I've seen people talk about these shops that are hard to fill and that shoppers can get high bonuses to do.

A few questions I have are:

How common are these? I'm guessing not very.

How hard are they to do? For example, do you have to travel to some random town of 500 people in rural Montana (while you yourself live in Kansas)?

How safe are they? (See above question.) For example, will there be a owner guy with a shotgun pointed at you if it's a gas station shop?

How high can the bonuses get for them?

Why do they exist?

In terms of the last question, I was wondering why the client and/or mystery shopping company would even offer the shop and pay a large bonus for it versus just axing it from existence?

@shoptastic wrote:

How common are these? I'm guessing not very.

Depends on where you live. Dallas, TX not so much. Grand Island, NE probably quite a few.

@shoptastic wrote:

How hard are they to do? For example, do you have to travel to some random town of 500 people in rural Montana (while you yourself live in Kansas)?

Many times not very. Sometimes yes. I used to get paid a time or two a month to drive an hour each way for a $65 drive in shop. Not great money but it was super easy and I passed through the place that often anyway. One time I got paid $75 each to do 32 gas stations 500 miles away.

@shoptastic wrote:

How safe are they? (See above question.) For example, will there be a owner guy with a shotgun pointed at you if it's a gas station shop?

No more or less safe than any other shop. There are safe and unsafe neighborhoods everywhere.

@shoptastic wrote:

How high can the bonuses get for them?

I was once offered $300 to do a gas station shop. It was an 8 hour drive each way so I turned it down.

@shoptastic wrote:

Why do they exist?

In terms of the last question, I was wondering why the client and/or mystery shopping company would even offer the shop and pay a large bonus for it versus just axing it from existence?

You obviously have no idea how this business works. Mystery shop companies can't say "oh we decided not to shop that location because it's hard to fill." Clients want all of their locations shopped. It does them no good to have some shopped. They couldn't care less how hard the MSC has to work to get someone to do them. MSCs make sure they get enough in their contract to pay for those expensive locations by making it up on the easy to schedule ones. They exist because they have to. And good MSCs don't mind paying it because they've already factored it in.

I dunno what I think about the term "unicorn" which would give the impression that they are rare. They are actually not, it's just that they are either in your possible driving/traveling area or they are not. I drive 2-4 hours regularly to do highly bonused shops. There is a respectable shopper pool in the metro area close to me, judging by the way local shops fly off the boards. But they don't want to spend all day driving to the sticks. Me, I got nothing better to do and it beats sitting in traffic for that 7.50 cell phone shop. Most of them are gas stations, and a significant portion of the shoppers don't want to do gas stations, according to one scheduler I talk to regularly. Won't even try them.
Most of the locals I meet are nice as pie. I'm not afraid of them at all. I always make sure I get permission... i.e. give them the chance to say no, so that they don't feel pushed around. I don't just slam the letter down on the counter and move on.

Ditto to what CoffeeQueen said. Many of my best bonuses are on shops that are much closer to metro areas with lots of shoppers. I even drive around cities on occasion to get to my first shop. I personally hate driving in big cities, even though I have lived in them. I'd much rather put on the cruise control and not worry about traffic. Better mileage and less wear too. As far as safety goes, rural areas are usually the safest places to shop and the people are nicer too. Just make sure you have a reliable vehicle. You don't want to break down 50 miles from nowhere.

It could depend on the season too. A place in Northern Michigan will be hard to fill in January. You might have to pay a lot to get someone up there then but in July, there would be lots of people already going there to vacation, so it could be picked up on a route shop.

With regards to the "safety" part of your question- I've been to some seriously podunk rural locations and have never had an owner treat me badly. Thing is- you're not the first person to shop these places and you won't be the last. They know why you're there. Just don't act all high and mighty or like you're trying to bust them and they'll be your friend.
It infuriates me how often the guy that did this before me was a complete ass to the stations. Be nice, assume everthing will be great when you introduce yourself, and don't worry.

