This month is my last month doing the picture shops for JIB (company redacted). This month I was one of the top 10 shoppers for the program (about 150 shops), but am stopping due to a few personal concerns about the shopping program as a whole.

I wanted to share some experiences for those interested in these shops.

1. The company requires 6 photos, with the DT window being the worst. For that photo, watch the cashier, and when they turn away from the window (put in card, get drink, get food, etc) snap the photo. If the cashier won't leave the window, then ask for a condiment that is not at the window (something like a thousand island packet, some extra pickles, etc) then take the photo.

2. Keep your form of payment out of your wallet/purse in the car. It makes the transaction (and getting the window photo) so much easier.

3. The best window for pay is when shops are around the 17th on. Avoid shops for the base fee, and really only do shops once they hit the threshold that you can pay for your entire meal.

4. The company basically does not care about things that are not in the shop (based on scheduler discussions), including employees doing questionable things (like yelling at employees). If you are the kind of shopper that feels compelled to report this things, look elsewhere.

5. You can do as many shops per day or in a trip that you want (I have done as many as 20 shops in a single trip). All you have to do is taste the food, not eat everything (my dogs like JIB burger patties).

6. The company wants their food graded at a higher level than you probably think it should be graded. Grading less than average is likely to garner you questions from the evaluator on the shops, and should be avoided except in the worst cases, and expect to justify the score. I had shops questioned as being a lower grade even when the food was colder than something from a freezer...

You can make good money doing these shops, but as a reimbursement shop (with a small fee on top), you want to consider the risk of these shops... they can be very expensive to start, with really money being made once you have built up a profit reserve from previous shops (I had to seed in almost 800.00 dollars for purchases to make it work at the start...

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2019 09:13PM by my1958vw.

They do get old. I give one away to someone begging for money on the corner, if I can. What I don’t like is where they say $17 shops can you help, so I pic 3of them and they are listed I. My que for only $15. I have emailed the scheduler with no response!

In 2006, I completed my first shop mentioning a pic. It was at Quizno's and paid $15 + $5 for food and $5 to snap AN optional photo. The reason so many are REQUIRED now is that shoppers continue to accept more work for less pay.

Great post.
What region did you cover? Just curious. I haven’t eaten a burger at JIB since 1984, so I’m not taking these.

I dont like the Jumbo Jack burger thats for sure. The meat is never juicy! I tried thw buttery jack, that was more moist overall. The window capture pictures are the tough part. I hate that part. I wonder if my dash cam gets a decent image...

SoCal, Inland Empire

Thank you so much for the tip on getting the cashier away from the window so you can get that window photo. Such an awkward moment! I also take a side view of it before I get to the window just in case I can’t get the full on shot.

@my1958vw wrote:

SoCal, Inland Empire

You’re within 100 miles of me. It’s too hot to be sitting in the car there right now.

I keep getting the emails, but I have not done even one because in my city, the cheapest burger and fries would cost me around $10. I wouldn't eat it, so it would just be thrown away or given to a beggar. Considering that and all the required photos, the minimum I would do a JIB for is $25, and probably not even then...
Too bad, because I do like the MSC, and the schedulers.

@SoCalMama wrote:

What region did you cover? Just curious. I haven’t eaten a burger at JIB since 1984, so I’m not taking these.

You beat me! Early-90s for me.

@my1958vw wrote:

SoCal, Inland Empire

I am in the Inland Empire too.

You got me curious as I am also in the Inland Empire. So far I've done 311 but a big chunk of what I do is on my routes out of the area.

My order is the same every time:. Jumbo Jack without cheese or onions, value fries, cup of ice water. At 98 percent of my California locations, the order runs from between $4.30 and $4.36, depending on the sales tax rate. There are one or two locations where it runs about a dollar more. In Arizona, and some California border cities, it runs about $3.60.

I don't touch the burgers. I think they smell like Alpo. My dogs assure me they are tasty.

I will usually eat a fry or two but after a few of these in one day, I can't stomach those.

My rating is always a six unless something extraordinary happens, such as a bug in the food (happened a couple of times) or the place is so filthy (major cockroach infestation) that I just couldn't ignore it. In those instances I always send a note letting the editors know what happened.

