I've seen a few shops where they send you a product and you have to go replenish or replace items at a store. The one that comes to mind first is prepaid Visa cards at Food Lion locations. Also seen brochures for doctors' offices. My question is why in the world aren't they just sending the product to the store itself and having them do it? Seems so inefficient to go through a third party (MSC) and even a fourth (us). Any thoughts?

To ensure the product is actually placed.

They don't pay enough for me to take that much time.

This works well for me.

John? For these merches, it is okay and sometimes required to bring the paperwork into the location with you.

Here's what has personally happened to me when the items are shipped to the store:

1. "You have to see the manager for that. He's not here."
2. No one can find it.
3. It came in, but no one knows where it went.
4. "Oh. We threw that away."
5. "Oh, we already put them on the display."
6. "It's in the stockroom. I don't have time to get it."
7. "We returned it."

And on...and on....and on.

If it's shipped to me, I have it, I know where it is, it gets put in the right place, it doesn't get thrown out....etc, etc., etc.

EXACTLY, Cease!!!! Me too, I've run into those SAME situations when items are shipped to the store!!

Recently, I was well paid on two separate occasions to call and visit a store. There was no product. I was overpaid. But do you see me complaining?!

A few weeks later, I personally visited the location and saw "my" completed project along with a few similar ones.

In retrospect, I think this might have been the equivalent of a comic book sales integrity shop. Someone wanted to be certain that the items would not be seen until the designated time. (Someone wants to be certain that new comics are not sold early.)

How much time do you think it will take?

@johnb974 wrote:

They don't pay enough for me to take that much time.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

John? For these merches, it is okay and sometimes required to bring the paperwork into the location with you.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

LOLOLOLOLOL good one, Shop-et-al. You made a funny and it was a good one!

I have had the same thing happen to me a ton of times over the years.
You spend an hour either waiting for the store to try and find it or the store tells you to look for, and when you have spent 45 minutes to an hour looking, the manager, dept. manager comes up and says "oh, we tossed that out the day it it came in, we don't have to time to deal with that stuff."

Why John, you obviously don't do much merchandising, do you? There are two companies I do work for that pay me hourly for administrative time, which encompasses time spent accepting and opening a package, reading over instructions, and time spent printing paperwork (and they also pay me 10 cents per copy for each page printed). They pay me drive time and mileage, too. I can always make time for these companies to accept packages they send to my house.

There are other companies that pay a flat rate for merchandising jobs but they pay very, very well. It's a big timesaver for me if they send the materials to my house rather than me having to wait at the store for a manager, then hunt all over the place for something that may or may not have arrived at the store or might have gotten thrown away, as other people have posted in this thread. And sometimes it might be there but no one knows where it is. Backrooms get pretty disorganized at some stores and they just have a LOT of stuff back there. If I am getting paid a flatrate, I much rather would walk in, touch base with the manager, and get the project completed quickly and efficiently so I can move on to the next assignment.

@johnb974 wrote:

They don't pay enough for me to take that much time.

I'm waiting on a phone to use for a job later this week.

Yup. At my leisure, I prep any materials that I can before I enter a location. Today, I combined contents of two boxes into one and entered with picture-ready displays. Mind you, the whole scene would have been more impactful with me in sarong followed by string of flunkies bearing gilded merchandise trunks from which displays appear. But that can wait for a future project. It was good enough to show up with fewer shipping boxes and some completed parts of the project.

Has anyone shop Church Chicken? It is with a well known MSC's that does all their scheduling online. Well, I got a call begging me to do it with a "bonus", all whopping $3 bonus. I said ok, but after reading the Guidelines and instructions, I cancelled. All the stuffs they want me to do for a whopping $8 reimb and $6 fee. Ridiculous. First, I had to print and cut out the Oops and Congrats cards, go through the drive thru, time and count cars, order with $8 only reimbursement, go in and check the restroom and dining room and the promo displays, take photos, go back to the car, score the place with drumsticks as a scoring system, then reveal myself and award them either with Congrats or if failed, with Oops cards. Then take names, full names, of (at least 4 lines were on the report) the manager and at least 4 team members. All that for a lousy $6 fee, 3 of which is considered "Bonus". I called back and said no, Thank You.

I did one out of curiousity. It was a chance to try the chickken and I was going by it anyway. Easy shop to do and report (this MSC always has easy f tedious reports). Lousy pay. I won't do another. I do go back occasionally for the fried okra (not permitted on the shop, but I saw it on the menu).

@ShopperFun99 wrote:

Has anyone shop Church Chicken? It is with a well known MSC's that does all their scheduling online. Well, I got a call begging me to do it with a "bonus", all whopping $3 bonus. I said ok, but after reading the Guidelines and instructions, I cancelled. All the stuffs they want me to do for a whopping $8 reimb and $6 fee. Ridiculous. First, I had to print and cut out the Oops and Congrats cards, go through the drive thru, time and count cars, order with $8 only reimbursement, go in and check the restroom and dining room and the promo displays, take photos, go back to the car, score the place with drumsticks as a scoring system, then reveal myself and award them either with Congrats or if failed, with Oops cards. Then take names, full names, of (at least 4 lines were on the report) the manager and at least 4 team members. All that for a lousy $6 fee, 3 of which is considered "Bonus". I called back and said no, Thank You.

