I have only been a Mystery Shopper several months and I love it so far. However, when a possible recession is to come how do you think this will directly impact the industry? For those who were shoppers during the 2008 recession, can you please speak on this.

Edited: To sound less dramatic.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2019 01:42AM by Luna126.

There is no recession looming around the corner.

Hi Luna, why do you think that there is a looming recession?

Yeah, I am an active investor in the stock market, and I follow stock market news avidly. Please do seek more than one news outlet before coming to this drastic conclusion.

How about a rephrase: We are, at some point, going to have a recession again. When that happens (whether next month or next decade), how will mystery shopping be affected?

@panama18 wrote:

There is no recession looming around the corner.

Maybe "looming around the corner" is not the best phrase but based on the several news outlets I follow, we are due for a recession coming.

@MFJohnston wrote:

How about a rephrase: We are, at some point, going to have a recession again. When that happens (whether next month or next decade), how will mystery shopping be affected?

I agree. I should rephrase this.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Yeah, I am an active investor in the stock market, and I follow stock market news avidly. Please do seek more than one news outlet before coming to this drastic conclusion.

While my phrasing did sound a bit too dramatic, that I will admit. I do not appreciate you assuming that I use one news outlet to gather all my information. I can link several news pieces (national and international) and videos if you would prefer me to do so.

I will say I am not an active investor in the stock market but I do listen to several journalists, historians, and economists who speak on this.

Of course. Eventually.

It's a good question, though. I'm kind of curious to see how long-time shoppers answer.

@Luna126 wrote:

@panama18 wrote:

There is no recession looming around the corner.

Maybe "looming around the corner" is not the best phrase but based on the several news outlets I follow, we are due for a recession coming.

What recession?

Like many things in life, I will cross that bridge when I reach it. Thank you for posing a thoughtful question.

LOL! I'm not laughing at you, OP, I'm recalling the days after the housing market imploded, the economic downturn, etc. Maybe we're not CALLING it a recession, but it was a disastrous economic downturn.

And they were what I fondly now recall as the "good old days" of MSing.

Customer service becomes even more important during bad times. Smart businesses know it costs much, much more to win a new customer than it does to keep current customers, and will take the necessary steps to ensure customers are cared for.

For many, that includes an appropriate mystery shopping program.

For others, it will mean belt-tightening; if they do not perceive value in their MSing program, they will drop it.

I first started doing MS in 2008 and I can say the opportunities then were the same if not more than right now.

Additionally, from my experience in the advertising industry, there are documented strategies for "marketing your way out of recession". It may sound counter intuitive, but market downturn is when smart companies start to focus more on marketing and I would put MSing in the same category.

I did not see any downturn in mystery shopping that I could attribute to the Great Recession of 2008. Of course, some chains went under and blamed the recession (Circuit City, Borders, etc.), but Toys R Us disappeared just a years when there was no recession.

I have seen changes in my market now that the "recession of 2008" is over. Now that we are back to full employment (for many but not all) there are far less shoppers out there. For the first time in my shopping history of 10 years or so I actually see bonuses offered in Los Angeles. Several msc's are actively recruiting too.

OK. I started 20 years ago, so I do remember shopping in 2008.

I was doing loads of cruise shops. That ended due to the recession. Most of my other shops didn't change.

Starbucks shops ended right around then too. I don't recall exactly when they pulled the plug on those.

Disneyland shops made it through the recession, but ended in 2013, sadly.

In NV, I remember going to a meeting in Las Vegas in the middle of the week at one of the MGM resorts. It might have been Mandalay Bay? The place was a ghost town. It hit Las Vegas really hard. Some of those really high end shops ended, but they still had enough to keep me busy.

So, the "normal" shops stayed the same (which is what 95% of the shops are anyway). It did not affect most shoppers. Not everyone was shopping cruise ships and playing $100 hands of black jack.

If I think of anything else, I'll edit.

