I know KSS and Maritz were absorbed into Ipsos, but BestMark has lost all record of me and won't let me sign back up (even though when I stopped shopping I had no shops open or anything, I just . . . moved to a new place and couldn't take assignments anymore), and I swear I used to have a list of sites I checked daily but can no longer find.

Any recommendations on where I might sign up to replace my lost sites? I'm currently signed with BARE, MarketForce (although they don't really have anything good in my area--I have to drive like 20 miles to get into their locations), Ipsos, and Confero.

I'm in Arizona, so places with southwestern clients would be great. I'd like to have seven or eight companies to work with at a minimum, so things are a little threadbare--the Ipsos competition here is FIERCE and the only Confero shop that shows up a lot down here is one I'll soon be aged out of.

I would start by looking around the forum and finding the sub-forums. Scroll down and look for a link to "All Forums" and the link to "Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies"and then look for the merchandising sub-forum. Some companies offer both shops and merches, and others specialize in merchandising. Some thread titles include the states where we are needed. This might guide you immediately to companies that have work in Arizona. This will give you [hopefully] lists of active companies and more assignment types. If not, please know that some clients and MSC's are experiencing substantial changes which affect us. If you still cannot find more gigs in Arizona, please try again in future. Something might change for the better then. Meanwhile, sign up for as many MSC's and merchandising companies as you can because you never know what will pop up. Good luck!

p.s. Can you travel? If so, you might pick up routes that include work in other states.

The job board here is a good place to start.

PrestoInstaMaps shows literally thousands of available assignments in AZ. That's an aggregate of companies using the SASSIE platform.

And yes, sign up for new companies in your spare time. If you start with the "15 most discussed" at the top of the list, you'll find more shops than you could handle.

Just a quick correction to clarify who KSS is...

We were not absorbed into Ipsos. We are a third party scheduling company that does scheduling for several mystery shop companies.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2021 04:27PM by KSSPete.

Ah, my mistake. I stopped shopping in 2014 due to a dearth of shops available in my area, and at that point KSS was still its own mystery shopping company (or at least, that's the impression I got). I assumed it'd been absorbed.

@ceasesmith I KNEW THAT THING EXISTED. I couldn't remember the name of it to save my life. I've seen a few folks here getting down on Sassie, but I honestly prefer it to the Ipsos layout. Having a physical map I can scroll to see what's near me is fantastic. Thanks for the reminder, I should be able to pick up quite a few from there.

@Shop-et-al Not the distances required for other states, I can't. Not yet. One of the reasons I picked up shopping again is because my car is . . . not on its last legs, but probably could do with a cane. I'm hoping to stash away my shop money for three major purchases I need to make (new computer--that one really IS on its last legs, new mattress--same, and finally, down payment for a new car), at which point yeah, I can pick up long, LONG routes. Right now I'm just trying to stay in Phoenix metro so I don't aggravate my transmission.

I understand.

@ninamason wrote:

Ah, my mistake. I stopped shopping in 2014 due to a dearth of shops available in my area, and at that point KSS was still its own mystery shopping company (or at least, that's the impression I got). I assumed it'd been absorbed.

KSS was never, and will never be, a mystery shopping company.

For the mattress, get more life out of it by putting boards between the mattress and box springs.

For the computer, when mine died, I ordered a refurbished laptop from Tiger Direct for less than $100. Been using it two years without problems. Perhaps that's something you might consider for the short term.

To amass dollars for a down payment, get in the habit of asking for bonuses. I just did 8 gas stations at an average of $57.50 each that started on the job boards at $10. But like you stated earlier, where competition is fierce, shops tend to disappear right off the board at base pay. And many of the more lucrative shops just aren't being done currently.

I live in a super rural area, and there literally is not another shopper within 100 miles. Unfortunately, there aren't many shops much closer than that. I HAVE to ask for bonuses to make driving 200 miles worthwhile; and then, to be profitable, I have to turn the shop into a mini-route.

When I started doing this, I was a lot younger, and had the energy to shop all the thrift stores when I was on a shopping route. I would buy stuff at the thrifts, and sell on e-Bay and Amazon. I picked up magazines, books, china, Aloha shirts (OMG, Aloha shirts!! Buy for $2 or less, sell within 5 hours for $25-$75!!!), stuff like that. I bought a gravy bowl for fifty cents, and sold it for $105.50 on e-bay. I got a Sears catalog, 1919, NOT facsimile, the original, for $2 and sold it for $100. I picked up some sci-fi magazines for free, and one of them had the original short story "The Fireman" (Fahrenheit 451). I sold that issue for $100, and sold the rest of them on Craigslist.

Just an idea; that's my method of "double dipping".

You might also consider doing shops that don't pay much, but reimburse in full for stuff you'd pay out of pocket for. Groceries, oil changes, stuff like that. When I was in Salt Lake City, I did a LOT of grocery store shops for Trendsource. Didn't pay much, but I never had to spend money out of my pocket for groceries. That saved me a fortune. And since most of the pay was reimbursement, no taxable income created.

Best of luck.