Photos showing the correct product placement. Authenticate barcodes numbers and card counts is my best guess. Doubt if Stores want to submit that info

The company is paying....enough said... the company wants to insure their product is stocked to be marketed.....also insures the product is not outdated or just sitting in back stock

Ceasesmith:
I've done a few product demos, and those are done the same way. They ship what I need to me (even the money to buy the product) and that why I know where it is. It is a pain sometimes because I can end up with tons of stuff to cart to the store, but I can understand why it is done that way.

I love product demos. I get paid $25 an hour for those (more for some companies). I did 3 demos last weekend, 6 hour demos for each store. I did one today for the same company and again tomorrow and Sunday. I just wish this company had them more often.

Once, I was adding my wee few merch items to a large display. Another merchandiser was there and replenishing everything else from back stock. There they were, on top of the ladder-- momentarily-- then down again for more product-- and up, and down, and...

I hope that they were paid in the $30 or more range for that assignment!

I don't do heights. I have a small stepstool and I don't get any higher up than that.

Yup. That was a high risk activity, even for that nimble one.

It was time-consuming, too. Employees would not have time to devote to that task or to work on it piecemeal.

YES, for all the reasons that Ceasesmith listed.

Just yesterday UPS pulled up outside and needed a handcart to hault the 6 frikkin' giant boxes for some (highly bonused) jobs I took on for next week. I should have realized these were going to be large when the word "shipper" was used in the description of items being sent! Oy.

Ours is not to reason why. This seems unnecessary to me as well. I did a few of the doctors offices and was not met with the most cordial of greetings so I don't do them anymore. The Visa replacements ask for a lot of work for not much money. One coffeehouse has been mystery shopped for over 15 years. Why? Do they not read any of the reports and then simply correct the errors?

You are not part of that patient-centered, HIPPA-controlled medical office. You might be a nuisance for staffers who would rather work the brochure replacement into their work days a few times per year or do away with the brochures altogether! Their patients always come first, and you may be granted access, oh lowly vendorial one.

Card replacements usually are simplistic. When tptb are changing something, there is more work. At those times, the pay should be higher due to additional steps in the procedure.

I have not merched at a coffee shop. What are you talking about. with the coffeehouse remark?

Ugh, I did a standee project at a few grocery stores once, where we had to find them in a backroom that was packed tight enough to make my claustrophobia twinge just thinking about it now. And I have seen that store be fully renovated twice, so it's insane that they still have a storeroom that packed, even if the truck did come in that day. I would never have done that nonsense again, even if my body could still take being on my feet that long anymore. Generally I do far more merchandising and auditing gigs than mystery shopping. I prefer the admin of that work. But only the ones that pay commensurate with the work/travel involved.

One company has been trying to push me, for years, to go to convenience stores and get their managers to order more of a particular product. And my telling them "hell, no" several times doesn't get disseminated between the reps - but neither does, "No, if I cannot be on my feet for more than 10-15 minutes at a time, I obviously cannot do your 8-hour reset." I wouldn't even do those sales-pitch gigs for decent pay, much less crap like $10 a location. If I wanted to be in sales (and I most definitely do not) I'd be in a job with a decent bonus or commissions, not $2 if you convince them to order, on a day when they're probably not planning to put their order in anyway.

Oh, what's that? You'd like me to learn what days my local convenience store chain managers are in, and what hours they are usually planning their weekly orders? Ahh, but that's what an actual route salesperson does, because you are paying them to do so. You're certainly not paying me to do so.

Is this a complaint about an opportunity to be paid?

This is very funny.

@ShopperFun99 wrote:

Has anyone shop Church Chicken? It is with a well known MSC's that does all their scheduling online. Well, I got a call begging me to do it with a "bonus", all whopping $3 bonus. I said ok, but after reading the Guidelines and instructions, I cancelled. All the stuffs they want me to do for a whopping $8 reimb and $6 fee. Ridiculous. First, I had to print and cut out the Oops and Congrats cards, go through the drive thru, time and count cars, order with $8 only reimbursement, go in and check the restroom and dining room and the promo displays, take photos, go back to the car, score the place with drumsticks as a scoring system, then reveal myself and award them either with Congrats or if failed, with Oops cards. Then take names, full names, of (at least 4 lines were on the report) the manager and at least 4 team members. All that for a lousy $6 fee, 3 of which is considered "Bonus". I called back and said no, Thank You.

CleverK, you are spot on.

You want me to sell, give me the salesperson's job -- and pay me!