Finally snagged a BJ's curbside, but....

What are your suggestions for taking the photos? This location is about 25 minutes away from where I live, and I plan to try to pick up another shop in the mall it's next to, do that first, then do the BJ's. Since the food won't be exactly piping hot and fresh from the kitchen when I get home, should I take the photos in the car, before things wilt or get "deflated" on the drive? Did I once see someone here say they laid the containers out in the trunk of their car to get the photos? Or if the pics are taken a 1/2-hour later, is that a problem? I've read over the guides and survey and don't see that addressed. They probably assume most shoppers are within a few minutes' drive of the location, though.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

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.

I would definitely take the pics in the car prior to getting home. I have a cooler in the back seat, and I usually put all the food on top of the tray lid of the cooler and take pics as soon as I receive it. BJ's is about 25-30 mins drive for me too.

deleted

Moderator Note:

Previously blocked poster using new name. Post removed

Yup, I am further then you, I take photos in the car, and bring a small cooler if I order something with ice cream. Salads are find for a ride home. They want pictures of what the food looked like when you received it, not after a long ride home.

Orlando - lightly shopping NC

I have done the shop few times and took the pictures at home, about 20 min after it was delivered. I think the food stays fresh for some time, not sure for how long thou.
Different shop - I took pictures about 45 min later and I had no problems.
They do not specify this in guidelines thou?! They probably should

deleted

Moderator Note:

Previously blocked poster using new name. Post removed

No, it doesn’t look much different, really. I guess if you keep the food in airconditioned car, it doesn’t go soggy or discolored that fast. I only take pictures of pizza right away because it is easy.
I would assume that they want to see how the food is presented, how big the portions are, what containers are used, are hot items separated from hot, etc.

I’ve even gotten the pizookie dessert with my curbside order. Definitely want to take pictures of that in the car as it won’t look the same at home. I also recommend eating it right away too, at least the ice cream portion!

If it is a drive thru shop where they are assigning you to go get food while sitting in your car and not in a restaurant, I would think that they would be perfectly happy with a photo of the food in the car. Curbside tells me it is food ordered by people who want to pick it up and take it home, not eat it in the car. So, wouldn't they want to know how it will look once the customer gets it home and takes it out to serve the family?

Happy Camper

My problem with this job is, there is no pickup parking as our mall took it away and put in Valet at 5:00.PM. I now had to walk two blocks to get my car, so drove the 10 minutes home, with the walk to get the car, 20 minutes.
Food was cold, salad moved around during the drive. Will not do these anymore, would rather sit in the restaurant and enjoy hot food and no pic's. I agree the client wants to know how the food looks and tastes at home, you don't eat it in the car....seems to me like cheating a bit...just sayin.....

Live consciously....

If you are getting ice cream, take the photos right away, but otherwise, no big deal. I do this shop monthly, usually 1 or 2 locations each month. I always take my photos at home on my kitchen counter. I live 20 minutes from one location and 25 from the other. By the time I get the food inside and I clear off the counter for the photos, it's been 30 minutes. I have never had any issues with taking the photos 30 minutes after receiving the food. Now with some of the other MSCs, I am more careful to take photos right away, but this MSC that does the BJs isn't as picky. In fact, at first I took several shots for each phase and uploaded all of them, and they politely informed me that they only needed 1 shot for each requirement (even though their platform allows for more pics).

Oh Irene, that would be rough. I too would not want to do the shop in that circumstance. So nice to have them bring it to your car.

Oh also, for future reference, Monday is 1/2 price pizza night. I always get the tavern cut pizzas on Mondays. I can get 2 pizzas, 1 order of 10-piece wings (garlic Parmesan and Buffalo sauces), and 2 side salads (1 house and 1 Caesar) and I come just under the $35 ($34.82). They have this one chicken pesto pizza that's really good and I get the classic (pepperoni, mushroom, sausage) for my husband. We have leftovers for several days since it's just the two of us. You could easily feed a family of four with this meal. Then I tip the runner a couple of bucks. I have ordered different items and come out to around $33 and tipped the food runner, but the MSC won't reimburse for that, which sucks but what can you do?

