Five guys closed early.

The five guys i was supposed to do today closed early due to short of staff. Will i get the food reimbursement fee in addition to the mystery shop fee?

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No. Reimbursement is for money spent. You did not spend money on food, so you can not be reimbursed for it. Did you go there and find them closed? If so, I suspect you are going to be asked why you didn't call them in advance. Calling them in advance would equate to a $3 (I think) closed location fee. If they told you on the phone that they would be open and then you went and found them closed, you get the full fee.

@DavePi wrote:

The five guys i was supposed to do today closed early due to short of staff. Will i get the food reimbursement fee in addition to the mystery shop fee?

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

@myst4au wrote:

No. Reimbursement is for money spent. You did not spend money on food, so you can not be reimbursed for it. Did you go there and find them closed? If so, I suspect you are going to be asked why you didn't call them in advance. Calling them in advance would equate to a $3 (I think) closed location fee. If they told you on the phone that they would be open and then you went and found them closed, you get the full fee.
@DavePi wrote:

The five guys i was supposed to do today closed early due to short of staff. Will i get the food reimbursement fee in addition to the mystery shop fee?

It's typically $3 if you find them closed via phone call or 1/3 of the shop fee if it requires a visit to determine if they're open. So if you called and they said they'd be open and you get there and they're closed you get a third of your shop fee

I have a similar issue with one of the Five Guys in my state. It's a 2 hour drive one way, and there doesn't seem to be anyone but me or my son that is willing to go shopping in that area without giant bonus'. Someone does a few of the gas stations in that area long after the big bonus' come out, but no one is jumping and running for the Five Guys or any of the other shops the same MSC contracts.

It seems that they can't keep a full staff, at the beginning of the pandemic they shut down and only took orders outside and to go. Then they started cutting hours, and the food got bad. For a very long time they said they couldn't get the staffing and they were closing every day at 4 pm. Then a couple months ago they were magically open until 10 pm like the door says, so I went ahead and scheduled a second shop this month while I was in the area doing gas stations, and when I arrived promptly at 5 pm, there was a paper sign on the door saying that they closed at 4 pm. I did call, but I didn't ask about their closing time, I just asked if they were open, my mistake.

I haven't had any issues with Five Guys, but I'm starting to call restaurants before I make a trip there...whether for a shop or not. In my area Panera has been notorious for closing early.

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

I had this happen. The “30 minutes before closing” shop. Terrible. Heavily bonused. Travelled to get there. Marched all over (huge parking lots all full). Get there. They’ve locked the food court. They’re mopping. They’re closed 1 hour early. Ugh. They won’t answer the phone again or open the door. MSC only paid me like $3.

@KathyG wrote:

I haven't had any issues with Five Guys, but I'm starting to call restaurants before I make a trip there...whether for a shop or not. In my area Panera has been notorious for closing early.

Living in Alabama is no picnic. BEFORE the pandemic they were complaining that no one wanted to work in fast food and restaurants, most of the local mom and pop kinda restaurants were only open until 5 or 6 PM any day of the week because they couldn't hire servers to work in the evenings.

Now ALL of the fast food places in town are closing early, even the big corporation owned fast food places. Folks are applying for the jobs, they aren't getting hired. Even for the better paying jobs and the seasonal jobs, supply chain jobs that my son usually gets, folks apply, but they aren't getting hired. And all of the folks in town, who are inconvenienced by the stores closing early say, "lazy people just won't work."

With COVID and shops not close to your home, make that call ahead of time. I believe it's a question in the report about calling ahead. I noticed a location that was open during regular hours through the pandemic is now operating under special hours of 12 noon to 9 pm seven days a week.

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Five guys closed early.

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