There are SO many of these by me, you could basically drive around all day and find one every block or so. The age range is 21-31 though. I’m guessing most mystery shoppers are older than that because they take forever to be picked up. Or maybe they are more work than they appear to be.

Just musing here… wish I could do these!

same.

Are these the ones through Sutter, or another company? My 23 year old niece is unexpectedly staying with me and I'd drive her around to do these....

I made a killing on them when I was still in the age range to qualify.

These are super easy, and super fast. I average 10 minutes per store or less. They do have a pretty long rotation *per store* of 5 months I think - which means a lot that appear to be available are not actually available, from my understanding.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2023 08:28PM by cortney92.

If it is the Sutter ones you are talking about, there appear to be more available than there actually are at the moment. The client requires us to wait 5 months in between shops at each location, regardless of who the last shopper was for the location. So, many of these have both an alcohol and tobacco, but it is possible that one of them was completed too recently to be able to shop them again. Unfortunately, there are way too many locations for us to be able to track which locations are within the 5 months and which are not, so we have to just post them all at once at the beginning of the year and have the system block out applications for locations that were shopped in the past 150 days.

As Cortney states, they are pretty quick and easy to do. If you live in a major city, chances are this client has at least a dozen locations in your area, and you can very easily do that amount in just a few hours. Even if you are in the suburbs and have to drive 10-15 minutes to each location, 20 is very possible in a normal "8 hour work day", so they can still be profitable. The biggest obstacles on these for me (I schedule them) is that it is a revealed shop, which a lot of shoppers seem to be uncomfortable with doing, and that darn 5 months in between shops. Plus side is that there are a ton of locations, and the yearly goal is only about 1/4 of those locations.

@joanna81 I admire you trying to find a way for your relative to make some money. I have one her age and although the desire to make money is there, she thought it was weird to have to ask for a manager's signature. I explained to her that when someone is paying you, they get to make the rules of what you need to do to get paid.

@KSSPete hit the nail on the head that the revealed portion is what young adult shoppers have a problem with. I don't know why. I know when I was that age, that requirement would not have stopped me from performing as many of these shops as I could get my hands on.

@ksspete I wanted to ask you about getting the manager's signature. I was at this retailer over the weekend waiting for a prescription and a lady was looking for the manager for some reason. The staff explained to her the manager was off that day. What happens in those cases? I think you or others have mentioned that there is always a manager on duty, but for some reason an alternate person was not offered as an option to that lady.

I remember someone here mentioning a long time ago that they made $25-$30 per store when they did these shops and they had made $200 and it wasn't noon yet.

@joanna81 I have offered to go with her so that she feels more at ease. I explained I would drive as she fills out the report to make her more efficient and her answer was still no.

I am sure many here remember the days when you could get a pack of smokes out of a vending machine or at the grocery store. There wasn't a minimum age for smokes and stores weren't really checking IDs for beer either.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2023 10:08PM by heywave.

@heywave I think you need to remove the client name because the company was already mentioned earlier, but yes, there really does seem to be a higher rate of young people that have an issue with a reveal than older people, in my experience.

I believe there is a policy for this client that there should always be a MOD during every shift, but there may be rare times there is not. There should at least always be a supervisor of some sort (someone must be in charge that shift). I think in these cases that person could be the "manager" that signs. It really has not ever come up at any point since I've been scheduling this particular project. We've had a few managers refuse to sign, but not be absent altogether.

There are a lot of compliance shops out there I believe, so it must have been another client if a shopper was making $25-$30 per shop. These had a base pay of $10 per shop up until maybe two years ago, and then went up to $12 per shop. In rare cases, we will add no more than a $3 bonus to these to help get to the goal at the end of the month, but never enough to get to $25-$30 on this project.

Edited to say that even at $12 per shop, it is absolutely very possible to make $200+ in around 4 hours if you live in a major city where they are not far apart.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2023 10:01PM by KSSPete.

Thanks, and yes, my niece expressed the same reluctance at having to actually announce what she was doing. I also remember the days of vending machines selling cigs and no actual interactions, or when kids could go to the gas station with a note from their parent to grab a pack of cigs.
I'm not a huge fan of revealed projects, but I am a fan of that cha-ching sound when the paypal payments hit. Kids these days think they can all go be an influencer or some youtube star.

