And I, will risk losing my girlish figure, for the love of my sweet scheduler who gives my husband and I the 5 coffee and donut shops scattered about Charlotte.
My husband has heart disease and is still willing to sacrifice his health by drinking all the coffee we have to buy. He absolutely loves it, so he'll pay the price. He's also a diabetic, so he can't eat the donuts. It's such a shame I have to eat them all! With all those calories in them, they're very bad for me, but I can't throw them out and there aren't enough to give to a soup kitchen. If the assignment is to buy a breakfast sandwich, we do share - the sandwiches and the pounds.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2008 06:23AM by sandilynn.

What was the topic? hahahaha Sneakers needs icecream! Problem solved.

He could take the decaf, SandiLynn, this month especially. The breakfast sandwiches weren't as calorie-ridden as the donuts. I'm not sure the eggs ever came out of a real chicken.

One Thing a Shopper Needs: a partner to help her consume the calories.

Come to think of it, while talking about food and drink, it brought home to me another category of qualities an MS MUST have. It is neccessary for each shopper to have a ravenous appetite and be starving at any given moment on any day when you are required to eat and report on the quality of the eaten item. One bite will NOT do. It takes at least 4 bites to get the full effect. If you're doing 5-6 of these shops, don't eat for 2 days ahead of the shops.
A good MS also needs to be constantly thirsty and sometimes even a lush. If you are going to do fast food places where you have to buy a soda, or a breakfast place where you have to buy coffee or hot chocolate, or a "Slush" shop at the mall, you have to be dying of thirst. Being a lush or a heavy drinker is neccessary if occasionally you have to buy a drink before dinner at the bar and then another at the table during dinner. That can lead to another and another, etc. Pretty soon, you've drunk up all your profit! At that point - who cares?

I've rarely been thirsty enough to take more than a sip of that donut shop's coffee.

I don't do any of those shops!!! Last thing I need is more calories, plus I am a nutrition freak, and organic is a must. Why I still weigh so much, who knows. Did yall watch the season finale of Biggest Loser, I was so rooting for Ali. She busted her ___ !!! I want to MS a fat camp! lol

Another quality:

The ability to stay focused

Adapting to change! I started MSing because my job, my life and my thinking changes constantly. I figure folks like me with the need for constant change, get good at msing. Humdrum jobs don't work for me, I can't do repetative or montamous anything. I thrive on stress, not drama, lets not confuse the two. Time lines and frames make the job better and challenges myself.
Speaking of which, my kids get up for school in 2 hours. I gotta go, talk to yall tomorrow. BYE

For the fast food jobs, a cast iron stomach and the metabolism of a field mouse.

But with all the beverages it just makes it easier to remember to check the restrooms.

Flash, you are so right. I had all but given up on the fast food several months ago, because at my age I have to carefully watch what I eat. I ended up doing a few last minute ones because it was bonused. I now cannot drive past the location without my stomach turning. I am swearing off once more.

It is really easy for me to resist them because at most ff places there is something that I like--I love Wendy's shakes, Checkers' curly fries, BK's Whopper, etc.--but rarely are we allowed to order what we like. To me the 'nasty' award goes to the DD breakfast sandwich ordered in the 4-7PM time frame. I swear the pieces must have been left over from the morning run and considering what they did to my digestive system I suspect they had not been refrigerated during the day . . .

Gross...........and yet another reason not to do resturants, you never really know whats going inside. Or how well it will come out.
Flash how ya like that cigarette tax the are working on? 300% increase, A pack of smokes will cost more than gas. If my grand parents were still alive they would kill over. If I still smoked, I would do gas station shops, so I could afford them, the problem would come with being able to find a MS job at the gas station frequently.

I turned down those gas shops because I could not figure out how to buy $1.00 worth of gas. It also seems like a lot of work for little pay. It was nice reading your column. Thanks for the input.

rlly

You don't have to buy just $1 worth, rlly; you'll be reimbursed for only $1. But if you have Ritter in your area, they pay much better on a diff brand of gas. I've gotten $12+$5 for gas late in the month, and $8+5 early in the month. Plus the shop is super-easy.

reliability

If you do a lot of gas stations or work in rundown neighborhoods : a strong, preferably young, bladder.

