Is there a hard to fill state list on this forum?
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LOL! That's easy -- Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, the rural parts of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming.
You know, all those places where you have to drive 200 miles just to get to a shop.......and there aren't any shops on the way there, either!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2019 01:49AM by ceasesmith.
You know, all those places where you have to drive 200 miles just to get to a shop.......and there aren't any shops on the way there, either!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2019 01:49AM by ceasesmith.
The South Jersey Shore (Long Beach Island and south to Cape May) in the winter.
Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008
All the rural parts of California, especially random gas stations/small towns in between the drive from SoCal to NorCal. I also don't feel like there's too much competition in the SF Bay Area in general (besides a few of the more common/larger MSCs like Market Force where there seems to be more shoppers in the database). Shops in the Bay Area tend to get bonused and I'll get a bunch of last minute texts/emails/calls from schedulers trying to fill shops.
@azncollege wrote:
All the rural parts of California, especially random gas stations/small towns in between the drive from SoCal to NorCal. I also don't feel like there's too much competition in the SF Bay Area in general (besides a few of the more common/larger MSCs like Market Force where there seems to be more shoppers in the database). Shops in the Bay Area tend to get bonused and I'll get a bunch of last minute texts/emails/calls from schedulers trying to fill shops.
Northern CA definitely has more "left-over" shops than Southern CA. When the Post Office list gets sent out, 95% of the shops are in the northern part of the state.
@azncollege, there are so many shops that are not even shopped in the Bay Area though. Either that or maybe they are not even posted and just assigned to some shoppers?
central to western pa
Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.
Southern most tip of Florida. The Keys
@shykar1 There's plenty of shops in the Bay Area. Maybe you're not signed up with enough MSCs? Also not every store/retail chain opts to use a MS program and instead do online surveys/study groups instead.
@ceasesmith wrote:
LOL! That's easy -- Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, the rural parts of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming.
You know, all those places where you have to drive 200 miles just to get to a shop.......and there aren't any shops on the way there, either!
And... let's keep it this way. I want to live in the wide open spaces, not in a highly shop-able zone!
To be fair, shops exist between here and there. People who have entire days and many days will access more shops than I can. I start every day from home and start local work between 1 and 3 am. A road warrior will be productive. But this is neither license or permission to clutter up the place with a bunch of places to do mystery shops.
(I just had to stand up for my "place" and my critters.)
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2019 09:40PM by Shop-et-al.
*Most* rural areas do not have enough shoppers. However, in some of these locations, one or two active shoppers and fill the needs, so it is easy for them to become inundated with shoppers. When a single rural area starts to get a good collection of shops that need doing, it's just a matter of time until bonuses grow enough to attract an enterprising route shopper to the area, who will shop it dry in just a few days. It can then be a several months before it is a viable shopping destination again.
Most of my routes involve video, so I pay more attention to where this work is... In the last seven months, I have done two huge routes to North/Central California, ranging from Santa Cruz to Santa Rosa to Sacramento (and vicinity) to the Bay Area. I have also seen enough work to ponder routes between Atlanta, GA and Raleigh, NC; throughout Florida, in Ohio, Indiana and Illinios and into Texas.
Most of my routes involve video, so I pay more attention to where this work is... In the last seven months, I have done two huge routes to North/Central California, ranging from Santa Cruz to Santa Rosa to Sacramento (and vicinity) to the Bay Area. I have also seen enough work to ponder routes between Atlanta, GA and Raleigh, NC; throughout Florida, in Ohio, Indiana and Illinios and into Texas.
Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.
Agreed, I constantly get long lists of jobs that start 300 miles north of Los Angeles where I live including all the areas azncollege mentions. These jobs usually pay under $15 and there may be 30 of them but they are each a long drive away from each other.
Shykar1...perhaps you need to sign up as a southern California shopper. I get shops offered me in the Bay area almost every day...450 miles away!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2019 08:30PM by sandyf.
Shykar1...perhaps you need to sign up as a southern California shopper. I get shops offered me in the Bay area almost every day...450 miles away!
@azncollege wrote:
All the rural parts of California, especially random gas stations/small towns in between the drive from SoCal to NorCal. I also don't feel like there's too much competition in the SF Bay Area in general (besides a few of the more common/larger MSCs like Market Force where there seems to be more shoppers in the database). Shops in the Bay Area tend to get bonused and I'll get a bunch of last minute texts/emails/calls from schedulers trying to fill shops.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2019 08:30PM by sandyf.
