I just starting mystery shopping. I just received an email for Tobacco price checks. I only need to get prices for 10 cigarette brands from the cashier. I do not need to make a purchase but the shops pay $7. That seems low to me. Am I being too picky?

You are not being too picky.. $7 will not get me to walk out the door, Or get out of my car.

Remember that the current IRS mileage rate is $0.585 per mile. If you drive more than 6 miles each way, you literally lose money. If you drive 2 miles each way, you make $4.66 and that represents your time to read the instructions, any required printing, the time on the scene, and the time to report.

I have 4 shops in my area but they are not close enough to make it worth my time for $7 a shop.

$7 is far too little, fee wise, to consider under any circumstances. This morning, I filled my tank for $5.12 a gallon. MSCs are well aware of the situation and some troll for newbies.

I have 10 scheduled two days in a row, so I have like 20 scheduled. I am planning on making around $140. Not too shabby when I will be out and about anyways.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2022 10:15PM by ArkLaMissshopping.

@ArkLaMissshopping wrote:

I have 10 scheduled two days in a row, so I have like 20 scheduled. I am planning on making around $140. Not too shabby when I will be out and about anyways.

As long as they are where you're going anyway, this might work. Also, double dipping. If the gas station or convenience store has a shop, why not accept one of these for another $7.

Otherwise, they're a firm, NO for me.

Kind of reminds me of when my Grandfather would drive across town 5 miles to save $.25 on a gallon of milk. Gas at the time was about $.29 a gallon, but the cars got about 7 miles per gallon. It was still a break even proposition for my Grandfather at best.

He had time on his hands and needed to keep busy.

Also calculate your wait time in line. If it is a very busy day, like when a lottery jackpot is high, you might have quite a wait. Then there's the time for the cashier to scan each item then delete it. If they even agree to it. And all the angry people waiting in line behind you while you mess around. Eh, not for me. Maybe if I were guaranteed a bored cashier in an empty store who needed something to do but that's not likely.

@sestrahelena wrote:

And all the angry people waiting in line behind you while you mess around.

Amen

Agreed, My concern would be waiting in-line and being told they do not have time to give me the prices. They are saying 3-5 min per shop. That seems a little low. I would be curious to know how long it actually takes. I think if these were at least $10 and i knew I could get the prices without an issue i would be willing to pick up a few of them.

Also, what reason do you give the store clerk to obtain these prices without letting the store employee know you are mystery shopping?

I would guess you would be given a letter of authorization.

Also, aren't all name brand cigarettes normally the same price? I'm not a smoker.

Generic or off brands I could see being priced differently. But don't some stores have prices on the shelves?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2022 02:40AM by wrosie.

I smoked for 25 years and have only been off cigarettes since November of 2020 by the grace of the Good Lord. I signed myself up for one of those Vape merchandising audits and was so glad when it was over (I had no idea NJOY was a vape when I signed up and I didn't want to cancel once I had committed to the audit). Too much temptation for me to be around! I wouldn't touch them with a 10-foot pole and the ones in my area are paying $40 for 10-15 minutes of work.
No, you are not being picky - you are being wise by asking others when a fee sounds low (it is low). If you have to drive to the location and back, stand in line and ask someone to ring up 10 different items for you, and then enter the information into a computer when you get home, I should think you would at least get paid $25.

There is another point that has not been touched upon: A shopper's attitude toward their worth. Accepting basement pay is habit forming. Unless one is desperate for money, bottom paying work should be avoided.

Like several of us that have been around a while have mentioned - don't do it at $7. Most companies will start adding bonuses. Sometimes they'll do $1 or $2 at a time, sometimes it will go up significantly.

I just checked the guidelines again. You must not tell them you are mystery shopping. To me, that makes the $7 a lot harder to earn. Maybe the employee will buy your story or not.

That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard of in quite a while! What are you supposed to say, "Grand-maw just wanted me to check all 10 of these brands of smokes and see which one was cheapest? Oh yeah, she wants the UPC code written down too, she's kind of superstitious that way, but she told me not to buy any today..." I'm sure any employee would be thrilled to kill time like that

@lcubed3 wrote:

I just checked the guidelines again. You must not tell them you are mystery shopping. To me, that makes the $7 a lot harder to earn. Maybe the employee will buy your story or not.

With gas over 5 a gallon lotsa mad folks in these C stores. Would not try these to get blown off or cursed at

@ArkLaMissshopping wrote:

I have 10 scheduled two days in a row, so I have like 20 scheduled. I am planning on making around $140. Not too shabby when I will be out and about anyways.

How did it work out? I hope conditions were just right and you were able to get them done quickly. Any luck?

@patman9760 wrote:

That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard of in quite a while! What are you supposed to say, "Grand-maw just wanted me to check all 10 of these brands of smokes and see which one was cheapest? Oh yeah, she wants the UPC code written down too, she's kind of superstitious that way, but she told me not to buy any today..." I'm sure any employee would be thrilled to kill time like that

@lcubed3 wrote:

I just checked the guidelines again. You must not tell them you are mystery shopping. To me, that makes the $7 a lot harder to earn. Maybe the employee will buy your story or not.

