I've been doing phone/web shops for a couple of weeks and decided that since I had to go to town (30 miles away) today, I'd do a couple of shops. I suffer from anxiety anyway and a having a doctors appointment made it really bad. Almost to the first shop (convenience store) and I felt like a teenage girl starting her first day at a new high school. Heart racing, shaking to the core, sweaty palms, and the whole nine yards.

I pull into the gas station and park at the gas pump. I notice my surroundings. Parking lot is clean. It's also completely empty of cars. I sneak a peak at the checklist just to be sure I didn't forget anything in the list that is running through my head.

I get out, walk around the back of my car like I"m' going to pump gas to check the pumps out. Check. That's done.

Walk through the still empty parking lot to get to the front door. It's clean. Check.

Walk through the doors to an empty store minus three, yes THREE!, employees standing near the register. I slowly walk past and head to the bathroom. I sneak a peek and confirm they're all in proper uniform. Check.

Bathroom is clean and spotless. Soap and paper towels are stocked. Floor is clean and mirror is shiny. Check. Heart is still racing and palms are sweaty...but I've got this!

Walk out and head to check the aisles. Notice the store is still empty. Same three employees are still doing the same thing. Walk through the drink area quickly. Take in as much as I can in my 15 second walk to the back corner for a drink. Drink area is clean. Check. Fully stocked? Check. Walk the full width of the back sneaking a peak at each aisle. Clean. Check. Fully stocked? Check. Grab a drink and head back to the front.

I notice the employees are still in the same spot as when I walked in. Where are they? Right in front of the food display I'm supposed to choose something from. One employee politely informs the other two that I'm there. Human interaction. Panic sets in! I can't remember *what* was allowed. Couldn't tell what the food even was. I panic and grab the first thing my hand touches.

I rushed through the rest of the shop (checking out) and almost run full-pace to my truck. Finally. Another non-employee human in site.

I get 1/4 of a mile from the store and realize I forgot to ask for a receipt. Here comes the anxiety again. I decide I'll just explain the situation and hope to at least be paid for the shop but not refunded for the food.
HAHAHA!

Getting ready for another shop, I decided to visit another store on my way to make a purchase that has to be returned at a later date. I was not doing a shop. I wasn't having to remember a 100-pt checklist. Just an every day shopper. I got a phone call in the parking lot that I had to take so I stood outside the door for a good 10 minutes while on the phone. When I got off the phone, I took a deep breath, and walked in like any other customer. I'm the only customer in the store. The only employee in sight bee-lined straight for me. I made small talk trying to think up a story on the spot to hide my real reason for purchasing the item. He asked me a dozen questions and I finally made an excuse and got out of there. Mission failed!


Heading to my 2nd shop, I had a panic attack on the freeway and had to pull over for a few minutes. Got myself together and headed on. I'm not very familiar with the little town I was heading to so I pulled it up on my GPS. It took me way out of the way to get back to the same feeder road the fast food restaurant was on. That's typical so I felt sure of myself.

Shop was a breeze. Didn't bat an eye and performed perfectly.

I was so sure of myself. I did my other errands, visited a friend, and went to the grocery store. Cleaned my car out at the carwash while waiting on dinner to be ready to pick up and came home. Got ready to do my reports and checked my purse. No FF receipt. Went to the truck. No FF receipt. Dumped my purse and the 3 weeks worth of mail I had piled in it when I cleaned out my purse. No FF receipt. Anxiety came again.

I went to do both reports, found I could reschedule the shops, and have done so. Today was a practice day. A "meet the teacher" so to speak. The real job begins Friday!

(Sorry for the long vent. Hubby just doesn't understand and I know you guys will. Please tell me it'll get less-anxiety filled on my part!)

I have no idea if it will get easier. I have been doing this since February, did $900 in April, came back from a cruise to a route shop week, made a mistake on my first grocery store shop every and didn't get paid for it. Decided I wasn't doing it as a job and more and then am ending up the month with almost $400.

I have decided not to do a bunch of types of shops and sticking to only fun ones.

you have my admiration for doing this with those challenges....

I also have anxiety which can be a problem when performing a new shop. From my experience it does get easier, usually after doing the same type of shops a couple of times. I would have done exactly what you did, reschedule and look it as a learning curve. Good luck to you!

Enjoyed your story a lot. Been there, done that!!!

Best of luck. And yes, it does get easier -- but I've been doing this 8 years now, and I still sweat bullets at every "new to me" shop.

The subject line made me chuckle. Repetition is key. Doing the same type of shop multiple times really helps cut back on the anxiety. The receipts get me every time! Now, I try to take a picture of it as soon as possible. I had two "unintentional dry runs" at the beginning of the year because I forgot to ask for one receipt and then threw out the other by mistake. It happens. Best of luck!

Yes, practice makes perfect. You may also want to try fewer shops per day until you get comfortable.

You did well! You made some rookie mistakes, but that's okay. I got the wrong receipt on a shop I did this week.

You can always go back to the store and have them pull a copy of the receipt for you.

I did a practice run at a bank this week with a platform banker. Sat through the whole thing and the light bulb went off when the banker told me they also had a branch down the street and told me the name of the street....yep that was the one I was supposed to be in at that moment...ended it abruptly, thanked her and scadadled (sp) down the street to the correct branch to do it all over with only about 20 minutes left until they closed. I found myself nearly mixing up details of the two locations though. I had to be very careful about what my brain was remembering for which one.

Why not do the practice run at a different location from the assigned location if time allows? I did those a few times while trying to cut my teeth. If you goofed up, no big deal.

I was very anxious during my first couple of shops...Now I can do most of them in my sleep while having a conversation with my husband! The only one recently that I broke a sweat on was a $6oo+ movie studio shop where I had to interact with and get pictures of a million employees.

I was so anxious I bailed on one of my first shops. I did NOT want to ask to speak to the manager. I wanted the $15 though, so back I went, made all the observations again and asked for the manager. The manager was perfectly lovely to talk to. It does get easier. But having said that I am about to upload the "correct" receipt to a shop I did on Wednesday! Seems I will never be mistake free!

Good luck to you.

I am retired and I can do more shops but IF IT IS NOT FUN i AIN'T GONNA DO IT!
Some shops pay nothing and want the shopper to spend a lot of time, answer a lot of questions and do not want to pay for the time and expense for gas money and tolls if it is far away.
As an INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR you can tell the MSC you will pass on the shop.
"Hero citations" promising you a future shop that will pay more is just an empty promise. more often than not.