I would hope if you explained that to them, they would allow you to bring a chair. I think what would be best is one of those tall folding captain's chairs. That would keep you at eye level with the customers and also be easy for you to sit down and stand up quickly when needed.

One day, I just bought the chair on-site, held the receipt up a few times during the day so that the security cameras could see it, and sat as much as I needed to. I like captain's chairs and agree that I would be more visible in that than on a folding chair. However, the 'tall' captain's chairs are not as easy to transport as the smaller chair which fits neatly under one arm and does not protrude as far as a 'taller' chair, or a chair with longer legs.

For now, I am sufficiently busy without demos. In future, I will consider them...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2018 06:27PM by Shop-et-al.

I have to lug a great deal of items for every demo, including my table, table cloth, serving tray, and other supplies, so I always grab a cart and load from my car into the shopping cart.

I think there is a huge demand for shoppers. That's just my opinion. I don't think, given no competition whatsoever, that it would make that much of a difference. The newly posted shops that get taken right away are probably really easy (and low-paying). Secret shopping is really for a unique personality in my opinion. You have to be a good writer, have a large vocabulary, and be reliable and observant. You have to summarize well. There are actually some pretty serious academic skills needed. My opinion, based on myself and my thoughts through this board as I know absolutely no shoppers in my personal life, is that this is a good gig for those that are smart but don't have a regular job OR have a regular job that doesn't pay a lot and/or could use money.

That said, it's a fun and pretty easy way (depending on the shop) to make some extra money.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2018 10:57PM by rothers27.

Yes, I signed up with Retail Recruiters and was contacted for Brand Ambassador jobs and demos.

The problem was that the company whose assignments I accepted had nothing closer than 60 miles They SWORE they would pay $0.20 per mile for each way, over the first 20 miles.

When I finally quit, they owed me over $1100 in mileage, and I never got a dime of it.

Every week, they just kept telling me it was a glitch...would be on the next pay...was being processed....would be paid....would be paid. I'm an IDIOT.

This was a payroll job, W-2.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2018 01:20AM by ceasesmith.

Ceasesmith, that is such a bummer! Sorry to hear about that!

Rothers27, I agree. I know ONE other shopper and she doesn't work FT in a "regular" job for various reasons, but she has a Ph.D.!

JASFLALMT, great ideas that I will have to put into action! Thanks for your posting and all your advice!

Also, Lucy88, Walesmaven, Shop-et-al and Sandyf....love those ideas, too! Thanks for sharing

Sandyf, I bought a house when I was 23. Mortgage was $602/month. I had two bedrooms upstairs in a loft area with a bathroom, all separate from the main living area, and I rented those out to two renters at $300/month per room. Was a pretty good gig for me. I was also young and full of energy and worked 3 jobs, so I was able to pay it down and sock away savings. But a lifetime is a long time to hold onto savings...ended up having a daughter who was very sick when she was born. Her medical bills were astronomical....and the bills in the first 2 years of her life. Had "insurance," but insurance found "loopholes...."

@Jill_L wrote:

Ceasesmith, that is such a bummer! Sorry to hear about that!

Rothers27, I agree. I know ONE other shopper and she doesn't work FT in a "regular" job for various reasons, but she has a Ph.D.!

JASFLALMT, great ideas that I will have to put into action! Thanks for your posting and all your advice!

Also, Lucy88, Walesmaven, Shop-et-al and Sandyf....love those ideas, too! Thanks for sharing

Sandyf, I bought a house when I was 23. Mortgage was $602/month. I had two bedrooms upstairs in a loft area with a bathroom, all separate from the main living area, and I rented those out to two renters at $300/month per room. Was a pretty good gig for me. I was also young and full of energy and worked 3 jobs, so I was able to pay it down and sock away savings. But a lifetime is a long time to hold onto savings...ended up having a daughter who was very sick when she was born. Her medical bills were astronomical....and the bills in the first 2 years of her life. Had "insurance," but insurance found "loopholes...."

JillL sorry to hear about your daughter. I worked in an NICU for 18 years so I have seen many families like yours. It is so hard to have a sick baby. I hope she is okay now. But all the hard work you did before that happened so you could have a house and some savings gave you a cushion and some time. There are so many expenses not covered by insurance...but you are a fighter I can see and have perseverance and that helps too.

JP Morgan Chase has a stock trading promotion going on for Chase customers, I just saw an ad for it on the log in page when I logged into my Chase credit card account: "100+ commission-free online stock and ETF trades with a $0 min. to start. Just $2.95 per trade thereafter." But, it depends on your current relationship with Chase.

Ceasesmith, that stinks. I would have sued. I once demoed a karaoke machine in Sam's Club (about 10 years ago) and that paid $18 an hour. I was one of the fortunate ones because I got paid. I know of other reps who didn't. But, I am also a squeaky wheel and I make a bunch of noise. I could see how that would leave a sour taste in your mouth about completing demos. I also am fortunate to live within 20 miles of many, many retailers. OTOH, you are fortunate to not have to deal with arseholes in traffic and close-by annoying neighbors, and all of the other issues with living near or in a city.

Jill I am so sorry to hear your daughter had health issues. I hope everything is okay. My oldest had a brain tumor when he was 16, so I can understand a little bit of what you are going through. It's a helpless feeling, I imagine even more so when they are little babies. He is 30 now, by the way, and even though that experience changed him (and us), he graduated from college and has a full-time job, so all is well.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Yes, I signed up with Retail Recruiters and was contacted for Brand Ambassador jobs and demos.