Labor Economist checking in here. First, some shops disappear because the client is hit so hard by the recession that they drop or vastly curtail their MS programs, and perhaps other programs, before laying off their employees. (They thus try to save for of THEIR employees jobs. with the savings.) More broadly, as people are laid off and become long-term unemployed, they may turn to the Gig Economy (which includes MS, of course) and swell the number of folks competing for a somewhat shrinking pool of shops. While well established shoppers who are not looking for cruise ship jobs, for instance, this will mean a slight drop in the numbers of shops they can grab fast enough. BUT, the half-life of brand new shoppers being very, very short, many of those jobs will pop back up once a newbie has flaked or failed to produce a usable shop. AND, maintaining high scores, great reliability, AND cultivating good relations with schedulers and editors will loom very large when it comes to access to shops in any downturn or labor surplus situation. So, tend to the BASICS in good time, maintain them in bad, and develop a rainy day fund, are the watchwords.

@SoCalMama wrote:

I was doing loads of cruise shops. That ended due to the recession. Most of my other shops didn't change.

Just curious. Do you think they ended because of $ or because they had gathered enough information on their competitors? Still doing the one, but they nixed the travel pay (fortunately I have points).

@iShop123 wrote:

@SoCalMama wrote:

I was doing loads of cruise shops. That ended due to the recession. Most of my other shops didn't change.

Just curious. Do you think they ended because of $ or because they had gathered enough information on their competitors? Still doing the one, but they nixed the travel pay (fortunately I have points).

It was not through Coyle and was not a competitor shop. It was simply shopping the casinos. The cruise was just a means of getting to the casino. I was told that it was too expensive with the downturn in the economy. So, no more cruises. It was a great gig. Only 2 shoppers (I know the other shopper as well) and the staff at the MSC got to do these. They paid travel for 2, including airfare to the east coast if I was leaving from FL. Best phone call that I ever got was from the ship the day before we left, asking if they could buy back my second room (that I had bought for my two kids) and put us in a suite because they had oversold the regular rooms. Yes please! That turned a paid cruise into a free cruise for 4.

I think part of it is how you use MSing. I don't remember any downturn in 2008 for MSing, but I did not count on it to be my first income. I think that may factor in here. I do remember Starbucks and McDs going away, but my mind wont let me remember the years. The meat and potato shops seemed to have stuck around. Sure you may lose a store/restaurant here or there, but they are usually replaced by new ones. I can't comment on what this would do if it was my only income in 2008, but I am thinking others here could.

@ceasesmith wrote:

LOL! I'm not laughing at you, OP, I'm recalling the days after the housing market imploded, the economic downturn, etc. Maybe we're not CALLING it a recession, but it was a disastrous economic downturn.

And they were what I fondly now recall as the "good old days" of MSing.

Customer service becomes even more important during bad times. Smart businesses know it costs much, much more to win a new customer than it does to keep current customers, and will take the necessary steps to ensure customers are cared for.

For many, that includes an appropriate mystery shopping program.

For others, it will mean belt-tightening; if they do not perceive value in their MSing program, they will drop it.

Mmmm I've always heard 2008-09 as a recession. I did not know people were actively not using that word.
That's a good way of thinking about it, customer service becoming more important.

@shop-a-holic wrote:

I first started doing MS in 2008 and I can say the opportunities then were the same if not more than right now.

Additionally, from my experience in the advertising industry, there are documented strategies for "marketing your way out of recession". It may sound counter intuitive, but market downturn is when smart companies start to focus more on marketing and I would put MSing in the same category.

That's really good to know. I wonder what strategies they would use to market their way out of a recession.

@sandyf wrote:

I have seen changes in my market now that the "recession of 2008" is over. Now that we are back to full employment (for many but not all) there are far less shoppers out there. For the first time in my shopping history of 10 years or so I actually see bonuses offered in Los Angeles. Several msc's are actively recruiting too.

That's really good for you in you area. I've read of shoppers posting that their area rarely sees bonuses.
I live in south Florida and I'm signed with up about 20 companies. From what I've observed over half will bonus eventually, either due to a time frame or lack of shoppers in a certain location.