I'm in the Keys and it does feel like there's very few shoppers here. Outside of Key West it's even more noticeable. I see shops on Amusement Advantage get taken up, and a few fast food restaurant shops, but some of the other ones I've seen stay available for weeks until a scheduler offers to bonus it and remove the rotation restriction if I'll do it. I've gotten calls from The Source almost every day for the past two weeks for a particular shop that I refuse to do again unless they bonus it WAY up.
Alaska as a whole was another one that seemed really hard to fill. The two years I lived in Anchorage I had a ton of rotation limits waived so I could do shops because they just weren't getting filled.
Nevada on the other hand, typical mystery shopping isn't allowed. The most boring 18 months of my life pretty much, having been doing shops/audits since I was 18
Alaska as a whole was another one that seemed really hard to fill. The two years I lived in Anchorage I had a ton of rotation limits waived so I could do shops because they just weren't getting filled.
Nevada on the other hand, typical mystery shopping isn't allowed. The most boring 18 months of my life pretty much, having been doing shops/audits since I was 18
Not a comment on states, but someone posted before that "rich" neighborhoods can often be hard to fill, interestingly. He/she said that often the residents there don't do mystery shopping, because of their already high-paying and time-consuming jobs/lives.
I've found this true in my area. The "rich" areas have shops that linger longer. I can get bonuses there more often it seems.
I've found this true in my area. The "rich" areas have shops that linger longer. I can get bonuses there more often it seems.
@shoptastic wrote:
Not a comment on states, but someone posted before that "rich" neighborhoods can often be hard to fill, interestingly. He/she said that often the residents there don't do mystery shopping, because of their already high-paying and time-consuming jobs/lives.
I've found this true in my area. The "rich" areas have shops that linger longer. I can get bonuses there more often it seems.
It is also because the parking there is expensive and the shops are not in free parking malls. When I shop at NYC, there is no point to do the $9 parking shop that only pays for 30 min, and have to wait 15 min for the car to be brought up. I wait until they are heavily bonused and then I take them. Even the $7 mall audit is in a mall with $21 per hour parking. Some MS pay parking and reasonable bonus there by the 10 of the month in the winter, others that "we never pay more than $2-$3 bonus" wait until the 29 of the month to offer $35 bonus and actually pay way more, up to $100 during snow months. Same problem with parking at Miami Beach.
@shoptastic wrote:
Not a comment on states, but someone posted before that "rich" neighborhoods can often be hard to fill, interestingly. He/she said that often the residents there don't do mystery shopping, because of their already high-paying and time-consuming jobs/lives.
I've found this true in my area. The "rich" areas have shops that linger longer. I can get bonuses there more often it seems.
A good example is Santa Barbara Ca. I often see fine dining shops that can’t be filled. Too bad it’s an hour drive for me.
I don't see much of the same "rich neighborhood" phenomenon here in LA. Beverly Hills actually has free parking for 2 hours in the city lots and less expensive neighborhoods surround it close by to supply shoppers. One issue might be the high end shops. Many of those need a specific income level or degree to qualify so they are probably harder to fill. They also require lots of narrative comparatively. I do see a few other shops in Beverly Hills but there are not many fast food places or the lower priced stores there if someone wanted to fill out a days worth of jobs nearby. Some other areas like Westwood and downtown have prohibitive parking fees.
I think distance from population centers of decent size and also cost of living would contribute to a lack of shoppers. The jobs here do not really pay enough for most average mystery shoppers to survive well and pay the bills. Rents are $5000 a month in my area for a 1,000 square foot house. I live in an average middle class neighborhood.
I think distance from population centers of decent size and also cost of living would contribute to a lack of shoppers. The jobs here do not really pay enough for most average mystery shoppers to survive well and pay the bills. Rents are $5000 a month in my area for a 1,000 square foot house. I live in an average middle class neighborhood.
Add Barstow and Blythe, CA to the list.
I know lots of places that are hard to fill. I found out by trial and error and talking to schedulers and RESEARCH. So I might spend a lot of time looking at job boards at the end of the month. No offense I'm not giving that information up on a message board.
There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind
At the moment only demons come to mind
JASFLAMT mentioned the Florida panhandle. I lived there two years. There were a lot of bonuses but not as many shops as I have had elsewhere. I lived in NH for many years. I had tons of bonused shops, especially mid NH and north. I had many in Maine as well. I could have solely lived on MS'ing in NH.
No offense at all @bgriffin. I completely understand that some shoppers don't want to share this type of information.