The instructions say to tell them you are doing a pricing audit. And they literally tell you to take the document in with you to write the prices down. I did two today that were on a route, and they took less than 5 minutes, no problem. Still, $7 is very low, since you do have to do the report. Even if you fill the prices in on your phone as you go, it take a few minutes.

I'm doing some of these shops because they are close to me or on my route. The shops look very easy. I also have nothing else to do anyway.

We were asked for advice - 7 seasoned shoppers gave advice and/or feedback regarding low paying shops. The overall consensus was:
1) MSC's will use shoppers at the lowest rate shoppers will allow
-and-
2) $7 is not enough pay for any type of shop
@shopperbob added that accepting low paying shops is habit forming - I can attest to that statement. I have posted this before, and I'll post it again - I got myself sky high in credit card debt around 18 years ago by performing low paying shops. Schedulers 'loved' me! I was jumping through hoops for $13 gas audits (that pay even less at base pay now). I kept thinking - "If I can only get one more before sunset, I'll break even for the day...". It never worked, and costs were much lower in 2004 than they are today. I had to go back to a 9-5 job in 2005 to pay off credit card debt. Please understand that you are carving out a niche for yourself - just like I did. Companies look at our pay history, they consider the locations we were willing to travel to for the pay accepted, and they will not increase wages very easily, if at all for shoppers that do not refuse low paying assignments. Oh yeah! Those schedulers that 'loved' me? They had absolutely no problem terminating my contract when I refused to drive back to a location 3.5 hours from home (for no pay) to get a set of pictures that they told me they never received.

I performed 3 shops this afternoon - all were within a close radius of my home (approximately 9 miles to the farthest shop). None of the shops that I performed were particularly high in pay, but the lowest payer was $25 for about 9 minutes of my time. However, if I had chosen to take shops paying $7, I would have had to perform 11.7 shops to equate the labor that I earned from 3 simple shops. I would also have spent a lot more time entering data once I got home. That would be a huge deal if I was a full-time shopper. If the shop was on my route, no detour whatsoever, I still would have lost money. Most likely in the form of another shop that paid a higher fee right down the road. We only have 24 hours in a day, and I would have wasted time at the low paying shop instead of using that time at a higher paying location. My bosses always told me to work smarter, not harder! Go for those triple digit paying shops Best wishes to everyone.

I ended up attempting 3 of these. I was not able to get all 3 prices on any of my shops. For one the clerk asked me to leave unless I could produce a letter as to what I was doing. That was odd. None of the cashiers were thrilled to do this. The other two were out of a product so the clerk did not give the price. Shops took closer to 10-12 minutes. I could see the time being less if the store is slow and the cashier actually wants to give you the information...lol. I could see it being a little less if the store is empty. I would not do these again unless the payment was closer to $11 - $15 to cover my time and gas. I think they need to provide the shoppers a letter to show the cashier.

The convenience stores in my area seem to all be short staffed. No way I'm standing in line or holding up the line to collect 10 different prices for a whopping $7.

I did a vape shop for $30 yesterday. Hopefully my co worker will buy the products from me for $20.

Those of you who had a refusal, were you paid for that location?

It should be easy. Just take a picture of the whole display. If they question you, just saying you're buying a gift for someone and want to get the right product.

I did several of these around my home the other day and each store I went into, I brought my pen and paper, and told them I am conducting a pricing "study." Don't say audit or mystery shop or anything of the sort. Saying "study" makes a difference. No, none of them liked that they had to give me prices. But it all took me 2 minutes in the store and 2 minutes putting in the info on the app.

I also found out that gas station employees or owners will visit other local gas stations to find out what their prices are, so going into a gas station to obtain prices of cigarettes from them is normal to them. Most of the stores I went to probably thought I worked at another gas station around town.

I'm not sure if this is the same assignment I attempted yesterday, but I posted about it on another thread. I've copied it here:

You receive Fed-Ex package with display kit. Arrive at gas station, go behind counter, take numerous photos, update the display, count the number of each product (approx 10 different products). Then you get the cashier to use their handheld device to determine if their inventory matches your count. Finally, you have to enter each price into the annoying app. The pay? $20 (it was bonused, gee I wonder why). Unfortunately, when I arrived (you have to go during their busiest hours), there was only one cashier and a line of customers. She didn't know what handheld scanning device I was talking about. She tried to scan one of the items and nothing happened, it was not the correct scanner. Then she told me that she thinks they don't have a scanner for smoking items. I wasted 40 minutes and could not complete the assignment.

This is a definite TEN FOOT POLE shop for me!

If this is the MSC I'm thinking of, if you aren't able to use the scanner, for whatever reason, you notate that in the report. That happened to me at several locations and I was paid. I completed the inventory counts and did everything else that was required.