Another thought....for those who enjoy the reimbursement aspect and consider it an enhancement. I live in a high tax state and I am not in the lowest tax bracket so if I "earn" money to pay for restaurants etc without a report I am spending my after tax dollars on the meal, the tax and the tip. If I do the mystery shop not only do I "earn" the meal/hotel/oil change or whatever for no out of pocket expense except the time it takes to write the report but I am saving an additional approx 35% considering I am (or was...who knows where i will be with the new tax reform) in that combined bracket for state and fed taxes. This is an added benefit to me of reimbursement shops. If I move to Oregon with no state sales tax I might reconsider. A $100 meal to me is really worth more than that in savings when you figure in the saved income taxes when you do not report the meal as income but as reimbursements. I can go to the restaurants sans reports using my rewards program points I earn while shopping.

@bgriffin wrote:

Sitting around at the pool or the beach bores me to tears.

I think there may be some misconception about what is required on many resort shops.

There are hotels in/around National Parks that are shopped. I have been wine tasting, golfing, scuba diving, mountain hiking, skiing, snowboarding, lawn bowling, taken yoga classes, gone to major concerts, museums and even rented a wave-runner as part of shop. I rent a bike and ride the area on almost every hotel assignment that I do. Many resort shops leave the whole day wide open for activities.

Yes, there are some that require spa visit, bars and multiple restaurants, but I usually know what I am getting into when I take the assignment and I will schedule those with a guest who wants to be at the pool all day getting food & drink service.

I am in the same boat as Sandy where it's fortunate that my reimbursements are tax free. I could never match the wage of my main job with MSing, so I would just elect to work more at that job if I wanted money for vacations without shopping...which I sometimes do. These days, I have enough miles and hotel points from the resort shops that I can travel a few weeks each year for free without performing an assignment, though.

What Steve says makes perfect sense. I'd add that a lot of shoppers take assignments at fancy places which it might be difficult to justify visiting otherwise.

Example: A working couple with average incomes who need to fund their children's education. Even if they have a bunch of money in the bank, they might not be able to justify spending 400 dollars on a steak dinner.

Even assuming they had the option of earning extra money through overtime at work, it would still be difficult to spend that 400 dollars in 'real money' compared to being reimbursed 100 percent after writing a shopper's report.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2017 07:42AM by Catnap.

@Catnap wrote:

A working couple with average incomes who need to fund their children's education. Even if they have a bunch of money in the bank, they might not be able to justify spending 400 dollars on a steak dinner.

Even assuming they had the option of earning extra money through overtime at work, it would still be difficult to spend that 400 dollars in 'real money' compared to being reimbursed 100 percent after writing a shopper's report.

I am a real-world example of that scenario. I took a friend to a steak dinner last month for his birthday and the bill was $378...almost $400 with my fee (which went toward parking). Yes; I could have afforded to do that on my own, but there are other factors that make doing it as a shop more attractive:

1. My friend knows it's a shop, so he doesn't feel indebted to buy me a $400 dinner on my birthday. He took me out for burgers and beers on my last birthday.

2. I was able to write the report while at work for my main job, essentially adding more than $500 of post-tax income to my day (My job often has a lot of downtime that allows me to be on this forum or writing reports).

3. The fact that it's a shop actually helps me control the alcohol intake. One drink at the bar and a glass of wine at dinner is all that's allowed. On our own, we probably would have ordered more because the steaks were so good, and we would have suffered the next day at work. I have come to appreciate this limitation....

4. I am now free to work additional hours if I desire, and put that money toward something more practical.

I see both sides in this discussion. It's whatever works for you, as the saying goes. I've seen Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and a great country concert that my daughter-in-law actually cried over seeing. I'm not a country fan, but it really was fun. Don't remember the names but they were big ones. I love the massage shops. I've had my carpet cleaned as well. As golfing is quite an expensive sport, I also love doing the golf shops with reimbursement for 18 holes plus food and more.

I sure would love to find the house cleaning shop mentioned above. Lord knows I need it. I had surgery yesterday and have been on crutches for over a week now. Moving slowing and not shopping for a while, unless hubby accompanies me. Plenty of time to peruse Facebook and the forum.

A few that come to mind are bowling, movies, haircut, downtown parking normally $40+ with valet shop, financial and retirement planning advice, oil changes, museums, shoes, clothing, those individually wrapped chocolates, garage door opener, house cleaning, and dry cleaners.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2017 04:58PM by mom.for.hirehotmail.com.

I agree with Steve, and I wanted to add, I repay my good friend for having me over for Thanksgiving, by providing a wonderful lunch or dinner. I took her to Vegas and she loved it. This allows us to enjoy, catch up and being she is aware I'm doing a job, she appreciates it, and is a good choice to bring along. She also drives and tips.
I use MSing for my daughter when she visits or I visit....these are two of my benefits, and gives me pleasure to "pay back" if you will. Lifestyle improved, social responsibilities taken care of, and all for a report, works for me.
I have been to museums all over the world and don't need msing to do that, they are not expensive. I enjoy urban activities, and L.A. has enough to do and see. I know I'd never save my $$ and then spend 100.00+ for drinks and dinner. Been to the Hollywood bowl before and after shopping, my box was better before shopping.
Still, I'm able to do all the fun things without the stress of "saving up". To each his own, I'm with Steve on this one.
I've also met a couple good people (you know who you are), and enjoyed chatting about our industry, another perk. I want to say about resorts, your day is pretty much free, taking a shuttle or uber and exploring is an option, as is sitting around the pool with a Mai Tai, even on a job.....not a bad gig.....

My son is in town and I took him Ice Skating yesterday. It was a bear of a job to report but I did it for my son. Turned out he said he told me okay because he thought I wanted to go and I asked him because I thought he might enjoy it so on the drive over to the Rink he said he would probably only skate for 10 minutes and that was enough. But I had the whole shop to do which I would not have agreed to for 10 minutes of skating.
In the end we both had a good time and ended up skating for an hour or so. Fun! Lots of laughs. And the required on site food concession had fish sandwiches on the menu. Not your standard tuna sandwich or some fast food version. The concession had a sit down nice restaurant a few blocks away and when some ice skater ordered one of the fish sandwiches they called it in to the restaurant where it was individually cooked and then delivered to the skate rink. A high quality sandwich at the pop up skating rink! An amazing concept I thought.
So mystery shopping does it again to enhance my lifestyle with something I would not have done otherwise even though I could afford it. I never would have paid $30 for the two of us to go ice skating on the small rink for an hour or less out of pocket and would not have thought that fish sandwich for $12.50 out of a pop up tent would be worth it. So once again pleasantly surprised by a mystery shop.

The beginning of your story sounded like the mystery shopper version of The Gift of the Magi.

Any massage shops are certainly lifestyle altering. That, and drinking high-end coffee in Beverley Hills certainly helped as well.

@Eric in Tampa wrote:

Any massage shops are certainly lifestyle altering. That, and drinking high-end coffee in Beverley Hills certainly helped as well.

Coffee Bean on Beverly Dr., where I hang when working... "Massage Envy" not so much. I would have met for a cup of Joe...

@Eric in Tampa wrote:

Any massage shops are certainly lifestyle altering./quote]

Hmmn.... I'm sure they are.

I love massages. I was disappointed when they discontinued the massage shops in my area.