That being said, I've been to plenty of places where I thought I was going to be robbed blind. Some seriously tough neighborhoods out there. Sometimes it's easy to tell based on the city/town. Other times, they kinda sneak up on you (I'm lookin' at you, Willamantic, CT!).

i was going to say that unicorns aren't rare because they arent real. but that would be wrong. unicorns r very popular right now. just ask starbucks baristas.

What does the OP consider a large bonus? This month I am doing 4 bank shops that are ususally $$50, but doing all for $80 each, plus Center City parking reimbursement. That is a 60% bonus and the shops are from 5 to 11 miles from my home.No safety issues.

$60 apartment shop with $40 bonus, 12 miles from home, but hard to fill. Very high rent neighborhood; no safety issues.

In my area, if I'm willing to drive an hour - or a bit more - high bonuses are available at the end of every month. I look at the little towns that are a bit out-of-the-way and make of day of skipping from little town to little town. A $300 profit in a day is pretty doable....

There are some unsafe places that never get a bonus. BUT there are also a lot of places that are safe, but, because local shoppers really do not know the neighborhoods of their area, many shopper perceive as unsafe, due to the shopper not fitting the majority demographic OR because some shoppers perceive all inner city neighborhoods as unsafe, period, I make a LOT of bonus money in the greater Metropolitan DC and Baltimore areas area because I really learned the neighborhoods in 19 years of selling residential real estate. And, in the 11 years since then I have kept up with changes in neighborhoods. So, now that a formerly gang-infested, open drug market, free fire zone has become the latest hot apartment market, I shop those new $3000 per month, one bedroom units with a view of the Washington Monument, and a new Whole Foods Market in the building, at a fee that is more than twice what others have refused. They must think that it has not changed; and I'm not about to tell them that. The same with doing mortgage inquiries at banks that some must think are "in da hood."

Still there is an open parking lot on the edge of MS-13 territory that I will not do; I'm no Pollyanna! But, it never has a bonus for anyone and it does get taken every month.

And, I am very leery of some rural areas where trigger happy brewers of Meth seem to be a problem. And open drug transactions at convenience and gas locations appear to be common.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2017 05:58PM by walesmaven.

Life's a risk. Only you can determine that cost.

it tends to get risky. sometimes the hood is not that bad but that other posh area you think is good appears bad. :/

LOL! Unicorns live in my living room. They and I must be rare...

I live in a small rural area. Some of you might find "us" to be scary, backwater, no-good, dirty, rotten scoundrels. Rascals!

Rapscallions! But why pick on onions.

Proportionally, we have our fair or merely inevitable share of nuts.

We also have a few who quietly are brilliant, innovative, making good things happen, and/or making the world better by the sheer dint of themselves.

Would you be able to determine who's who here by looking at us when we are at gas stations and without asking anyone who we are?

Would you charge more to check out our gas stations simply because this place is where and what it is?

P.S. This town is located at just the right distance for many people to stop and shop during routes. Route shoppers who travel through here should charge less for the privilege of using our conveniently located public facilities and earning a little money for eating and etc. here because we are usually at the right time for your personally needed pitstops. In three months of each year, you can exit your vehicle, enjoy a walk or easy hike, and have time for your shops and reports. (All shops here are easy for 99.9 percent of shoppers.) The rest of the time, you may choose to shop elsewhere-- in places that are likely to be accessed consistently and for which travel, aka hours spent at the sides of closed roads, will not require a disproportionate number of your available shopping hours.

Perhaps this information will guide someone to a meticulous time-distance-accessibility-pita study. How much can you risk your life and shopper reputation for a few far-flung shops in this often wintry region? If you have time and can afford to wait for bonuses and open roads, you can make huge bucks. If you have an RV, you might just love to shop here or at least be comfortable while parked on a closed road and miles from modern facilities...

What is your preference?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2017 11:52AM by Shop-et-al.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

What is your preference?

That gas station comment was SUPER ignorant and idiotic of me, Shop-et-al. I was sort of playing on some comments I had read from others here re: gas station shops and owners following people around, but I should have been more careful and LESS ignorant in my wording.

There are scary people of EVERY geographic location and background and it's not tied to anything like that, I know. Just dumb wording on my part and I apologize!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2017 12:16PM by shoptastic.

You're fine.