My answer is gyms (to ensure that they are following strict measures to prevent cleanliness and crowding issues).

Curbside service for various businesses.

Just because the country may reopen doesn't mean that everyone will be rushing to go back into stores and restaurants. I am sure that many of us will continue to utilize curbside services and online shopping.

I won't step foot into a gym regardless of whether or not they are following strict measures, no matter how much of a bonus they want to pay me!!!

day care centers (parents of young children, if they then go to old or new jobs, might use these?)

senior centers (mil and her cohorts miss their discussions and other get-togethers!!!!!)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2020 08:27PM by Shop-et-al.

grocery stores: my Harris Teeter's staff were not social distancing, nor wearing masks

Restaurants to track if they are observing new rules, wearing masks, spacing customers..."

TP's quantity, home delivery services. Addy correct? Delivery crates intact and not smashed, torn, holey, and/or missing strapping tape? Delivery on time? Plastic wrap intact and not slashed? Paper... well, you know...?

McDonalds

Assisted living facilities, and especially Alzheimer's facilities. Those dear folks don't understand, and they need almost one on one help.

The unfortunate thing about the assisted living facility shops is that those are mostly just evaluations of the sales efforts of their leasing agents. They would really have to change the format of those shops to be more of an evaluation of whether the facilities are following correct protocol and not focus on salesmanship.

Most states have an ombundsman program that is required to visit nursing homes on a scheduled timeframe. Not sure if this extends to assisted living. A mystery shopper would have to be well trained to know what to look for in these homes. From what I could see when my mom was briefly in one of the nursing homes is that the response time was not very good. And she was in one which was rated 5*. I cannot imagine what the rest are like. But these types of things and inspecting for infractions are things that require being there for a while. You would not be able to go into a patients room and pretend to be a family member. Yes, a mystery shopper could check for certain things but not most. Perhaps the ombundsman programs could have a lower trained staff or use mystery shoppers to go in between the not so frequent visits by the state and check out some of the things that just an eye or ear could check on.
I think we could certainly be less expensive eyes and ears for the beaches and parks and other gathering places to check on social distancing and report back about hot spots. The police just cannot be everywhere so we could be used as a force to relieve the police depts of some of that duty and they could just go to the spots reported as out of compliance and then take care of other types of crimes with their freed up time.

Until recently I had visited an assisted living facility with a friend to see their relative. I was shocked and awed when I saw an MS posting for that exact facility. Nope, way too much writing to be done. The place was absolutely filthy, the stench was overwhelming, walls and floor coated with muck, leaks in the ceiling, roaches EVERYWHERE! Oh, and the hateful workers were mean AF. This was for low income people, maybe the rich have it better, I don't know. But to think some entity wanted this place mystery shopped was crazy to me. Probably a competitor. I never understood how the place was even allowed to operate. It was like hard-time prison in a third world country. Seriously, that bad.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2020 05:44PM by sestrahelena.

I like that, generally. I would bet that money will be found for more frequent and intensive formal inspections. Perhaps more inspectors will be hired for awhile until the risk has abated. I could see some (not all!) shoppers fitting right in and being eyes and ears for a detail in the larger picture.

Picture it: home for bewildered, 2020 and beyond... we schedule a little visit with "our" friend or relative and arrange for them to meet us in the public garden or rec room (or someplace not their room). This works because someone has approved us. We never go without some authority to be there!!!!! Someone brings us benign beverages (or at least offers them; failure to do so might count as a mark against basic hospitality). We ease our person into whatever conversation they can have or simply not interrupt the talkers, enjoy whatever stories they can tell, and see how staff and inmates interact with each other in the public area. Someone might want to know if this is consistent with behavior in the private places and at times when we are not there.

Yes, the rich do have it much better. My husband's grandmother lived in a place where she had a nice apartment with a balcony overlooking a wooded park. They had a dining room with linens and a wait staff with good food, it had a billiards room and tons of other activities, and it was clean clean clean. But it was also very expensive.

There are many things an observant shopper can report on, beyond the sales pitch. The ones I've done included pictures of public places such as facility rec rooms, libraries, hair salons, vacant rooms, etc. Additionally, they asked if the residents were acknowledged by name and if they seemed to be comfortable around staff. Issues such as mentioned above like cleanliness, odors, infestations, etc definitely need to be monitored frequently and can be done by a shopper. Mystery shops make a good addition to the required state inspections, which are usually announced and planned for with extra cleaning and a better menu than usual.

The place my mom moved into was also quite nice but it too had its issues. She was in a retirement home, not assisted living or a nursing home both of which are much different as the residents need increasing amts of medical attention and help with everyday activities. Where my mom lived she just got decent food in a dining room and her room cleaned and bed made daily.Pricey. Her friend lived a few blocks away in a similar place half the cost. The company running it decided to move their overflow Alzheimers pts in there from another facility they owned. The catch was her place was not approved for Alzheimers and the front door was open for anyone to come and go. And go they did. The police had to go and catch an Alzheimers patient who had walked out the front door. Shortly thereafter the place got shut down.
Those types of things are things perhaps mystery shoppers could help with but again I think they would need some sort of briefing first on what to look for and probably a letter of approval before they enter and start snooping around.

When the country reopens, it will be especially important for the Unemployment Office to be shopped.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2020 01:01PM by ArkLaMissshopping.

@ArkLaMissshopping wrote:

When the country reopens, it will be especially important for the Unemployment Office to be shopped.

For anyone upset with how your local unemployment office is functioning, please take moment to understand what they are encountering; Records low in unemployment that immediately spiked to what may possibly be the highest unemployment rate the country has ever seen....and then contractors added to the mix of the people they need to service. All of this with outdates software that in many cases dated back tot he 70's.

I know that in CA, the EDD office attempted to give the workers Easter off so that they could be with the families after working for 2 straight weeks, and the workers declined! They wanted to do everything they could to be sure money was getting to people who needed it ASAP.

I would have to pass. Not sure I could go into it without thinking "Yeah, let's straighten this bunch out".

@ArkLaMissshopping wrote:

When the country reopens, it will be especially important for the Unemployment Office to be shopped.

I think we will see a greater shift for us observing cleanliness, hygiene, and whether or not restaurants and stores are following proper protocol.

I'm reminded of a Subway visit where the worker was sweeping the floor in front of the food buffet while I waited, then she did not wash her hands and then began to prepare my order. Completely unhygienic.

@panama18 wrote:

I would have to pass. Not sure I could go into it without thinking "Yeah, let's straighten this bunch out".

@ArkLaMissshopping wrote:

When the country reopens, it will be especially important for the Unemployment Office to be shopped.

My state should have been shopped well before covid. What a hopeless circus! Luckily for the locals, there are generations' worth of people who learned from childhood how to best used the systems that are in place. An outsider doesn't stand a chance!

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@ArkLaMissshopping wrote:

When the country reopens, it will be especially important for the Unemployment Office to be shopped.

For anyone upset with how your local unemployment office is functioning, please take moment to understand what they are encountering; Records low in unemployment that immediately spiked to what may possibly be the highest unemployment rate the country has ever seen....and then contractors added to the mix of the people they need to service. All of this with outdates software that in many cases dated back tot he 70's.

I know that in CA, the EDD office attempted to give the workers Easter off so that they could be with the families after working for 2 straight weeks, and the workers declined! They wanted to do everything they could to be sure money was getting to people who needed it ASAP.

They wanted double time and a half. Come on. Get real. I'd have taken that too.