A tiny pen and tiny pieces of paper stuck in your sock. I once had to hide these in my sneaker because I was a testing service where they locked up all our possessions. I wore my largest sneakers that day, tucked a tiny stub of a pencil under the laces, and took notes in the bathroom. Now I use a DVR.

Flash: I had 6 DD breakfast sandwiches after you told me about that, but skipped the bacon. But they were all at breakfast time. I smelled each one before I bit. But people get sick at regular restaurants sometimes also. Prevention is difficult.

When I do gas station shops, I usually buy a soda, and go imbetween all my other shops. They have never instructed me to "buy gas." Although, five or ten rem. in gas couldn't hurt. As much as Exxon/Shell are making off gas, they're shops should be high dollar! We couldn't be so lucky.

Sandra,

I usually dont work dec, jan and feb because we get most of our snow in those months, the only time I will work those months is if I get a call from a company on that needs to be done. I also have a mail order business that I am working full time. I cant work at a regular job anymore since my heart attack.

See, Charlened, there had to be someone other than our lonesome selves helping some of these shoppers! My husband works nights and overtime. I finally got him to go on a real estate assignment because I commented that I feel funny not being able to say I'm married (It almost slips out, too.). We had to record the assignment, so he made himself in charge of the recording. He absolutely loved it! He asked all sorts of technical questions of the agent. Then I took him to a membership assignment, and then a festival where I had to evaluate a booth inside. It's one way to get to actually see him once in awhile. This week, he has his part-time second job(s) so I'm not seeing him in a week. He sleeps over at a relative's house that is closer to these jobs. Usually, he's gone only one or two 24-hour-periods at a time. If it wasn't for cell phones, we'd never talk. Thank God for cell phones.

Off topic: Do any of you have a cell phone that has good reception? Our house is supposed to have four bars and between our grown children and us, we all have different providers and are unhappy with all of them. The reception varies in one spot, too. I can almost never get good reception at the computer or my favorite chair. I can get up and move to another part of the house and a call has been waiting 45 minutes whereas, the day before, I was getting reception there. Sometimes I have to walk around the yard and driveway to find anything. And yet there is a town way out in the country where I get good reception. I have called all over to try to find out which government agency or company is in charge of or even knows who is in charge of the nearest microwave towers. My husband said reception was a little better a few years ago, and he thinks they turned a tower or something. I've called the radio station, county emergency coordinator, the operator and the cell phone company. Our son works on an offshore oil rig. He has been able to call us from his cell phone. Recently, he was put on a different rig further out in the Gulf, so he uses a computer phone and nearly always gets reception when he's allowed to call. I think they have to sign up or take turns. His calls are much less frequent, but there aren't many dropped calls on his side.

Yes, one quality we need is a good husband who helps us with our assignments. That's wonderful, you and your husband can team together. I was telling my husband tonight that I thought I should sign him up with some MSing companies who need men. He agreed. I know he gets tired sitting in the car sometimes. But he does help me with drive-ins,drive-thrus and gas stations. He counts the cars on the lot and looks for signage and what's on both sides of the marque. I couldn't do MSing without him.
As for the cell phone, I have problems with mine also. We are always charging it up. My husband uses his more than I do. Sometimes the call will go directly to voice mail and he's got it right there with him. What did we do before cell phones, fax machines, and etc?

We were farmers.

My husband has worked in the computer industry, so he helps me a lot. Unfortunately, the computer industry is advancing sometimes even beyond his knowledge. It's hard to believe that I learned to type on a manual typewriter. On part-time jobs, I've sometimes been asked how I can type so fast. Well, I've been since I was 15, and I had several jobs that required lots of it.

