Hey all;

Has anyone noticed the "new & improved" grocery shops from the big MSC? You know the ones... that have you ask pre-determined questions and repeatedly come up with an excuse to hit up the jewelry department in the regional big-box/grocery store and hit up the deli in the stores that have a certain brand...

The one that basically pays my monthly grocery bill... it's "new and improved" from a couple days from now... Great! I thought... then of course, I noticed they no longer pay as well. About $10 less than before on the larger big box/grocery chain and $5 or so less on the smaller grocery stores.

Has anyone else noticed this -- do you think the changes will be worth the drop in pay? I had these down to a science

I’ve done 3 different grocery stores and some of these details match but none of them had a jewelry department. Probably not the same MSC’s.
I have then down to a science. I hope the don’t change.

I will never touch these at the lower rate. The only reason I did them before was offsetting the cost of my groceries. The pay was already pitiful, even though the store closest to me was only 2 blocks away. I never get out of the store in less than 45 minutes, and the one with the jewelry store always takes me an hour. I was doing 5 a week for 8 months, but no more.

I am not sure if you are talking about the same on I do or not. Mine now does not require that you but a sliced item from the deli so the reimbursement went down by $3. It looks far more confusing than what they had before. I am going to do them and see if it is still worth doing at all anymore. I do 3 stores close to my home every 2 weeks. I did them because they were simple and I got food that we normally buy anyway. These new guidelines may make them not worth it.

Since you didn't name the store, what is the MSC? I ask so I can compare notes, I do multiple Grocery Stores, but am not sure I saw any change this month.

I do the shop with the sliced deli. The pay is $5, and the reimbursement is $15, but that’s $20 in free food for me. I hadn’t previously personally shopped at that grocery store, but I do now. I like their store a lot. Fresh foods, great selection. Pretty good prices.

In my area, shops tend to pay lower than big cities. Just FYI.

I’m curious as to how this will play out too. Of course the lower payments are because you don’t have to purchase the meat but I see they no longer have the ones where you can

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2018 08:04AM by Blkstorm.

That’s one of the reasons I like these shops. At least once s month I get to shop at a store I don’t normally go to. It keeps the experience fresh instead of going to the same chain of stores every week

Trendsource is the MSC

There is no attentiveness check or deli purchase in the new shops. Looks like you just go to the required departments and do the interaction then you are done. The pay is lower but much less laps in the grocery store is nice. Many of the extremely repetitive questions are gone as well. So the lower pay is not great but they look to be less work overall.

Instead of 3 focus departments it is now 2.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2018 10:55AM by pegleg2000.

I also noticed that one of them is to go through self-checkout, not a register with a bagger. It says "Self-check" or "Traditional" on the project. I am not able to see the input form yet. It this better than the old one? I really hope I did not just sign up for 4 shops that are going to be a huge PITA

I did two today and they were fine. The form makes it look more complicated than it is! Fewer interactions and the deli purchase requirement is gone. So yes, the value went down by $3, but to me that's okay because I hated waiting 20 minutes in the deli, when I really did not always need lunch meat or cheese. I do 2 or 3 a week, so the loss is $6 - $9. But as long as I get the ones close to where I live, I am okay with it. I will still be getting $28 or $42 in groceries each week.

I did one of these today. My only gripe is that their system falsely claimed that I started my shop too early; it was 2:45pm! Those of you who do this shop regularly know the timeframes for weekends.The MSC is based on the west coast. I am in Indiana in the Eastern Time Zone. Watch out for that glitch if inputting from the app.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2018 06:12AM by fujikochan.

I did 2 today. I used the new mobile app. It took a lot longer, but it was nice to be finished with it when I left the store. I just had to upload the receipt once I was in my car.

@calicakes wrote:

I did 2 today. I used the new mobile app. It took a lot longer, but it was nice to be finished with it when I left the store. I just had to upload the receipt once I was in my car.

So you were inputting in the store?

I did two today and thought it was easier and the report went much faster.

I did two today also and they were very easy and I loved using the app. I'm signed up for another 9 within the next week so I'm glad it was easy.

i just moved. i found 3 w/awesome bonuses!! thrilled.

As an FYI, according to TrendSource it is perfectly OK to input data in the app while in the store so long as you are not doing so whilst in the transaction. Go off to another aisle and act like you're texting your life story to your new best friend. I imagine this isn't going to work out well for someone one day but at least the information will be fresh on our minds.

Ive did 4 of these in the last two days.They are so much better than the old way.Fresh in your mind so no note taking and you are finished when you leave the parking lot.

I have inputted mine in the store pre-app doing it on the website. I typically left the narrative for when I left the store but it was super easy to put in names and descriptions. So many ways to discreetly do it. Once I started doing that it considerably cut down in the time I spent doing these and made them more profitable.

Liz

I am not sure if this is what the OP is referring to, but the affiliate in my (new) area paid $12 (plus the $9-12 reimbursement) rather than $5. I believe it was because of the extra departments- jewelry, apparel, and home plus electronics for attentiveness in addition to all the food departments. The "new and improved" ones have dropped down to $5 like the normal/parent company shops. I haven't done one yet, so I am not sure if there are fewer departments now. But if OP shops this affiliate and at a previously sliced deli store, it would come out to $10 less between payment and reimbursement.

Nailed it

Around here the parent company isn’t the actual brand names of the stores like it is in some parts of the country. You have a Walmart-type supercenter chain, you have grocery stores with the same name as the supercenter but are just grocery stores, and then you have a smaller grocery store only brand.

The supercenters were always 12+12 — so $24, plus a large bonus most times. Some of the grocery-only ones with the same name were $9 and the smaller groceries were $5.

So we shall see

@pegleg2000 wrote:

@calicakes wrote:

I did 2 today. I used the new mobile app. It took a lot longer, but it was nice to be finished with it when I left the store. I just had to upload the receipt once I was in my car.

So you were inputting in the store?

Yes. After I finished a section, I went to a different aisle and did the input. I finished in the car once I got the receipt.

Since we haven't named the MSC, can we name the actual store? I shop a specific store in Socal and I signed up to do another grocery chain in Florida( going on vacation). The requirements are very different. The pay is 1.00 more than it is here.

The MSC was named earlier..

I did my first one under the new program. I used to do a lot of these shops but quit for several reasons, not the least of which is that TS called me one day and basically said I was being too harsh on the employees.

You see, each month I did quite a few of the high-end stores but twice as many of the low end stores. I was always very positive about the high-end stores but generally rated the low-end stores pretty harshly. Sorry, but the stores smelled like maggoty meat, there were feces and urine where there should not have been, the employees were rude, you had to walk over drunks in the parking lot, fist fights in the store, panhandlers, truly insane and threatening people, and the stores were always dirty, stinky, and not fully stocked. So, statiscally, overall my ratings were low in comparison to other shoppers who were not necessarily shopping the stores or even the same chain.

TS basically said I had to be kinder and gentler even if it was not honest. That combined with a couple other things and I pretty much quit doing them. But I shop areas and stores no one else wants so they were always begging me to do them. I rarely gave in.

But today I broke down and did one. These are so much easier!! Plus I liked being able to discuss atmosphere without getting my hand slapped.

I'm sure if I continue to do these, my stats will still be lower if I fill out the report honestly because there are no worse grocery stores than the ones I shop. But at least for the short term, management will be getting an honest evaulation as to why normal people won't step foot inside these stores. Hopefully, TS allows my comments to go through without deleting the negative stuff.

I have done several of the new survey grocery shops with the app and I really like it. It is not as time consuming and I can be finished and on my way as soon as I upload a pic of the receipt once I get back to my car.