The Circle K's were released for the month today. I have an idea of where they are on the map. I noticed that at least five were missing from the usual batch.

Did anyone else notice the same for their area or is it a case of someone tripping over themselves to jump on these at the base rate within a couple of hours of being issued.

We have missed them sorely, because we were using them as a gasoline discount. We are very rural and there is no "affordable" gasoline within about 10 miles. So we were stopping at a Circle K on the way home from wherever we were and topping off the tank before heading home. The only time we went out of the way and didn't fill the tank was when the pay went to $30. Then we filled 10 gallons at one, and 10 gallons at another to top.off the tank.

I know there are plenty of them in NC. I saw while visiting that area. But just a few in Eastern PA. I did them while ago when picked some others MS on my way. But not anymore.

I have noticed in some months 1 or 2 pop on days later. I've wondered why too. I will say I'm guilty of doing 2 at base super early this month because i was in that part of town with no gas. It feels wasteful to get gas on my own dime at this point -lol!

@heywave wrote:

The Circle K's were released for the month today. I have an idea of where they are on the map. I noticed that at least five were missing from the usual batch.

Did anyone else notice the same for their area or is it a case of someone tripping over themselves to jump on these at the base rate within a couple of hours of being issued.

That's what happened here too. The ones I thought that were picked up by a shopper right out the gate wound up appearing on the map the next day.

The Circle Ks in the bad neighborhoods got picked up yesterday when those are the last to go. Yesterday and today the ones closer to me got picked up.

@_justjennifer_ I get it if one needs gas and there are one or two close by. Last month I noticed that two Circle Ks a block away from each other were done at base and figured it was someone driving through getting some discounted gas since the rest of the stations stayed up for the 1st and 2nd increases in pay.

In this case it seems like it could be someone working a route. I know how long it takes to do these and the time to get to each station and their hourly basis is low. I could be wrong, it could be more than one person picking them up, a new shopper "thinking let me try a couple to see if it is something for me", or they are layering them with other jobs.

I just find it interesting since some months the Circle K jobs stay on the boards for at least the first increase and other months they are all gone in the first 5 days.

Last month I did not see Circle Ks last into the higher bonus levels like $20. I've seen them go much higher, but typically it is for remote shops. I think this month will be the same with the holidays. Perhaps they reached their quota early on in October.

i made the mistake of taking 3 of these just to get the gas and had not used their app before.
What a PITA!!
I ended up missing the final stop because I didn't plan in 30 min per stop for the reporting part. Yikes, what a crappy survey.
I will probably get stiffed on the second one because I was at the last question and it would NOT check the box no matter how many times I tapped it, then it said TIME IS UP.
Does anyone else have the issue entering the "shop time" entry where the wheel just spins up and down when you try to get the hour / min input?
Took me forever to figure out you had to just tap outside the box one number at a time until you made it to your selection otherwise the thing spun like a one armed bandit ... ugh.

I've been doing them since Feb., and live between 2 major cities, and can't figure out a discernable pattern in how they get picked up. Fortunately very few are picked up at base pay, but it drives me crazy trying to figure out my own pattern as to which ones to pick up with each pay bump in the round.

They went at lower prices last round here too though. I suspect you are correct about the holidays, but I hope not.

@_justjennifer_ I am in the same boat with you trying to figure out some sort of pattern and when to pick them up. From another thread on this topic, the consensus was that few get picked up at base, some might get picked up at the first bump of $8 and if they get to $10, then they will all get scooped up.

Last month did not fit the pattern since I don't recall seeing any listed over $15. I have a location that I watch for info purposes that seems to never get picked up since it is just past BFE. This location was also gone last month and I really doubt anyone picked it up.

There is a town further away that has over 30 Circle Ks in their greater area. I just checked and half are already gone which is typical for them at this point (5 days after the release). I don't think many are usually left for the first bump to $8. I imagine it is one person that lives there that works them. Of course I could be wrong. If I lived in that area, I would let them all sit until at least the first bump to see how many are left. A 60% bump in pay and certainly 100% are significant and make a difference if you are able to work a bunch of them as a route.

Oh, I used to get such nice bonuses with the old company. $5 is just a terrible starting pay for this shop. It's easy to do, yes, but the app and all the questions and photos take quite a bit of time to do. I've been lucky to get some @$20 +, but most are gone way before that. When they went to the actual MS board I did a few in October for decent pay, however, I'm still not paid for them. At least with the app, you are paid within days.