@sandyf wrote:

I have seen changes in my market now that the "recession of 2008" is over. Now that we are back to full employment (for many but not all) there are far less shoppers out there. For the first time in my shopping history of 10 years or so I actually see bonuses offered in Los Angeles. Several msc's are actively recruiting too.

That's really good for you in you area. I've read of shoppers posting that their area rarely sees bonuses.
I live in south Florida and I'm signed with up about 20 companies. From what I've observed over half will bonus eventually, either due to a time frame or lack of shoppers in a certain location.

I was a full time shopper in 2007 - mostly doing hotel/resort shops that were multi-day and that paid a living wage. I had my one and only baby boy in 2008 - so I planned to stop being a full time hotel shopper anyway. It's hard to say for sure as I scaled back significantly (I did not stop completely as planned), but qualitatively - my friends doing the same thing said there was many fewer shops of these type to go around. This was also when Freeman finally took it's last gasps and so that dumped a whole bunch of full time hotel shoppers without jobs (and many out thousands of dollars from unpaid reimbursements) into the market as well - further straining what limited shops there were.

I have been a MSer for about 18 years, but 2008 was actually when I went full time with it. I was still recovering from a severe back injury, and found it hard to find a 9-5 job because of the recession and my physical limitations. MSing went from being supplemental income to my sole means of support.

I agree with many of the comments above. There are about the same number of shops out there now as there were then, but not necessarily with the same clients. I had to adjust my shopping strategy at times, but there was always work if I wanted it.

I agree with stormraven. There are just as many opportunities now as then, but different ones. More retail assignments were offered back then, which, in my opinion, required a lot of time for not a lot of pay. I also changed my shopping strategy to include different types of shops and never have a lack of work each month. I was pretty new at it back then and naively took many assignments by jumping right into them such as hotels, casinos and bar audits. I did not have much experience but got them done. However, the work load was overpowering. I now choose more simple assignments that can be completed quickly or at least repetitive assignments that I don't have to study, study, study to complete. I don't see most businesses I do ending their shopping program due to a recession...but of course, I could be wrong.

McDonalds and Whataburger are no longer shopped. Several other smaller businesses as well discontinued their mystery shops. Even though others have been added, overall the number of shops has decreased in my opinion.

Recession, attrition, what I feel like doing next... So far, what I feel like doing next has been a larger determinant in what I do next than recession or attrition have been. I can surmise that the biggest effect of a recession on my mystery shopping would be on distant shops. The locations that are hours away from home would be closed; shopped by shoppers entering the gig market generally; or slithered into by shoppers who are slummin' it now because the nature of available work is changing and they are adapting to the current conditions. Locally, we have just the basics. Those businesses will probably survive, and they will probably always be shopped, audited, and merchandised. There are not enough local gigs to provide careers for shoppers, but there will be a little of this and that for people who don't mind the tasks.

I'm not convinced that 2008 will be a good predictor of how the next recession will affect the mystery shopping industry. Consider:Technology has allowed for more and more purchase to be made online, as opposed to at brick-and-mortar stores. Retailers are able to get customers to do surveys on their smart phones. Etc.

When recessions hit, companies start to lose money. Each company reacts differently, but nearly all have to find ways to reduce expenditures. Many will find their mystery shopping programs something they can put on hold, preferring to care for their employees. Others will simply reduce their programs - monthly, instead of weekly visits, etc. Others will substitute what we do for online surveys and the like. Very few, if any, will expand their mystery shop programs. At the same time, more folks will be looking to make money on the side as they will be between jobs or working for less than what they make during strong economic times.

In other words, I believe we will have more folks competing for fewer mystery shopping jobs. Shoppers who are well-established with schedulers will likely continue to get more than their share of the work while newer folks will find it harder to break in to the industry. Folks who are used to getting hefty bonuses for shops in Timbuktu will find that other shoppers are willing to the same drive for less.

Expect fewer jobs and lower pay.