Standing out as the shopper

Recently I was at a restaurant on a mystery shop. It is one of those places I always feel that I might be suspected as the shopper due to requirements. Nothing too heinous, but enough to make them wonder, I think, including the ordering requirements and the required food photo.

So, I'm sitting at my table thinking about this as I wait for my food. A table near me gets their drinks and one of the pair says loudly, "Oh! I have to get a photo of that!" The two proceed to very obviously take several photos. Then, their food comes and the customer thanks the server and says, "But I didn't catch your name."

At this point, even I started to think she was the shopper. I actually checked to make sure I was still assigned the shop. It sure was easier to relax about taking the photo after this.

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When I dine out with my wife, she will not let me touch the food until she gets a picture. Her social network pages must have a lot of food photos.

I have trained myself to ask for receipt, take food pix, AND ask fr names everywhere and anytime. The more that we all do this (when not shopping) the less able the staff are to ID a shopper, lol.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

I do the same thing walesmaven! After forgetting to ask for receipts on two different occasions and having to drive back to the location (or repeat the shop, NOT) to pick up the darn receipt.....I now ask everyone for a receipt. This morning the cashier wadded up the receipt in her hand while I was standing there waiting for her to hand it to me. I was working a shop so I had to laugh at her and say, "Um, I needed that for my expense report." The cashier had to print me out a new receipt. For a while I drove around with a big sticky note on my dash, "RECEIPTS". It didn't seem to help. But I am learning by repetitive behavior!

Shopping up and down the Colorado Rocky Mountain front range.

In addition to Wales' comment, I also try to frequent the businesses I shop when I am not working. That way I am hiding in plain sight.

I really am not sure that folks on this forum fully understand just how common it is for people to take pictures of their food these days. I'm one of those folks that is right on the edge between Millenial and Gen-X and tons of my friends take pictures of their food. Lots of people post them on Instagram or Facebook. Others use them for writing Yelp reviews. Some even have online nutritionists that they send pictures to.

It has gotten so common that a bunch of restaurants in big cities have actually started banning food photography! [www.google.com]

The *only* way you look conspicuous taking pictures of your food is if you try to act all covert and sly about it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2016 07:52PM by elynbeth.

I think that most of us do understand that. However, many of us were shopping and taking food pix before it was so common that it became unremarkable. Now if we could just get the rest of the world to ask for names and receipts, we would have total camouflage!

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

I agree that most of us realize photos are taken constantly. In my opinion it is often an overwhelming fear that anything might make us stand out from the average customer, whether it is asking for a receipt, taking a picture of our food or getting an associate's name. When asked to do things you are not accustomed to doing, it feels odd and out of place. Plus we know what the pictures are really for and sometimes mistakenly think employees can read our minds

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.

It isn't the photo on its own that stands out, IMHO. It is the combination of the photo with other requirements. Of course, this varies from shop to shop, but some have many red flags.

@LisaSTL wrote:

. Plus we know what the pictures are really for and sometimes mistakenly think employees can read our minds

What are you saying, Lisa? They can't read our minds? Where do you get such a weird idea from?

The number of times the phrase, "Hurry the @#$%& up and get this presentation over with you blowhard. I have places to go and people to evaluate," has run through my mind and been ignored.

LOL. On some shops, I am internally correcting them when they give me the wrong information. They certainly don't hear that.

And I am steaming while the bar server/garage valet pockets the cash instead of entering the transaction. And then smiles and wishes me a blessed day, as one who pocketed $25 did recently.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

Wow! Sounds like s/he just blessed themselves. At least you get to report it.

A couple of lifetimes ago, I did restaurant reviews for a small local paper. And by paper, I mean you had a publication in your hand that you read and got inkstains on your fingers.

Try taking photos back then. My husband would have to be the lookout and I had to take them on a camera that "OH THE HORRORS" you couldn't review the photos on until later. No one took photos of food back then but Japanese businessmen.

I never understood people that take photos of their food and post them on Facebook. I mean, why? Do I really care or need to know that you had steak for dinner? Are they trying to brag, or our their lives so meaningless that they've resorted to photographing their food? I don't get it.

There are many, many things that I don't understand about Facebook. Photographing food. Taking photos of salsa bars. Taking photographs of the outside of businesses. Changing your status every time you visit the bathroom.

But many of those oddities have made it much, much easier for me to take photos of all sorts of things and no one cares. Many clerks now encourage people to take photographs of items in their stores to show their SO or to be able to look up reviews later. A seismic change!

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

Yes, thank goodness it's common for people to take photos of their food and text. I find myself texting notes during a restaurant shop and I don't stand out.

When people look at me quizzically as I am photographing odd things like restrooms, gas stations and displays, I just look at them, smile, and say, "this is going to look great on my Facebook page."

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