@MsJudi There was probably another MS that handles these as well. I've never seen them go to a MS board or maybe I am not looking in the right place. With this format, they are all released (for this month it was last Monday) at the $5 point and as time passes, they get a bump, like today I think the quota was reached early because I did not see any listed at anywhere near a high rate. Early in the morning they were still at $5 and then later in the day, they got bumped up to $8. I always thought the bump took place early in the morning (around 3 am). Perhaps in 5 days, they will go up to $10, and so on.

I was lucky to get a high fee for one location. It would be great if I had gotten that for the few that are in my area. The last day this runs it gets a super pay rate of $45, but I rarely see those or just for extremely remote areas.

I did some today with the increase. I was away from my home base. They have adjusted these slightly and require more documentation than before. For example, if the receipt doesn't print, they want a pic of the message at the pump. The beverage station is now a required photo. If there is another issue, like low lying boxes in the aisle, they now want a pic of that. For the employee description, they had a warning that if you state race that they could disqualify the shop. I typically cite hair and eye color, height, and whether they had glasses.

They are monthly shops. They are usually released early in the month, and generally get the first pay bump after the first week. Then they go rather quickly to $13 and $18 shortly after that. The few that are left near the end of the month go to $30. I can't say that I've seen them higher than that, but they may have gone higher in the past.

When gas prices got crazy a few months ago we started using these shops as discounts on gasoline. We top off the gas tank before we head for home. $5 for the shop + $3 reimbursed for gas, and a drink from the soda fountain is $8 off a $40 tank of gasoline. And my son uses that Upside app and gets more cash back on top of that.

At the end of the month we get most of the gasoline for free. And last month, we got lucky, 2 of the stations were where we were, and $30 each. So we got 10 gallons for free at one station, then before we left for home we topped off the tank for another 10 free gallons of gas, + a little extra cash.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2022 03:51AM by Morledzep.

This round of shops, at least in my area, has added the burden of a whole lot of extra pictures. It used to be that you could report a violation without a picture. Now *every* violation (except the excessive outs on tobacco products only) requires an extra picture. Don't get a receipt printed out the pump? Picture needed. More than two outs on the fountain drink? Extra picture, even though you already had to include a picture of the fountain drinks. I did one shop today that was in pretty poor shape with respect to stocking and I ended up taking the original required 4 + receipts and an additional 5 pictures for a total of 11 pictures.

@heywave wrote:

@MsJudi There was probably another MS that handles these as well. I've never seen them go to a MS board or maybe I am not looking in the right place. With this format, they are all released (for this month it was last Monday) at the $5 point and as time passes, they get a bump, like today I think the quota was reached early because I did not see any listed at anywhere near a high rate. Early in the morning they were still at $5 and then later in the day, they got bumped up to $8. I always thought the bump took place early in the morning (around 3 am). Perhaps in 5 days, they will go up to $10, and so on.

The same company that has them on the app occasionally puts them on their own job board. I get an email notifying me when they do this. Then the pay is higher, but they take a long time to pay out.

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

Mark Twain

@marnette it is not just the ones in your area. I am sure that the new requirements are nationwide. I recognized the extra work on my first stop.

I wonder if these new additional requirements mean that the shops will stay on the board a little longer this time around and will people remember this extra work next month and stay away on the initial release. The new beverage station requirement, pic for any violations, and such all add to the time it takes to do a shop. I noticed a difference in how many I could do in a given time period and this round took longer.

The only thing that helped out today was that a couple of them had restrooms that were out of order with signage, so I didn't have to go all the way down the hallway to the bathroom, close the door, and snap a couple of pics. I just had to snap a pic of the sign and that counted as the restroom pic.

I didn't get a receipt at the pump for a couple of stops and it flashed a "cashier has receipt" message. By the time I tried to snap a pic, it was back to the intro insert your card to pay outside and I had my camera ready.

It could be blasphemous, but maybe they could start these at a higher rate with the extra work needed to do these!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2022 02:23AM by heywave.

According to the guidelines: The beverage photo is the only new required photo. The others new photos are "requests" but will change into "required" photos next month.

