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@myst4au wrote:

IMHO, this is not relevant. The minimum wage is always a before taxes number. Someone making minimum wage is subject to taxes. What rate they pay at varies, as does the rate that each of us pays at.
@klovie wrote:

Depending on what state one is in, the pay after taxes is less than minimum wage.

MS income is also subject to taxes.

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Yes $18 is ok when you factor in the meal that someone can enjoy. I bring it to my son most times. I quit doing those cheap a** bank shops years ago.

You mentioned about the ability to not get the MAO @ the $25 you had previously obtained. The point is if someone is a long standing good shopper why play the games? Pay them what they always had since they try to pull that card when it is good for them.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2022 04:45PM by klovie.

@ravensr4real wrote:

Yes $18 is ok when you factor in the meal that someone can enjoy. I bring it to my son most times. I quit doing those cheap a** bank shops years ago.

I always waited for the bank shops to get to around $30 before taking them, but rarely see that price anymore.

I finally got the call from the scheduler. Almost didn't pick it up, since it came in on my landline and did not say Marketforce (I only have it stored in my cell phone's address book). Anyway, they were offering the shop I wanted, initially only $18 which is the same as the website. Then when I told her $25 she tried to get me to take $22, but I told her no, since if I did that they next time they'd only give that amount. So she put in a request and in 15 minutes it got approved. It's an online order shop, so I don't have to stick around and eat. I was going to be in the area anyway.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2022 02:50AM by MisterBill.

@weatherman2111 wrote:

@ravensr4real wrote:

I'd say over here on the East Coast the food is really good 90% or more of the time. I would still NEVER pay the prices they charge unless it was a shop and at least $15 minimum. And when are they going to add a chicken sandwich??? Ever?

Gonna go with "never". Where would they cook one? Can't do it in the fry cookers, and I don't think they wanna add on to their supply chain anymore.

I wish they had chili. It would make a great topping for the hotdogs, for chili burgers, or in a bowl with cheese.

I chose a shop on the website based on the fee. When I opened the email, the fee was reduced by $2. I think this happened one other time.

Has anyone else seen this pattern?

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

@BirdyC wrote:

The fries had that taste of raw potato, not just slightly undercooked. I'll heat them up at home and eat them, but they weren't anywhere near up to standard. Everything else was really excellent--some of the best service I've gotten at any 5G location recently, and I was sure to comment highly on that.

I think you jinxed me. I got some undercooked fries for the first time on my Sunday shop. And I'd actually purchased a large size because I was able to get that with my veggie sandwich and regular drink and only go over by 8c. I wonder if they knew who I was based on the name on the online order, because they were cleaning when I got there. Of course, there weren't any other customers there, so maybe they were just doing it because customers had left. And if they knew who it was, they would have done a better job on the fries.

Also, something odd just happened. My local FG was showing as available last night, starting with the dinner shop this week that was still available (I had been out of rotation). I just logged back in to check on the current price, and I seem to be back out of rotation. Very odd.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2022 07:19PM by MisterBill.

Has anyone else noticed a change in the Five Guys shop fee increases since January 1? There are five locations I regularly shop, and it was always customary to see the shop fee go to $25 four to five days after the shop's first day (by Monday or Tuesday). But all of the FG shops since January 1 have maxed out at $18 on the board. Most of them have been sitting there for two to three weeks. I put in an MAO for my usual $25 on several of them, but my offers were refused. Best I was able to get was $20. While $18 is a decent fee compared to other MSCs, I don't know why they let these shops sit on the board unfilled for weeks, rather than raise the fee by a few bucks. Very few are taking them at that price here on the East Coast.

I also just had a FG shop rejected for the first time out of about 100 for something miniscule. Things are changing I guess in 2022

@ravensr4real wrote:

I also just had a FG shop rejected for the first time out of about 100 for something miniscule. Things are changing I guess in 2022

What did you consider miniscule?

@grrldude wrote:

Has anyone else noticed a change in the Five Guys shop fee increases since January 1? There are five locations I regularly shop, and it was always customary to see the shop fee go to $25 four to five days after the shop's first day (by Monday or Tuesday). But all of the FG shops since January 1 have maxed out at $18 on the board. Most of them have been sitting there for two to three weeks. I put in an MAO for my usual $25 on several of them, but my offers were refused. Best I was able to get was $20. While $18 is a decent fee compared to other MSCs, I don't know why they let these shops sit on the board unfilled for weeks, rather than raise the fee by a few bucks. Very few are taking them at that price here on the East Coast.

