner rather than just being a number.

I would also add that if you have a steady income already, try to focus on taking shops that offset expenses, rather than ones that generate income from fees. This is generalizing a bit but my average income for MSing over the years has been right around $14 per hour for the time worked, while my reimbursements are consistently over $25 per hour on average. For those who shop strictly for income, reimbursement shops are not as appealing, so they are easier to get assigned as well.

The key is locating true lifestyle shops where you are evaluating things that you would do in your everyday life anyway (Oil changes, drycleaning, grocery shopping, going to movies, etc.). Offsetting $500 of expenses each month is a lot less work that generating $500 of income in my experience.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

I would also add that if you have a steady income already, try to focus on taking shops that offset expenses, rather than ones that generate income from fees. This is generalizing a bit but my average income for MSing over the years has been right around $14 per hour for the time worked, while my reimbursements are consistently over $25 per hour on average. For those who shop strictly for income, reimbursement shops are not as appealing, so they are easier to get assigned as well.

The key is locating true lifestyle shops where you are evaluating things that you would do in your everyday life anyway (Oil changes, drycleaning, grocery shopping, going to movies, etc.). Offsetting $500 of expenses each month is a lot less work that generating $500 of income in my experience.

And don't forget, that $500 is AFTER TAX DOLLARS -- many of us have to earn $750 to net $500. So getting $500 reimbursed is MUCH BETTER than earning $500 in taxable income.

Such clever and thoughtful posts!

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Casual mystery shopping as a way to supplement income?

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