@AZwolfman wrote:

According to the guidelines: The beverage photo is the only new required photo. The others new photos are "requests" but will change into "required" photos next month.

That is interesting. When there is a violation, like a trash bin overflowing, a new subsection opens up that reads take picture or select file. I thought for sure that when I hit I'm Done, it gave me a red error and defaulted me back to the "required" photo of the violation.

I tested it by marking an infraction, ignoring the "upload photo" button, then clicking "submit" at the bottom of the page. I opened to "finish shop," and no oops marker showed on the "uoload photo" button. So the guidelines appear correct that except for the newly required beverages photo, the others are requests until next month when they become required.

Thanks @AZwolfman, I did not notice that it was just a request!

Earlier I checked on the Circle Ks to see if they got bumped up to $10 and noticed some out of the way available, but they were still listed at $5 instead of at least $8. Seemed peculiar since it seems they always all move up in price together.

I went back to check a moment ago and I don't see any Circle K listed anywhere. Can't imagine that they hit the quota this soon.

@marnette wrote:

Thanks @AZwolfman, I did not notice that it was just a request!

To confirm:
I finished and submitted all 4 of my K shops without submitting the requested, but not required, photos. None were returned. Any of these so-called "covert mystery shops" that I do in the future will either be favors or with substantially increased pay.

I wonder who handles the release of the Circle Ks. Last night they reappeared again at the $10 mark. This lead me to presume that they pulled them earlier to correct the disparity in the fee price for some locations. Some were still at $5 when the going rate was now at $10.

I had a route worked up in my head only to wake up and see that they were all pulled again. So frustrating.

I saw them last night for $13. We are going to use one on the way home from shopping today to top off the gas tank.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2022 11:58AM by Morledzep.

I will do the local ones with a reveal and LOA for $20.

AZ, are they back? It's been a very long time since I've seen any circle K stores do a regular gas station shop.

@Morledzep wrote:

AZ, are they back? It's been a very long time since I've seen any circle K stores do a regular gas station shop.

By, "regular gas station shop," do you mean the revealed audit that they had a couple years ago or the mystery shop with 2 covert photos that existed all this year until this December's mystery shop with a required covert photo for each infraction?

@heywave wrote:

I wonder who handles the release of the Circle Ks. Last night they reappeared again at the $10 mark. This lead me to presume that they pulled them earlier to correct the disparity in the fee price for some locations. Some were still at $5 when the going rate was now at $10.

I had a route worked up in my head only to wake up and see that they were all pulled again. So frustrating.

It has seemed like they were all pulled for longer stretches of time this round to me as well. I like that you have 12 hours to complete them now though.

@AZwolfman wrote:

By, "regular gas station shop," do you mean the revealed audit that they had a couple years ago or the mystery shop with 2 covert photos that existed all this year until this December's mystery shop with a required covert photo for each infraction?

I mean the ones we used to do for the MSC that got swallowed up 3 years ago. I think it was $5 worth of gas and $1 inside, then a real simple photo audit. I used those to pay for trips down to south of Birmingham to visit my middle son. I'd work my way down there and do the last one a few blocks from his house right about the time he got off work. So I could have dinner and visit with him and his wife and have a full tank of gass to drive home.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2022 03:34AM by Morledzep.

@Morledzep wrote:

@AZwolfman wrote:

By, "regular gas station shop," do you mean the revealed audit that they had a couple years ago or the mystery shop with 2 covert photos that existed all this year until this December's mystery shop with a required covert photo for each infraction?

I mean the ones we used to do for the MSC that got swallowed up 3 years ago. I think it was $5 worth of gas and $1 inside, then a real simple photo audit. I used those to pay for trips down to south of Birmingham to visit my middle son. I'd work my way down there and do the last one a few blocks from his house right about the time he got off work. So I could have dinner and visit with him and his wife and have a full tank of gass to drive home.

Yes, those were 15 - 20 minute revealed audits after $3 worth of gas and a reveal. They paid a couple bucks more than the mystery shops. The last one I did was 10/30/2021, and I never saw another Circle K again until they were replaced 2 months later with a mystery shop with $3 gas, a C-store purchase, and 2 covert photos.

Take a gander at the company's website, not the app. The leftovers are there for $18.

Even with the beverage station photo, still about 10 mins.