The problem was that the company whose assignments I accepted had nothing closer than 60 miles They SWORE they would pay $0.20 per mile for each way, over the first 20 miles.

When I finally quit, they owed me over $1100 in mileage, and I never got a dime of it.

Every week, they just kept telling me it was a glitch...would be on the next pay...was being processed....would be paid....would be paid. I'm an IDIOT.

This was a payroll job, W-2.

JAS, so sorry about your son; it's heartbreaking when kids are sick or hurt. I'm glad he's doing good now. Great even, for graduating from college

Sandyf, such a sad job to have had, I think. Just in the 4 months we were there, we saw so many children with so many problems. So many who passed. We stayed at Ronald McDonald House (a God send, btw) and saw OLDER kids who were deathly ill....the woman in the room next to ours would cry every morning. You could hear her sobs. It was heartbreaking. She had a 16 year old son diagnosed with cancer, who was dying. I can't even imagine how hard that must have been.

My daughter is fine. She's smart and active. She was delayed a bit up until she was about 3, but she caught up nicely. She was on oxygen for the first year of her life, and I think that affected her hearing/vision, because she may need hearing aids at some point and has had glasses since she was 6.

She's 16 now....(on the 30th actually) She's one of the smartest, kindest, most compassionate young ladies I've ever known. We homeschool our four kids and she is such a joy to have around. She has been in ballet, tap and jazz for 7 years and has just started en pointe. She has taken piano lessons for a little over a year, after having SELF TAUGHT for a while...she just picked it up like it was the easiest thing in the world. She has played guitar for 6 years. She was learning Arabic for 3 years, and until she couldn't take lessons anymore, she was able to read, write, hear and speak. Now she's rusty. I'm thinking of getting Rosetta Stone for her so she can brush up. She takes sign language classes and excels at them. She was in soccer for a long time, but decided it wasn't for her. So...she's just fine

I think part of the reason she was so sick is because she was NOT ready. I went to doc at 5cm dilated and doc broke my water because doc had friends from out of town and "needed to get outta there and hike the 14-ers"

I was 35 weeks pregnant.

Wow. Just wow.

@Jill_L wrote:

I think part of the reason she was so sick is because she was NOT ready. I went to doc at 5cm dilated and doc broke my water because doc had friends from out of town and "needed to get outta there and hike the 14-ers"

I was 35 weeks pregnant.

This sounds very familiar. My doc put me "into labor" but I was already only a few days from full term and he was going on vacation. I felt overdue as it was my second and my first was 2 weeks early so when I hit 2 weeks early I started to feel overdue. But overdue and under due are both bad for different reasons. 35 weekers are often just fine but you never know so it is not a good thing. Actually I toted up the years and I worked in the NICU for 26 years! I was a data analyst but I did meet a lot of the families and worked right in the unit. As a parent I am sure you see and hear all the worst as you are in constant worry of that next little step back wards but in actuality the vast majority of the babies leave the hospital just fine and only come back when they themselves are having their first baby! I did all the stats so I know all the numbers!!! Your daughter sounds like she is doing better than most full term babies!! Must be her mom's influence.

@Sandyf,

I'm glad to hear that most of the babies in NICU are okay! I know of 2 who passed during our time there. One was a baby boy born the same day I had my daughter. The other was someone who we didn't know, but it happened in the NICU.

But....being at Ronald McDonald House, we saw lots of other kids, too....not just NICU...like the mom next door to us; and a girl who was 13 and had cancer, etc. And at RMH, they don't have TV's in the rooms, etc., because they want the families to get out of the rooms and get to know each other/talk/etc. So we saw and heard about some sad stuff

And yes, most 35 weekers do fine, but the docs at Denver's Children's Hosp told us that she was one of those babies who would have probably been (needed) a full 40 weeks to develop.

But...she was 5.5. pounds, so her weight helped a lot in her growth and healing.

Doc who delivered her did not think anything was wrong at first. Thank God we had the pediatrician show up. Pediatrician was called last minute and had been out shopping with her daughter, but she stopped by. She told us later that our daughter was the worst case she had ever seen...can't remember what aspect, maybe "blood gasses" or something?

@JASFLALMT wrote:

I have to lug a great deal of items for every demo, including my table, table cloth, serving tray, and other supplies, so I always grab a cart and load from my car into the shopping cart.

Most recently, I was working in places where the other, more experienced people had set up an entire area for supplies. Over time, they had accumulated the supplies that we needed. This was helpful in that the newbies did not have to wonder, fret, bring from home, or go shopping for supplies. The newbies just had to clean up and put things where they belonged. Long, long ago, I had to schlep a table and some decorations for it. Once, I had to balance large,awkward items on a cart during a fierce wind storm. The items did not fit neatly in the cart, and the wind would have blown them out if they were inside due to their length and malleability. That was a pita. And it was painful for a short person to lean over (not on) and tamp down with one hand while steering with the other hand. But I lived, although I looked like the V8 guy for awhile after that. In future, I might laugh about the odd vision of an old bag fighting the wind (not exactly a modern-day Donna Quixote) just to get stuff from vehicle to store. I might put up with this for products that I personally like.

I actually use a small suitcase for the majority of my lighter supplies such as product, books, flyers, sample cups, table cloth, etc. The table isn't going to blow away and neither will the suitcase.

A suitcase is a very good idea for small things!

Yes, and after I set up my table, it's small enough to fit neatly underneath hidden by the tablecloth. I can also get into it to grab more books or whatever else as needed during the demo.

It's time to buy more stocks, y'all!