@TechSavvy wrote:
Another way to peek at alias info is to write the number on one of your fingers where it is hidden between your fingers. Fiddle with a fingernail and peek.
I like that one, Tech. On the ring finger, middle finger side of the left hand would work best for me because those two fingers are the ones most infrequently separated.
All of these things are simply a matter of thinking through how you could get something to work. So, for example, I always carry a small spiral notebook, so for me it is a natural to have a mostly used one on me. Fumble in my purse when asked for my driver's license (which the cashier will ask for to verify and copy my information) and 'unable to find my license, but here is my information' to present the notebook.
I used to do a particular casual dining for one at lunchtime that had a lot of observations and menu board pricings. I was required to spend more time in the restaurant than it would take a normal person to eat, so took along a textbook and a regular spiral notebook with all of my questions printed out on a separate sheet. It probably looked like I was doing classwork as I noted all my prices and observations, glancing up in 'middle distance' as if in thought before recording the next batch of prices in the notebook, flipping through the last few pages of the chapter as if looking for an answer and glancing up 'in thought' again before writing down the next batch of information. Take a bite, sip my soda and back to work like a 'diligent student'.
Mystery shopping is play acting. I am not Suzy Smith looking for a retirement home for my 90 year old mother who needs help with daily living tasks because she now needs more help than I can give her. Nor am I Abigail Adams who wants to borrow $40k to renovate her kitchen and guest bath. Nor was the milk that I supposedly purchased here sour. But I can put myself in the mindset that it really happened. I hate to say how many times I have left a furniture store or other shop thinking that the item I had just inquired about might indeed work in my real life when frankly it would not.