Sandra

My husband goes along on any shop when he is not working. When it comes to the computer he does not even know how to turn it on. I learned that myself and had help from my son who is a computer whiz. I think he was upset when I decided to figure it out on my own. He thought he had me over the barrel when I first started doing the shopping and he had to basically send in all my reports for me. Shopping is the only reason I decided to figure out the computer.
Talking about learning on the manual typewriters. Did you also do the old fashion Gregg shorthand. One of my first jobs was at the Capitol in Nebraska and I had to do the purchasing for the Senators and Representatives. They would send someone up with their order and I would take it down in shorthand and hope that they got what they needed. To this day I still am doing shorthand in my head when someone says something to me.

Many times I've wished I knew shorthand so I could take notes while I shopped

I learned it in High School, but never did use it on a job. So I have forgotten. Thank God, I learned to type on a typewriter in the 10th grade. I worked in an office all my life. But I do take a lot of notes when I'm doing a detailed shop. I think I should get myself a small DVR so I can do shops faster. I have three tomorrow. They have to be done between 2-4pm. Two are really close together and the other is 22 minutes away. My husband will be driving so I should be able to accomplish this.

DVRs are the best thing since sliced bread. I'd be lost without mine.

I bought myself a DVR almost a year ago and so far have not used it. I just start writing my notes as quickly as possible when I get in the car. I just tell whoever is driving lets leave here quick so I don't forget anything by the time I get out of the parking lot.
Maybe one of these days I will try out my DVR. I have been tempted to get one of those programs where you dictate into the computer and it does the typing. Has anyone tried them? I hate to spend a lot of money for one if it does not work.
When I have 50 reports to do in two days it would be nice to have a secretary. My husband keeps telling me to hire one but so far am afraid they would not do it to my specifications. I know I would have to proof-read every report anyway so figure I might as well type it.
I don't use copy and paste either so it ends up being a lot of typing.

dquiring, I didn't learn Gregg. I was in the college-bound program in high school, and they emphasized other courses for me. I went to college year-round, taking overloads, and graduated in three years. The summer courses ended on a particular date so we could have a break before the fall semester. I learned that the business college down the street offered Speedwriting, so I took it there. Since there was no college, I had to move out of my dorm and into the business college's dorm. I was still on the student newspaper staff where I was getting my degree in Journalism. One day, there was a murder at the park next to the original college, and I covered it for the school paper. Then I went to my dorm at the other college, talking about it. The students there informed me that students of the business college were not allowed to go to that park. It was always hard to get a job in journalism. I graduated after the Woodward-Bernstein book on scandals, and Walter Cronkite was still popular. My graduate school graduated more journalists each year than there were job openings in the entire country. I was interested in business journalism, so every job offer came with "and you will be the secretary, too". The pay was usually less than I'd expect to be paid as a secretary. So I went to another business college and took a refresher course in Speedwriting. It is a very useful skill. It beats recording and transcribing, which is very time consuming.

Sandra

We mystery shoppers talk about not getting paid well. Are those of you who are taking your husbands paying them or are you counting their hours into this payment in pennies, nickles and dimes?

Sandra

The College I went to did not have a Business Coarse when I started. There were four of us girls that decided we wanted more Business coarses so we went and talked to the Dean of Students. He told us if we could find a teacher we could add the classes. We found a teacher so were able to take our typing and Gregg shorthand. We had all had it in high school also so just needed an advanced coarse. We found out the secretary at the college was qualified to also teach so it worked out great. That was over 40 years ago and since then Business is a regular degree at that school. I guess we started something they realized was a good thing.

I also took the jounalism classes at that time. They did have those available.

No wonder some of you all are so proficient in your writing abilities. Having taken journalism and business courses. I went to a Vocational High School, took business courses but nothing like you had. I didn't go on to college. I wish I had. Was married for a few years, had two sons, and had to go back into the office workforce. There I stayed for over 30 years, until Hurricane Katrina chased me up the state of Louisiana away from the New Orleans area.

When I started this business, and had to write narratives, first I felt as if something creative that had been laying dormant was coming to surface for me. I was thinking about taking a writing course. But now since narratives take too long for me I rather do the short questionnaires and take on more shops.