I'll occasionally say that I'm a mystery shopper( or as someone on this forum called it), a retail compliance auditor. LOL. Anyway, I never mention who I shop for( company).

Flash forward to 2 days ago. One of my FB friends( someone I know thru an animal group in my town) posted about being shopped at work and the shopper said she didn't smile. In her post she said " She said I didn't smile". It went right over my head that she said " She". I left a comment like " It wasn't me, I don't shop Von's", This entire time, I thought she worked at Von's. I could have sworn she said she did. Long Story short, it was me who shopped her. She has been my FB friend for over a year. We talk on FB. She has 2 of the same breed of dog and I have 2 of the same breed of a dog. I've gone thru her line so many times,( mostly NOT as a shopper). She said she never put two and two together when she saw me at the store that I was her FB friend. I wear a necklace with my unusual first name, so I kinda find that hard to believe. I also think she said she worked at Von's in her profile, to throw me off. Although maybe I'm overthinking it.

When I went to her page and looked at her pics, it then hit me who she is. She told me that they( the store) knows I'm the shopper. I had a feeling, because they are always super nice, bend over backwards kinda nice. I think she figured it out long ago and told them at work, but never told me.

Needless to say, I emailed support and won't be shopping that location. I'm kinda bummed, because its a self-checkout location : (

It really is a small world. My town is not that small either.

That’s a bummer. Over the years, I’ve only come across a few people that I knew and had to remove myself.

Sounds like Irene is going to have more work now.

@SoCalMama wrote:

That’s a bummer. Over the years, I’ve only come across a few people that I knew and had to remove myself.

Sounds like Irene is going to have more work now.

I used to try to get the shops and someone( assuming Irene) would get them before me. Now I have no problem getting them every 2 weeks. I'll do all of the locations in town. Quite frankly, it was getting monotonous. I would do them on a Sunday and last Sunday, it took me 3 hours to get 3 done( with travel time and filling out the reports on the mobile app). I was pretty exhausted when I came home. I also did 2 on Saturday and those were quicker.

I don't talk about work on social media. Ever.

Edited to add:
That included when I had a "normal" job and when I owned the previous business before this one



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2019 11:00PM by bgriffin.

@calicakes wrote:

I used to try to get the shops and someone( assuming Irene) would get them before me. Now I have no problem getting them every 2 weeks. I'll do all of the locations in town. Quite frankly, it was getting monotonous. I would do them on a Sunday and last Sunday, it took me 3 hours to get 3 done( with travel time and filling out the reports on the mobile app). I was pretty exhausted when I came home. I also did 2 on Saturday and those were quicker.

I work a regular job now, and doing 3 on the way home exhausts me. I have a 2 hour commute and a 9 hour work day. Plus, I am running out of room to store everything.

It was hot as Hades last weekend. I’d be inside in a dark room.

@bgriffin wrote:

I don't talk about work on social media. Ever.

Edited to add:
That included when I had a "normal" job and when I owned the previous business before this one

Well, I learned my lesson. I also once took a pic of someone at a gas station. From behind, she looked like Stevie Nicks. Obviously, it wasn't her. I posted the pic with the caption of " She think's she is Stevie Nicks". Well, guess what. She was a FB friend too( a local realtor). She sent me a PM asking me to remove the pic. To say I was embarrassed would be an understatement.

@SoCalMama wrote:

@calicakes wrote:

I used to try to get the shops and someone( assuming Irene) would get them before me. Now I have no problem getting them every 2 weeks. I'll do all of the locations in town. Quite frankly, it was getting monotonous. I would do them on a Sunday and last Sunday, it took me 3 hours to get 3 done( with travel time and filling out the reports on the mobile app). I was pretty exhausted when I came home. I also did 2 on Saturday and those were quicker.

I work a regular job now, and doing 3 on the way home exhausts me. I have a 2 hour commute and a 9 hour work day. Plus, I am running out of room to store everything.

It was hot as Hades last weekend. I’d be inside in a dark room.

Funny, you should say you're running out of room. I'm in the process of re-organizing my pantry. I have so much stuff and I threw out a ton. Stuff I had since I moved into my house in 2016 and never used. Now when I do the stores, I try to get stuff I know we're going to use up. Milk, my organic half and half, my wife's soda, canned veggies to make my dogs food. Its hard though, because now I don't want to grocery shop when I know I'll be shopping 5 stores over a weekend. We went up to SLO and I took a shop up there to get some stuff for our beach weekend.

A while back I finally broke down and signed up with FB. The first thing that happened was that I got a long list of "You May Know" so and so. There were people I didn't know but who lived near an address I had years ago, the son of a cousin I haven't seen since 2003, a couple of people I went to high school with and haven't seen since, and on and on. I was so creeped out and frankly, horrified, that I immediately deleted the account. Who the H are these FB people, where do they get their information, and what gives them the right to compile and store it? How secure is it? Who has access to it?

Rhetorical questions, no need to answer, just ranting. I was a FB member for about 3 minutes and that's 3 minutes too long.

Take advantage of the security settings on FB and other social media. I try to keep my business life separate from my personal life. Watch what you post and what you "like " as well. Don't friend just anyone who sends you a friend request either.

@bgriffin wrote:

I don't talk about work on social media. Ever.

Edited to add:
That included when I had a "normal" job and when I owned the previous business before this one

I don't do social media. Ever.