My individual ratings are almost always second from the top--can't think of the wording on those, again unless something extraordinary is going on with the food.

My major tip is to scroll through the photos before hitting submit. On more than one occasion I've had a photo show up that was incorrect, including photos of my dog. In one case the photo was of a roadrunner that I took several phones ago and was stored in the cloud, which I have to really work hard at to access. Still have no idea how the system uploaded that photo instead the photo of the burger and fries.

Regarding the window photo, honestly I just take it. I suppose I've done so many that I'm just good at timing. For the first time ever, I got caught the other day and the employee asked me. I just said I post to Yelp. I heard the manager tell her to shut up so she was probably new.

Good info. Really helpful info on snapping pix. Timing is everything.

JIB greasy tacos were horrible! The burgers were pretty gross too..

Me too. I don't mind these shops but only take therm when they're bonused at $14 or $15. Not worth it otherwise. I order a Jumbo Jack, value fry, and a cup of water and it usually runs $4.29, so that's decent pay for ten minutes worth of work. My dogs love the burgers.

I kept getting crap from the scheduler because I would commonly rate a restaurant a 2 - 4 when I would get the food and the product was either so cold it was unedible, it took 15+ minutes to get my food, or something else was observed at the location that was disgusting. I once saw a cashier put my fries in the bag of the wrong customer, the customer hand the fries back to the cashier through the window, then put the fries in my bag.

I live within 3 miles of 5 locations, and I can say some of their food is good. I have a hard time justifying a score of 6+ when the experience was one I would not pay for myself. I kept detailed records of my shops, expenses, miles, etc for over 800 total shops, and ended up averaging about 16.5 dollars per hour for my time (getting what others describe, i.e, jumbo + value fries + drink). The reality is that my 16.5 per hour was really about 11 per hour after taxes (I make into the lower 6 figures with my normal job), and 11 per hour is not enough in the end.

You can get out of your car and take the pictures. I've done many of their shops. I give the meals to my neighbors. They are thankful to have the meals.

I make approx 105000 per year (in management within education field). I am working towards specific life goals, and I think of mystery shopping as a side hustle that I use to help with things like getting ahead with my housing, etc. You would be surprised how many people who make good money are still doing something on this side in our gig economy. I will eventually stop, but I sure like the free meals...

Raccoons love Jumbo Jacks! They make excellent trap bait.

I’ve made some good money doing these — my record is 27 in a day. I go out after my day job and stay up til 2am a couple times a month once it hits my magic number. If I can time the price out right on a weekend I’ll spend a day doing them... It’s boring but the time goes pretty quick and I’ve got a system down.

When they very first started, you could do a Jr. Jack burger and get out for under $4 but they changed that... I assume most of the shops were the Jr. burgers.

My issue with the chain in general is that it is so damn expensive. Here in the Pacific NW a Jumbo Jack and value fries is ~$5.71 including tax. Since this program started, the price has increased 3 times... the Cheesecake was $1.89 for the longest time — I hadn’t had any in 6 months or so and ordered a piece the other day... it’s $2.99 now! For years you could get a Jumbo Jack for $1.89 — it’s now $3.69-4.29 depending on the location. This is WAY above inflation! Absolutely astonishing.

That said, I route these and do pretty well... I’ve done hundreds of them. Once you get the hang of them, they are not too bad.

Two things that stick out:

1. I wish there were some sort of way to communicate a line or two of “shopper comments” to the editors. I’ve seen some REAL shady stuff at some of these locations that I wish I could report. I’ll just say that sometimes it takes 30-40 minutes to get food... and when you get up to the window it’s easy to see why. I’ve witnessed a number of things that a manager really should want to know...

2. It really bugs me that these shops are not rated... except for if the location is closed, under construction, they reject a pic etc (basically anything that makes a shop excluded, even if they still pay you).. and then they grade it a 1. If you are going to give dings for anything, you should also give positive ratings for the shops that are fine. One of the schedulers tried dangling bait of “we’ll give you a 10 rating if you can do these hard to fill locations”... it honestly came off as an insult. Don’t dangle positive ratings — or my favorite — a fee that is $3 llower than it was the day before... if I didn’t take it for $18 because it was out of my way yesterday, I certainly won’t take it for $15 now. I also won’t take them for less than my magic number.