I've noticed that the fee for basically all the shops with this MSC, not just Five Guys, has a lower max that I can get. Whether it is MAO, talking to schedulers, etc., I almost never get previous fees that I used to be able to request. And yes, some shops sit around on the job board for weeks for my area as well, although Five Guys is still pretty popular here. But like you, I did notice that the fee hasn't increased over $18 for several weeks now (starting maybe in December?), even if it is a shop that has sat for weeks.

@grrldude wrote:

Has anyone else noticed a change in the Five Guys shop fee increases since January 1? There are five locations I regularly shop, and it was always customary to see the shop fee go to $25 four to five days after the shop's first day (by Monday or Tuesday). But all of the FG shops since January 1 have maxed out at $18 on the board. Most of them have been sitting there for two to three weeks. I put in an MAO for my usual $25 on several of them, but my offers were refused. Best I was able to get was $20. While $18 is a decent fee compared to other MSCs, I don't know why they let these shops sit on the board unfilled for weeks, rather than raise the fee by a few bucks. Very few are taking them at that price here on the East Coast.

Something does seem different. My usual MAO was rejected last week, although I did get my $25 when they called me. But I noticed that the Samantha emails now have the FG name in the subject line. It does appear that they pushed the shops from this past week that did not get filled out to the 31st and left the price at $18 rater than increasing to $25. We'll see how well it works for them. In some areas where they have enough shoppers and there is competition in a given week when people go back in rotation, maybe having an extra shop available at a lower price will work for them. Not so much in my area, at least based on my experience.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2022 06:21AM by MisterBill.

@MisterBill wrote:

And since the shop takes 30 minutes or less to complete, even the base price of $9 is higher than minimum wage.

I have to politely disagree. You have to spend, I think it's 15 or 20 minutes in store. When I consider drive times to and from the shop and then the reporting time, I get about an hour all in. $9 is below NY state minimum wage.

I have also noticed they seemed to have tightened up their acceptance of MAO in the last couple of weeks. That's okay, I can wait until they call me.

I can actually see a Five Guys out my back window, across the highway. But I won't do it for their base fee because of the above reasons, especially in winter conditions on the streets.

@wrosie wrote:

@MisterBill wrote:

And since the shop takes 30 minutes or less to complete, even the base price of $9 is higher than minimum wage.

I have to politely disagree. You have to spend, I think it's 15 or 20 minutes in store. When I consider drive times to and from the shop and then the reporting time, I get about an hour all in. $9 is below NY state minimum wage.

I have also noticed they seemed to have tightened up their acceptance of MAO in the last couple of weeks. That's okay, I can wait until they call me.

I can actually see a Five Guys out my back window, across the highway. But I won't do it for their base fee because of the above reasons, especially in winter conditions on the streets.

15 minutes after you get the food. In general, you should have your food 10 minutes after you order it, so 25 minutes total. 10-15 minutes to submit it online. Plus, you need to add the value of the food, even if you wouldn't normally buy it yourself.

I'm not sure what other shops you do, but most of them do not pay minimum wage if you calculate the total time spent including travel.

I just put in a $25 MAO for last week's dinner shop at my local FG, which they extended out to next Monday. We'll see if they reject it. Normally would have waited for a lunch shop this week, but some idiot took it for $12 already. They did increase the price for a late night shop to $25, but I have no interest in doing that.

Just had my $25 MAO approved for last week's dinner shop that they had pushed out to next Monday. So they are accepting them at that price. Approved pretty quickly, too.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2022 12:33AM by MisterBill.

I haven't done a Five Guys shop in weeks because the pay was not worth it. I will do one soon because the MSC finally offered enough (IMO).

Little cheeseburger, little fries, and a regular coke. $17.39 in New York City. Dios mio!

There are two locations posted at $18 with MAO that I normally get $30 to do. I've done MAO for both of them starting at $36 giving me leeway to come down $3 twice. Both have been rejected down to the $30 price point. I won't go to $27 and reset my required minimum fee.

Today I got a call from overseas offering me the $18 it is on the board for. I told him they've already rejected my MAO of $30. He offered $21, $25 and finally $28 saying that was the highest he could request.

I've also noticed the dates on the MAO shops have been extended. Also, one of the locations has two MAO listed, I think different time periods.

I'll wait some more to see how desperate they get. I think I've gotten $34 for one of the locations when they really needed it done.

Did my dinner shop today, took 20 minutes to get my food after ordering! At least the food was good. I usually get the veggie sandwich, but this time I got a burger and brought it home for my wife. Fortunately, the prices at this location weren't bad, so I was able to afford a little burger, little fries and large drink and stay under $14.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2022 08:07AM by MisterBill.

