Shopping Scout Price Checks

I saw a shop advertised where you go to a drug store or large retailer and check the prices of approx 400 items using an app. Pays $80. I emailed the scheduler and asked how long this usually takes and she said 4-6 hours. Has anyone else done something like this? And is that really an accurate estimate of time? Thanks.

Create an Account or Log In

Membership is free. Simply choose your username, type in your email address, and choose a password. You immediately get full access to the forum.

More About Price Check Audits

anyone???

Nope. I can tell you there are 360 minutes in six hours. That gives you 54 seconds per price.

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.

12 hours would be average.

Haven't done this one but have done some, the first time always takes longer than they say and then it gets quicker once you know where things are.

10 hours in store

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

OMG I did this shop and NO FREAKING WAY is it 4-6 hours. Especially if it is a store that has a price, a sales price and a loyalty card price! Because then you have to not only put in two prices but also the DATE the sale expires. Also the shop I took said 350 items. When I counted my "missions" (each section is a mission) it was 420! With 2 prices and a date for 60% of them. Took me FOREVER. 6 hours the first day and another 3 the next day. The original pay was $80, but the scheduler ended up giving me an additional $40. That made up for being crippled from standing for so long.

There are ways to do it faster, like knowing all the items in each mission so you can skip an item (or ten) to get the "miscellaneous" items at the end of each mission (which are likely right where you are at the moment). Also knowing the store layout is really handy and knowing if certain items are in two locations. Also, for whatever reason, my iPhone 7plus had a hard time recognizing my touch in this app, so that I often had to entire an item multiple times for it to register correctly. Do not go without a fully charged phone and a place to charge it in mind.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2017 11:00PM by kryswyn916.

What do you do, type the price into a spreadsheet?

@spicy1 wrote:

What do you do, type the price into a spreadsheet?

No, it's an app that shows you the product info and then you enter all the applicable prices (retail, sale, loyalty, etc.) I do one monthly with about 400 items and it takes me about 2 hours but it's in a Pet Store that I was familiar with prior to starting the shop so I can move through it quickly.

You can find each product and enter three prices in only 18 seconds per item? That is really fast.

I think it is the app because thinking back there were several times that I was very frustrated at my android not taking my touch on the second, third, or even tenth time and I have not had any issues since then!

Yeah, 2 hours for 400 items plus incidental prices and dates, in a 2k foot pet store. ok.

@LisaSTL wrote:

You can find each product and enter three prices in only 18 seconds per item? That is really fast.

All of the items are in groups so say first you do the cat food group. Then, within that group, they organize it generally by brand so you'll do 10 cans of different flavors of whiskas cat food. They are all the same price so you check they have that one in stock, enter the same price as the 5 before and move to the next one. Most of the sections are like this where you're just going down the line typing in the same price over and over after confirming the product.

I did try to do a cosmetics one at a big box that I ended up walking out of. It was supposed to be 600 products and none of the items were near each other, all of them had abbreviated names and none had enough info in the app that I could tell which product they were looking for (and no pictures as a hint). I found maybe 10 items in half an hour and said forget this. This one was grouped by brand which makes sense in a cosmetics section but it was nearly impossible in my opinion.

@spicy1 wrote:

Yeah, 2 hours for 400 items plus incidental prices and dates, in a 2k foot pet store. ok.

Really not sure what the point would be in my lying about it. There's no dates put in so I'm not sure what you're talking about there.

Must be a different audit with no dates.

I've done this twice. First time it took about 3.5 hours. A ton of the items were "Not Carried" because the size didn't match. They were looking for the 5 ounce product but they only sold the 6 ounce product. I did another one this weekend and it went even quicker. I did my least favorite "missions" first and the easier ones last. I was there 2.5 hours. Both times my phone died when I was almost done, so I had to drive around a bit to charge it up and then return.

I must be really slow and I guess my pet store was the exception because almost all items had a loyalty price, regular price, sale and date too, when they had the items. There were also many foods, especially dog food that had different prices depending on the flavor for the same size bag. And all the stuff for the other animals was scattered around, would hate to own one because I probably would give up trying to find their food and things. I feel really slack that it took me a lot longer than 4-6 hours my first time, wish I had thought to ask the scheduler for more.

I tried it - it was super hard to find the exact correct item for some of them. I spent like an hour there and didn't make a dent, and started to feel that I was looking totally suspect so I abandoned it. Totally unrealistic expectation IMO

As it happens, the shop I did was my local grocery store where I knew basically where everything was. If I ever do another one, assuming the location is not too far out of my way, I would definitely scout the location to familiarize myself with the layout. The associates all knew I was there for hours but didn't say anything. I suspect they knew I had shopped them for over a year (don't ask/don't tell) so was doing something similar.

If you contact the scheduler, they are willing to cut down the number of items based on how much time you have, but I would say you can do no more than 100 items per hour.

Sometimes there are whole sections that dont apply. I know this project un my area only requires one price and no pictures. And if you are standing in front of 8 of the items u enter a number swipe the screen and repeat so yes sometimes a few seconds.

Knowing the store, the app, and the products help.

There was a price checker in one of the stores I do merchandising in. That store requires a name bad, signing in on the vendor log and decent appearance including apparel and personal. The person did not have a name tag, did not sign in on the vendor log and was neither decently attired personally or in apparel. One of the store managers asked what she was doing and she said she represents P&G. Well, I represent P&G so how can she?
I confronted her and told her to tell the truth. She then said she works for Crossmark and then she said she represents "whoever is paying me" and looked all confused. I let the Manager know, in front of her, that she does not so they do not confuse her actions with mine. She had a scanner that was not a store scanner and she was not scanning P&G products. I don't appreciate having to buy decent clothes, iron them, fix my hair and makeup, sign in on the log and have some scrappy chick in my territory and in my stores waxing havoc on the rules I have to follow and LYING for the sake of whatever the company is that is hiring these covert "auditors". I will get them all kicked out of my stores!!!!! Don't be in my store when I'm there!

I dislike the sorting options in the MIssions app, and wish it gave me more flexibility.
But the BIG problem is the SEARCH function. On my android device, let's say I'm doing Cat Food.. The way they list items, they don't put the brand first, so sorting a-z doesn't work. I figured, OH! I can search for "Purina" and get all the Purina stuff done, since it's all together on this shelf! But, something is wrong with the app, and the search input bar. Go to Search, place finger on the search line, and begin typing, but the cursor only takes "P". So I re-click the line, and it only takes "u". One letter at a time. r i n a. Painfully slow. I find that the microphone will let me enter a whole word on the line! Yay!.. BUT if I want to do a new search, I cannot easily erase the previous search term. ARRRGH. I sent in a "bug" report to the app tech support, but NO REPLY. I will soldier on, but it makes this a lot harder.

.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2018 08:50PM by angela0611.

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login

Shopping Scout Price Checks

Create an Account or Log In

Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies

Mystery Shopper Magazine