This has been on my mind lately. I'm a very part time, casual shopper...but I like to observe different businesses.
Just my perspective, but these thoughts have been crossing my mind as of late.
MSCs are simply the "middle man" between a business or merchant and a shopper. What do they add beyond making MS arrangements for the business or merchant? They don't carry inventory or hire many employees...they can easily vanish overnight.
After this situation ends, if they are able to, the merchants will have secured funds to re-start their business (if a restaurant or store, for example).. and they will decide if they still need to have their businesses shopped.
A shopper may have found other sources of income and may not be interested in starting up shopping again.
I fully believe that this experience will spur new technology related to increased virtual interactions. In a new era of increased virtual interaction, what would mystery shopping look like?
As we speak, companies are investigating new ways to monitor employees they cannot physically see....these new patterns could carry over to mystery shopping.