Since I'm a nerd, I put this comparison of historical prices vs reimbursement for the FG shops I have done. These prices are for little cheeseburger + little cajun fry + fountain drink.

Date Price Reimbursement Out of pocket
11/27/2020 14.69 12.75 1.94
1/8/2021 14.69 12.75 1.94
3/27/2021 15.72 12.75 2.97
6/12/2021 16.29 12.75 3.54
11/4/2021 16.29 14.2 2.09
12/3/2021 17.02 14.2 2.82
1/8/2022 17.02 14.2 2.82
1/28/2022 17.35 14.2 3.15

If my math is right, that's ~18% increase in price in 14 months. I do like FG burgers, but don't understand how people pay nearly $20 for a fast food burger meal. I haven't been on my own dime in years.

Edit: the formatting got totally screwed up pasting from Excel into this. Sorry, but you get the idea.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2022 04:45PM by hokiezz.

Yea and while I will say their food is a tiny step above the other local fast food joints, it’s not worth that extra money. I would never go there without a MS scheduled.

@Susan L. wrote:

Little cheeseburger, little fries, and a regular coke. $17.39 in New York City. Dios mio!

Yikes!

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

I agree, they are getting way too pricey for a little burger, fries and drink. Yet, around here, there are tons of people eating there. Why do folks think it's ok to spend so much on a burger meal? I guess a lot of folks have a lot of expendable cash...surprising, I'd rather spend my $$ at a good steak house or authentic Italian meal. To each his own I guess.

*****************************************************************************
The more I learn about people...the more I like my dog..

Mark Twain

I made an offer of $20 on an $18 fee for a shop not far from me--and it was rejected! Normally I get at least that for this location, sometimes more. I never do a FG shop for less than $25 if I have to drive more than5 or 10 minutes to get there, but this one is close enough that I'll do it for $20.

So I guess the "secret" is to offer $19 for these shops sitting at $18. Good luck to them getting them done by 1/31 if they won't budge on that.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

I just got off the phone with an overseas scheduler. He offered me SIX DOLLARS to complete a shop! I thought I had misunderstood and asked him to repeat the fee. It did not change.

When I talk to that company's schedulers I always put them on speakerphone so I can be looking at the note on my phone where I list the highest fee I have gotten for each shop and when I received it. So after his embarrassingly low offer I countered with my $25. He wanted to know when I had received that much and I gave him the month and year. He told me he would try to get his supervisor to sign off on that amount, and if so I would see the confirmation in my email. I'm not holding my breath.

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. Eleanor Roosevelt

@KathyG wrote:

I just got off the phone with an overseas scheduler. He offered me SIX DOLLARS to complete a shop! I thought I had misunderstood and asked him to repeat the fee. It did not change.

When I talk to that company's schedulers I always put them on speakerphone so I can be looking at the note on my phone where I list the highest fee I have gotten for each shop and when I received it. So after his embarrassingly low offer I countered with my $25. He wanted to know when I had received that much and I gave him the month and year. He told me he would try to get his supervisor to sign off on that amount, and if so I would see the confirmation in my email. I'm not holding my breath.

Wow, that IS bad. That is lower than the starting fee of $9. While I've had them offer me lower rates than what the job board currently lists (they might offer $12 when a job is at $15 on the board for example), I've never had them offer me less than the base fee. I'm glad you were prepared with info to argue your case!

@KathyG wrote:

He told me he would try to get his supervisor to sign off on that amount, and if so I would see the confirmation in my email. I'm not holding my breath.

I got a call today, and they offered $18, and I told them $25. She actually tried to get me to take $24, and I said no, so she put in for approval. It got approved. Hopefully you got yours as well.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2022 12:36AM by MisterBill.

As I suspected, there was no shop confirmation email. It's just as well, as I'm still trying to get rid of the extra holiday weight.

@MisterBill wrote:

@KathyG wrote:

He told me he would try to get his supervisor to sign off on that amount, and if so I would see the confirmation in my email. I'm not holding my breath.
I got a call today, and they offered $18, and I told them $25. She actually tried to get me to take $24, and I said no, so she put in for approval. It got approved. Hopefully you got yours as well.

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. Eleanor Roosevelt

@KathyG wrote:

As I suspected, there was no shop confirmation email. It's just as well, as I'm still trying to get rid of the extra holiday weight.

That's crazy. Was it posted for $18? They originally called to offer me $15 for a location I had taken for that price a couple of months ago and was currently listed at $18 (and I had only taken it because it was a curbside shop at a location that doesn't do curbside, so t took it to submit as closed).

Really surprised that they would not approve $25 for you at a location you'd already done for that price.

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