I just did one and they made the pizza wrong so the rest of my order sat in my car for 30 minutes while I waited and then another 15 minutes to home. I have not heard the pics were not good but the job was awful so like Irene I am not sure i will do the curbside again. My location also has absolutely no parking even tho they have 5 curbside slots but they do not monitor them so they are always full of long time parkers. I would have a serious problem trying to spread the entire order including the pizza box in my car to take a picture and since there was no where close by to park it would have presented a problem. I thought my food looked fine in the pics after driving home but sitting and eating in the restaurant would have been faster. I did one another time at a different location with no parking. It was a carry out. I found a concrete spot in the city parking garage and spread my food out and took the pics. The passing cars probably thought i was crazy. They may have been right.

Wow sandyf, I sure don't blame you for not wanting to do them after having to do all of that. IMO, it's only worth it if they are bringing it to your car and if you live in an area like mine where they actually do a really good job of getting the orders right each and every time (at least in my experience). The shop would be on my 10' pole list for sure if I had to stop and take pics in the manner you described.

Damn! My shop was scheduled for Monday, but I had to re-schedule for Tuesday because I was supposed to take my husband to the doctor for a procedure. And now I find he's going to cancel it.... I'm not going to re-schedule again. They'll think I'm a nutcase.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

There is some kind of note in there somewhere on the website about rescheduling and canceling not being a good idea, so yeah, just do it. In the future you can always check the date before applying and pay attention to which special you want to try. I think it might have been Thursdays that was rib night? I dunno, you know when you find something that you really like you tend to stick with it, so we try to do Mondays always.

Yes, Thursday is rib night and it’s a great value.

It's funny, it's Thursday and I made babyback ribs tonight for us. I love my ribs, I have had them elsewhere and only in the South and Southwest have I found restaurants I liked that did them better. And they weren't chains. Not to say that there aren't all kinds of great ribs all over the country, and I am pretty sure that THEY aren't chains, either.

@sandyf wrote:

I found a concrete spot in the city parking garage and spread my food out and took the pics. The passing cars probably thought i was crazy. They may have been right.

LOL! New meaning to "Eat n' Park."

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

What's a BJ's?

I've done shops like this for Applebees, I didn't know BJs had to go card side shops. I take pictures in my car a lot and no one has every said that wasn't okay. Good luck!

@ceasesmith wrote:

What's a BJ's?

BJ’s Brewery is a restaurant chain known for their craft beers and typical American food.

No, no one thinks that it isn't okay to take photos in your car, but depending on the shop and the MSC, it might be unnecessary.

@mer590 wrote:

I've done shops like this for Applebees, I didn't know BJs had to go card side shops. I take pictures in my car a lot and no one has every said that wasn't okay. Good luck!

I ordered the appetizer ribs from BJ's and they were good, nothing to write home about, but I'm not a rib expert and I did enjoy them in the moment. I'm putting Jas's ribs on my to do list...

Live consciously....

If I had the money, I would come out to Cali and cook for you, Irene. And have some Cosmos or Appletinis.

Thank you. See, I learn something from you guys every day!

My one local location seems to only want the compliance shops lately. I have performed 2 curbsides. As others noted, it is fine to take all the pics when you get home. The first shop I took my pics 25 minutes later at home. The second shop I took them from work, which was 5 minutes later. Treated a coworker to dinner.

My posts are solely based on my opinions and for my entertainment, contact a professional if you need real advice.

When you get in debt you become a slave. - Andrew Jackson

I have one of those plastic collapseable trunk organizers. I turned it over and used it as my mini table to take food pics at times when I know I won't be able to get home in less than 1 hour. Also, when doing multiple food pics for the same MSCs/different locations, I write the street location of the insides of the box so I can keep track of which food order belongs to that particular MSC. It might not work for those dark colored food containers.

Thanks, all, for your helpful replies! My car is a sedan and not easy to maneuver around in, and my trunk has lots of "stuff" in it. So, unless I take my husband's van, which has a back large enough for a banquet, I'll take the photos when I get home. I've heard so much here about how good the food is, I'm looking forward to this.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login

Finally snagged a BJ's curbside, but....

Create an Account or Log In

Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies

Mystery Shopper Magazine