That said... these have been a nice little addition to my shopping — and I hope they stick around

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2019 08:46AM by ngbmediashop.

@ngbmediashop wrote:

1. I wish there were some sort of way to communicate a line or two of “shopper comments” to the editors. I’ve seen some REAL shady stuff at some of these locations that I wish I could report. I’ll just say that sometimes it takes 30-40 minutes to get food... and when you get up to the window it’s easy to see why. I’ve witnessed a number of things that a manager really should want to know...

I actually messaged this exact comment to the scheduler (Stacy) after I got the letter that I was "bringing down their scores." I "get" the idea that the shops are easy money once you figure out a system (27 in a day, wow), but I have had a hard time not calling the health department on some of these stores after things I have seen in location while doing shops.

JIB has had mystery shoppers for more than 20 years... they had them when my sister was a restaurant manager for the company in the late 90's, so I don't think they are going away anytime soon...

I've done a lot of these too. I did not want to do them when they first came out due to having to take a picture of the inside menu board. I was hesitant too when the picture requirements were changed to the window instead of the inside menu board. Only twice have I had trouble when I have taken the picture. Once the male employee slammed the window closed on me and the other was in the town I live in where the male employee said something. There is a place you can go and leave additional comments on a shop. I have done that twice. Both times it was for the same employee at the JIB here in town. I even scored a 1 on one of these shops just due to the interaction with this one employee. I have received some juicy burgers and I have received some dry burgers. I usually just get the Jumbo Jack with fries and water. I would not eat here if it wasn't for these shops. My scores range from 5 -9. And that depends on the location, how friendly the staff is and if the burger is dry or has some juiciness to it. I can not believe how much fries are. I usually spend around $7.50. My bottom line for doing these is $17. And I also do them in case this MSC gets another contract for another fast food place I could be on the list to do those too.

My base $16-17 as well, depending on how many and if I can route them. If I can’t route them, I won’t do them no matter how many begging emails I get. I’ve seen a very rare few get $25-$30... if there were a few more of those in their “Would you do this location again?” e-mails, I’d go out of my way a bit more.

The fry prices are insane here — $3.29-$4 depending for a small — BUT they still have the value fries from $1.29-$1.79... it just makes sense to buy two of those if you actually want fries. They’ve very much tweaked the menu prices here to where you might as well just buy the combo... the latest is they all want to push a bottle of water on you and charge you for a combo when you ask for an ice water — and try to say it would be cheaper than if I ordered just the fries and a burger. I explain that it isn’t if I order the value fries instead of small,

What’s funny is that half the time I get a small or even medium fries if I ask for value size and it’s half the price lol

If the value fry option ever goes, my base goes up to $20.

@pegleg2000 wrote:

@my1958vw wrote:

SoCal, Inland Empire

I am in the Inland Empire too.

IE here, as well!

It’s been posted before, but you can take the window picture as you approach the counter. The cashier will not see you do that. It’s one of the example photos or used to be.

I've never had a picture rejected, and take it through the windshield,having it always come out. I take it with my handy Canon, not my phone. Every time (past tense) I get one it's like eating a piece of shoe leather, so saying it is juicy is due to all the mayo and stuff on it.
I do another (Carl's Jr.) which I enjoy and pretty much stopped JITB, for health reasons.
I take the cashier pic when her back is turned, takes about a second.

<<my1958vw: JIB has had mystery shoppers for more than 20 years... they had them when my sister was a restaurant manager for the company in the late 90's, so I don't think they are going away anytime soon...>>

JIB's mystery shopping program was in-house until the early 2000's. They hired a group of 20 or so and spent about a week training, complete with supervisor-observed shops on competitors. You were paid an hourly wage (from when you left home until you returned), mileage, and full reimbursement for 6-10 hour routes. If you saw a unsafe or unsanitary condition you could call corporate and they would close the doors until it was rectified. The job lasted 3 months, but you could be extended.

I did a year and almost 6 months (last few months helping with training) while employed full-time in another industry. They were great to work for.

A new Vice President took over the division and determined, by closing the department and using customer feedback cards, he could save a million dollars a year. Lots of feedback cards got filled out by each restaurant's staff, which "proved" how successful the cheaper quality control method was.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2019 08:54PM by TimothyCA.