So. Do you imply that clients and MSCs do not face or anticipate any financial changes? (I do not disagree with your post above. I wonder about clients, who pay MSCs, and their abilities to remain in business and/or sustain mystery shopping programs.)

SSW, I won't knock anyone for taking shops they like. I was going to an Aldi store one day to pick up some groceries and did a quick look first--up popped a $3 grocery shop with a $5 reimbursement. Those shops fly off the board in my area. It's a small store about 3 miles from my house, so why not take the $8 discount? I wouldn't have done it otherwise, but I was already going there and the shop is soooo easy. And of course after looking online for another 10 minutes, I found a phone shop 2 blocks away (15 minute visit) and a bank shop 1/2 mile from there (30 minute visit)...so I did the phone shop first, then the bank, then the grocery store, and called it a short afternoon. And those other two shops paid for the rest of my groceries.

A $1,000 hotel shop is a lifestyle enhancement. I do them for a $75-$125 fee and the enjoyment of a 2-night stay somewhere that I could not ordinarily afford or just would not lay out my own money on normally. They generally reverse the charges for the hotel folio, spa, room service, and dining outlet (though sometimes bar is cash integrity), so all I have to do is write a report and wait about a month for my fee (plus tips and other small expenditures). Sounds reasonable to me.

I do $7 convenience store shops that I can report using an app on my phone in real-time with no reporting time later, and I can do 4-5 of them in an hour, report time included. That averages out to $28-$35 an hour (I know you can do the math). That's good money, even after considering taxes being taken out. I get an additional bonus for picking up a large route of them. And, there are almost 50 of that brand within a 20 mile radius of my house, so I use those shops as fillers en route to other shops (like the post office and phone shops that I also submit on the app). I can do 20 shops a day easily.

Not knocking anyone for taking shops that work for them.

I started mystery shopping a little over two years ago. I've done thousands of assignments. Depending on how big you city is there are enough jobs to turn down with personally unacceptable pay. I usually intersperse some of those low paying jobs with higher paying ones.
I wish I had more people to collaborate with in Houston. I've attempted to introduce multiple people to mystery shopping but theres always one aspect that prevents them from being able to succeed. I haven't generally needed any training to mystery shop. The first couple of times I didn't get reimbursed and shop was rejected was training enough.

We need a NEW SHOPPERS READ THIS IMPORTANT INFO sticky at the top of all the various MS forums. At least do some outreach to new shoppers. If they realize sooner how much they are actually making (or losing), maybe fewer new shoppers would take the lower paying jobs. We wouldn't reach everyone but it'd be a start. Teach them what to think about when deciding to accept that $5 shop that's 25 miles away. We won't catch everyone, but at least getting the word out will help a little. Maybe even with a spreadsheet where they can enter their gas costs, printing costs, time costs (you must stay 40 minutes at the location) + writing time/entering time - so they can do simple calculations to see how much they are actually making or LOSING per hour or per shop.


I've been mystery shopping since 1994 and I've seen shop pay come down year by year. That mystery shopping company is making $100 per location shop and you, doing all the work, are getting paid a burger+$5. Back then shops were mailed via snail mail! Part of the problem is that there are so many brand new shoppers from the Internet think "Oh wow, I can make $10!" and they don't factor in the gas, the time to do the shop, the time to write up the shop - yeah, that $10 shop that has 40 questions, 10 pictures and required narratives for each section. Mystery shopping companies know this!

I'm lucky enough to have a regular full time job with a pension and 401K, so I don't actually NEED to Mystery Shop. All my earned income from MS goes directly into my secret Travel Account only so I am lucky enough that I can choose to be picky. Maybe others can't be, but at least we could teach them how not to LOSE money by mystery shopping.

While I'm on a run, I just also want to say that I don't like shops that only pay for the meal and not any actual money, or worse, they have a bunch of ordering requirements and the reimbursement amount doesn't cover what you are required to order. I talked to a scheduler once who was asking me to do a higher end restaurant shop for $75 reimbursement when the ordering requirements would have brought the total up to more than $150. He was telling me that, hey, you get a great discount on a meal. LOL! No, I'm not working for a 50% off coupon. I'm also not going to start my car and go do a shop in return for a $5 ice cream - but someone else may be grocery shopping next door and not mind a $5 free ice cream for doing the shop. Seeing how everyone is scattered, everyone has different needs and/or income levels, it's understandable that people take low paying shops - but at least some education would be useful.

I bet there are lots of "hobby" shoppers and one-hit wonders. This forum probably doesn't get seen by 90% of shoppers. It's a grand gesture, but I doubt that this would be impactful much, if at all. Most of the time, if you don't take it, someone else will.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2018 11:39PM by JASFLALMT.