January was my worse month for mystery shopping.

I had bronchitis since before Christmas. Hard to do shops when you can't breath and talk at the same time. Isn't January a slow time anyway for mystery shopping?

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Yes, it is usually my slowest month. New projects often slow to get started. Plus, a lot of people take a break from shopping during the holidays., and then try to make up for it in January, leaving fewer shops available overall.

Hope you get to feeling better.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2023 05:50AM by mystery2me.

It's my worst shopping month also. I blame it on seasonal shoppers.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

@HonnyBrown wrote:

It's my worst shopping month also. I blame it on seasonal shoppers.

Some people may be doing the shops to pay off Christmas presents.

Not for me! Crazy busy month.

December is always my slowest month as I pretty much take almost the entire month off. My 'mom' obligations are through the roof during December so shopping is the last thing on my mind.

Unfortunately I’ve had three slow months in a row. Need some special projects to make up for it or I’m going to have to get a camera and do some video shopping.

I did pretty good this month..

January has been one of my best months in a long while. I've been counting a lot of cars...bahaha..as well as my usual stuff plus some interesting new projects.

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

Mark Twain

Normally January and February are slow in this industry based on my experience over the last 15 years. I think it's because of a combination of things including contracts running out and new fiscal year for many companies in either January or February. Thats said I had quite a profitable January probably my most profitable January in the last 5 years if not more.

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

I haven't worked a lot this month, but I've got money coming in from jobs that I did in November and December that are carrying me over. And I contacted the company I used to work for about my retirement stuff and they said they would get back to me in 10 days. So I may not have to actually work very much anymore. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop mystery shopping it just means that I'm not going to worry about it.

I exceeded my goal this month which was shocking to me.. I work s full time job and need extra income. This was my first full month of mystery shopping. Quite frankly, I never expected to do so well. There are a lot of things to choose from snd I was pretty selective since I am still learning. Have absolutely learned a lot from this group.

Slow. Caught COVID again in December. Now have bronchitis and going to check to see if it's Whopping Cough. February income will be way down.

For some reason, the reliable smartphone recommendation shops either were snatched up or taken off the board after being posted. That bites. Other shops were available, but not in the quantity previously.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2023 02:26PM by whosear.

Way to go! Keep it up!
Like you I'm new to mystery shopping, too (start mid-October). This forum is a great resource of information. Reading what the seasoned shopper post us very helpful.

@Datagirl wrote:

I exceeded my goal this month which was shocking to me.. I work s full time job and need extra income. This was my first full month of mystery shopping. Quite frankly, I never expected to do so well. There are a lot of things to choose from snd I was pretty selective since I am still learning. Have absolutely learned a lot from this group.

Greg
South Florida: Broward and Palm Beach County

Its an average month for me, but that's mostly by choice. The weather in my area can be a little unpredictable so I don't schedule a lot of shops the first few weeks. And I usually need a few weeks to recover from the holiday frenzy.

Looking back over the past few months, it seems like I'm within my average range. I thought the month started out really slowly and I was worried about it. I need to push myself to take different kinds of shops and seek out some more profit. Maybe that'll be my February goal...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2023 03:37PM by olympia tennenbaum.

A monthly merchandising shop I do takes January off every year. Its not a problem because I expect it but it was a surprise my first year of shopping.

January was slower than normal for me too. I had a some nicely bonused shops that MSCs didn't get done in 2022, but not enough to make it a normal month with the other shops I did. I really did not start getting back into the grove again until after the 1st week of Jan and later in the month I was also a slacker when we had several days of cold, hard and windy rain.

I had a great month! I did a lot of shops, and quite a few of them paid very well. I can hardly wait for all that money to roll in next month. I returned to MSing about six months ago, after roughly five years away from it, and January was my best month ever.

.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2023 10:39PM by shopnyc.

I have not done many since November. Not for lack of opportunities. Just because it's not convenient and boring. Looking back, I see my very slow month was in November 2022.

Mine was a little slower than I would have liked. However, I have also been taking my turn with whatever is going around. I tested negative for covid, so that is good, but even a plain old cold has to be dealt with. I was mostly just glad that I wasn't so busy with so much scheduled that it all turned into a disaster (i.e., the slow time could not have come at a better time).

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?
"Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."
-- Abraham Lincoln

January was slow for me - for only one reason. The MSCs haven't been offering fees worth my time and energy.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2023 04:30PM by Rousseau.

I have seen very few (like 3) cell phone jobs in my area. I grabbed them as soon as I saw them. I think someone else on here said they would be back in March.

It was my 1st full month doing this and considering I was merely starting up - I felt good about it. I still haven't concluded just how to measure my performance - is it total net profit? Is it per hour? Maybe a bit of both? Regardless I think I had some luck - in that the handful of shops I did were very efficient in terms of distance. One was a nicely bonused one - next to the grocery store I was gonna go to anyway. So by most metrics it looked good. This month - has started out slow. I see some Mattress and 5G stuff, but the base fees - for me- just don't make sense it's slightly over break even. Another company I like has some storage and tile - - but man they are far away and again - FG in those areas are still at base fee. Hopefully I'll wait and it gets better mid month.

I have a monthly total goal I try to hit, based on an hourly rate, if that makes sense.

@BabyBooey19 wrote:

It was my 1st full month doing this and considering I was merely starting up - I felt good about it. I still haven't concluded just how to measure my performance - is it total net profit? Is it per hour? Maybe a bit of both? Regardless I think I had some luck - in that the handful of shops I did were very efficient in terms of distance. One was a nicely bonused one - next to the grocery store I was gonna go to anyway. So by most metrics it looked good. This month - has started out slow. I see some Mattress and 5G stuff, but the base fees - for me- just don't make sense it's slightly over break even. Another company I like has some storage and tile - - but man they are far away and again - FG in those areas are still at base fee. Hopefully I'll wait and it gets better mid month.

Exactly. The pendulum swings back to normal February/March

@johnb974 wrote:

@HonnyBrown wrote:

It's my worst shopping month also. I blame it on seasonal shoppers.

Some people may be doing the shops to pay off Christmas presents.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

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January was my worse month for mystery shopping.

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