You must keep score for the IRS, but I am an independent contractor and if the shops are not fun and mutually beneficial, I ain't gonna do it! The cost of doing BUSINESS vs. the enjoyment and challenge of assuming a different demographic and becoming believable is entertaining to me, but I will not do it for free.
Will Rogers got famous talking "plain talk" I did not get detected as a mystery shopper because I was not the first person to say "howdy". as "howdy" may not be appropriate.
I wonder how many people do shops adjusting to the demographic then get "scrambled brains" especially in the middle of the night when you are really tired trying to translate "plain folk" into "editor's grammar" when you are trying to quote the employee... I am off subject.
The answer to "how many shops?" is, None of your business how many shops I do. I leave the "desperate" shops for the "desperate" and the "cheating and lying" shops that are "easy" and promises you "hero citations" for the novices that do not know any better. My sympathy goes out to the seniors and college students that struggle at the end of the month.
If you would like a licence to use any verbal means of getting out of tricky situations or you just want to baffle and impress friends, relatives, clerks and servers without scraping the BS off your shoes it takes practice, "BS" and "P.H.D." none of which are college related.
Do I take Mystery shopping seriously..Yes, If I can not give value I ain't gonna do it.
Grammar may not like that statement but she is a nice old lady and she will get over it.
You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want ..Zig Zigler