Shopping Idaho and Oregon/Idaho border region.
Dawn,
Are you looking to travel to one of these places and create a route of mystery shops? If so, I commend you for growing your business. Since I got a full-time job last year and going to school at the same time, my shops have been limited and in the area that I live. But I had a goal in mind to extend my area while on vacation. Last year I took a day trip and while the trip was not as profitable as some have had, I was pleased that I was able to get a shop that reimbursed for prescription sunglasses. I had a couple of other shops along the way also. So this year my goal is to do a little bit better.
Are you looking to travel to one of these places and create a route of mystery shops? If so, I commend you for growing your business. Since I got a full-time job last year and going to school at the same time, my shops have been limited and in the area that I live. But I had a goal in mind to extend my area while on vacation. Last year I took a day trip and while the trip was not as profitable as some have had, I was pleased that I was able to get a shop that reimbursed for prescription sunglasses. I had a couple of other shops along the way also. So this year my goal is to do a little bit better.
Kim
@kimmiemae,
In my old state, I worked full time and was mystery shopping mainly on Saturdays. I usually shopped anywhere between 3 to 7 relatively easy shops and brought in between 100 to 500 for that one day.
In my new state, I'm doing about 3 shops a week simply because the abundance of shoppers here and not alot of mystery shops.
I recently saw a post from mfjohnston where they traveled a couple of states away and had a pretty good payday. I think they were there for about 7 days if I remember correctly. It just got me curious about the hard to fill cities and states.
At the moment due to some family circumstances and starting a full time job soon my travel opportunitues might be limited, but I'm the type of person that I always like to have a back up plan. Also this full time job is 12 hour shifts some weeks, so I might have 1 or 3 days to do a route if I feel up to it.
In my old state, I worked full time and was mystery shopping mainly on Saturdays. I usually shopped anywhere between 3 to 7 relatively easy shops and brought in between 100 to 500 for that one day.
In my new state, I'm doing about 3 shops a week simply because the abundance of shoppers here and not alot of mystery shops.
I recently saw a post from mfjohnston where they traveled a couple of states away and had a pretty good payday. I think they were there for about 7 days if I remember correctly. It just got me curious about the hard to fill cities and states.
At the moment due to some family circumstances and starting a full time job soon my travel opportunitues might be limited, but I'm the type of person that I always like to have a back up plan. Also this full time job is 12 hour shifts some weeks, so I might have 1 or 3 days to do a route if I feel up to it.
Shopping Idaho and Oregon/Idaho border region.
@dawnhu
Good for you! I hope everything comes together nicely for you. Personally, when I did my trip, I really enjoyed the drive. It was a nice break from the same old routine.
Good for you! I hope everything comes together nicely for you. Personally, when I did my trip, I really enjoyed the drive. It was a nice break from the same old routine.
Kim
Dawn, don't forget that MFJ does a lot of video. That's where he really rakes in the dough on his route trips and then uses "regular" shops for fillers.
@MFJohnston wrote:
*Most* rural areas do not have enough shoppers. However, in some of these locations, one or two active shoppers and fill the needs, so it is easy for them to become inundated with shoppers. When a single rural area starts to get a good collection of shops that need doing, it's just a matter of time until bonuses grow enough to attract an enterprising route shopper to the area, who will shop it dry in just a few days. It can then be a several months before it is a viable shopping destination again.
Most of my routes involve video, so I pay more attention to where this work is... In the last seven months, I have done two huge routes to North/Central California, ranging from Santa Cruz to Santa Rosa to Sacramento (and vicinity) to the Bay Area. I have also seen enough work to ponder routes between Atlanta, GA and Raleigh, NC; throughout Florida, in Ohio, Indiana and Illinios and into Texas.
Great info! Will pass along to the easyshift community as many of them have mentioned in threads they are in these exact areas and most certainly would be willing to complete sans a bonus. Will suggest they follow your posting activity for further details!
It's nothing to worry about. Folks making it "big" on EasyShift are not doing video shopping. Folks who do a lot of video shopping already know of these locations - Schedulers send it out all the time to their video shoppers. If whatever I post here helps somebody, great! That's why I post on this forum. I received the same treatment when I arrived and can thank veteran members for their counsel as I got started. I'm happy to pass on much of what I have learned.
And, yes, I know you are the one who posted that you do not do EasyShift and are concerned about "sharing."
And, yes, I know you are the one who posted that you do not do EasyShift and are concerned about "sharing."
Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.
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