HAHAHA I was often told when I was younger that I looked like Stevie Nicks. I actually did see some clip from an interview with her a few years back, and I guess we still do look kinda alike...still blonde but a bit older, LOL.

@calicakes wrote:

@bgriffin wrote:

I don't talk about work on social media. Ever.

Edited to add:
That included when I had a "normal" job and when I owned the previous business before this one

Well, I learned my lesson. I also once took a pic of someone at a gas station. From behind, she looked like Stevie Nicks. Obviously, it wasn't her. I posted the pic with the caption of " She think's she is Stevie Nicks". Well, guess what. She was a FB friend too( a local realtor). She sent me a PM asking me to remove the pic. To say I was embarrassed would be an understatement.

Umm, I thought this forum was social media? I don't do the typical social media, though.

@sestrahelena wrote:

@bgriffin wrote:

I don't talk about work on social media. Ever.

Edited to add:
That included when I had a "normal" job and when I owned the previous business before this one

I don't do social media. Ever.

I do not consider a forum to be social media.

Hm. I guess I am pretty old fashioned and whenever someone is online discussing anything with other people, to me that's social media.

I only have a FB account because of my grandkids.
They seem to think that, that is the only way to communicate with me.
And the only ones I'm friends with is them and their parents.
The rest of my family brothers ,etc. don't believe in doing social media.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2019 12:14AM by sueac101.

This is social media...but is 'anonymous' so this is where it's safe to talk about MSIng.

I am careful scrub any mention of MSing of it from my FB or IG account, since many of the hotels do look you up. You also have to careful not to tag yourself at any of the restaurants or properties, since management may follow those people, figure you out and possibly alert other managers that you are coming.

I guess you're right, JAS, but the anonymity factor makes it different. I'm not getting hit with targeted ads (ublock), not posting pictures and not trying to know anyone personally. That makes it seem different. So I will change my statement to "I don't do social media. Ever. Except the MS forum." There. That's better!

I do have a Facebook account. There is a photo of a nature theme on it. My Facebook account was created to find another family member and it was successful. I just don't care to divulge any further information on it about myself or other family members. It's worked out well for me.

I think that some of the websites where people review restaurants and other businesses can be considered social media, as well. I read them and occasionally have left comments, but never use them to review anyplace I have ever shopped.

My Facebook is all the social contact I have, mostly family,since I live between San Francisco, Chicago, Mexico City where all my family is, it is our way to keep in touch. I don't reveal anything about my personal life to anyone
except in a PM. News flash: I'm no longer doing any Kroger shops except for the high end one. Since I'm not cooking, dieting and moving, don't want to mess the house up, Cali, that's why your getting all the jobs....enjoy!!
I am doing the new one taking my friend for lunch. Actually I spent so much ,money while in the stores, I'm saving, who knew?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2019 03:02PM by Irene_L.A..

Well if any employees read the forum, they now know where and when the shopper is coming. Guess you could edit that out if you feel like it.

I don't ever post about mystery shopping on my personal FB account. I am friends with some shoppers, schedulers, and owners, though, and I've "liked" one scheduling company. If I am "smart" about it, I should really unfriend and unlike, but my heart won't let me.

I do not consider a private forum to be social media, either. I still would act with caution, nonetheless.

Even on this private forum, there are individuals who will seek to out your true identity, then reveal you on Facebook to others. This happened to me.

I don't think that this forum is necessarily private. I have Googled a MSC before and a list of forum members' posts about the MSC populate that anyone can read. Anyone can join, read, and post, so it's not private. If it was an "invitation only" forum, that might be considered private. Now, it is somewhat anonymous unless you choose for it not to be by using your real name as your forum name or revealing yourself to others via PM.

SS4U, that sucks that someone would do that to you. I don't understand why people are like that.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Well if any employees read the forum, they now know where and when the shopper is coming. Guess you could edit that out if you feel like it.

My answer is: more companies do know the shopper when the questions are asked and pictures of the front of the store taken, who does that....so much for the word Mystery. I really doubt servers are wasting time reading this forum.

You never know who might be reading here...you're right, doubtful it would be a server but it could be the manager of a location. I see you edited out the location and what day you were doing the shop.

I have probably taken 1000 photos of stores and have never been caught. It takes less than one second.

Now my husband and the other hand, takes photos like an old man. It's a 5-10 second process for him. SMH.

I find it pretty easy to pretend I am talking on my phone while I am taking photos. I pretend like I am talking to someone, then take the phone away from my ear to capture the photo, and then put the phone back up to my ear. No one even notices.

Duplicate.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2019 04:09PM by JASFLALMT.

Because I used to write, I have a large Facebook following. I actually became this type of mystery shopper because a friend posted a link to Marketforce about seven years ago. Prior to that I used my cover as a writer to do a certain amount of undercover work for a variety of political and land-use consultants, but I digress.

I've never posted on Facebook that I am a mystery shopper. I do post about doing revealed and unrevealed audits. I go out of my way to not mention specific businesses or MSCs. I keep it general such as "restaurant" or "grocery store." Generally, the rare times I post, it's about something really gross or funny that happened. For example, "OMG, server just started telling me about her period as she was delivering my food" or "OMG, feces and puddles all over floor and cockroaches everywhere." Especially since I'm a route shopper, no one has a clue where I'm at.

I did have a large hotel owner contact me, based on my posts, contact me regarding starting an inspection/customer service for the restaurants in his hotel.