@heywave wrote:

@joanna81 I admire you trying to find a way for your relative to make some money. I have one her age and although the desire to make money is there, she thought it was weird to have to ask for a manager's signature. I explained to her that when someone is paying you, they get to make the rules of what you need to do to get paid.

@KSSPete hit the nail on the head that the revealed portion is what young adult shoppers have a problem with. I don't know why. I know when I was that age, that requirement would not have stopped me from performing as many of these shops as I could get my hands on.

@ksspete I wanted to ask you about getting the manager's signature. I was at this retailer over the weekend waiting for a prescription and a lady was looking for the manager for some reason. The staff explained to her the manager was off that day. What happens in those cases? I think you or others have mentioned that there is always a manager on duty, but for some reason an alternate person was not offered as an option to that lady.

I remember someone here mentioning a long time ago that they made $25-$30 per store when they did these shops and they had made $200 and it wasn't noon yet.

@joanna81 I have offered to go with her so that she feels more at ease. I explained I would drive as she fills out the report to make her more efficient and her answer was still no.

I am sure many here remember the days when you could get a pack of smokes out of a vending machine or at the grocery store. There wasn't a minimum age for smokes and stores weren't really checking IDs for beer either.

I suspect younger people think these types of activities are beneath them. Yes, I had a long corporate career with a good salary, but my parents grew up chopping cotton during the Depression. I have never felt any honest work was beneath me.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2023 06:51PM by ShopperGirly.

I tell my younger co-workers about these and a couple have seemed interested, but nobody has followed through. 30 years ago compliance shops did not exist. If they had, I certainly would have done them.
I do remember buying a case of wine coolers at Costso right after I turned 21. I was so mad the cashier did not ask for my ID.

I've had many people show interest in mystery shopping over the years, but once they learn its actual work and you're not jet-setting across the country on a shopping spree, they don't pursue it further.

@FrugalCat wrote:

I tell my younger co-workers about these and a couple have seemed interested, but nobody has followed through. 30 years ago compliance shops did not exist. If they had, I certainly would have done them.
I do remember buying a case of wine coolers at Costso right after I turned 21. I was so mad the cashier did not ask for my ID.

A Costco employee told me a few years ago they were asking for everyone's ID when buying alcohol since it was a Washington state law. I told her we aren't in Washington, but that is their policy if you want to purchase a bottle of wine. It was a waste of time to ask an obvious octogenarian for their ID. I remember one customer had no idea or couldn't hear what the cashier wanted and kept trying to hand over money to pay for their stuff.

@ShopperGirly I am not sure that these kids think the job is beneath them. I think some get anxious in certain scenarios and just try to avoid those circumstances.

Not saying this is the case here but I am reminded of a time when I managed a retail store in an upscale mall. I saw a teenage girl throw a fit when her mother tried to bring her into my store saying that I was a mean and nasty person. Turns out I had caught her shoplifting previously and banned her from coming back in.

I suspect the "anxiety", if that is what it is, is similar to a fear of public speaking. Most kids today don't take drama classes or debates or even do oral book reports.

@heywave wrote:

@ShopperGirly I am not sure that these kids think the job is beneath them. I think some get anxious in certain scenarios and just try to avoid those circumstances.

Ha Ha and I am at the other end of the age spectrum and I am mad that they never ask for my ID as well. Another note, for at least my two kids in their 30's (let me know if the age limit goes up by a few years) they are always reluctant to have a conversation with a non friend. They seem to think life in the non personal realm can all be taken care of on the internet, the less verbal communication the better. .

@FrugalCat wrote:

I tell my younger co-workers about these and a couple have seemed interested, but nobody has followed through. 30 years ago compliance shops did not exist. If they had, I certainly would have done them.
I do remember buying a case of wine coolers at Costso right after I turned 21. I was so mad the cashier did not ask for my ID.

Do you guys actually talk to young people and ask why they would hesitate taking these compliance shops or other MS shops?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2023 06:58PM by Luna126.

Yes. My niece is 23 and doing a shop in July but not getting paid till August is one reason. She interviewed at a gas station that pays weekly. She also doesn't have a car, which would be necessary to do shops out here.

@Luna126 wrote:

Do you guys actually talk to young people and ask why they would hesitate taking these compliance shops or other MS shops?

@Luna126 what is wrong with talking to young people about this money making opportunity with the age compliance shops? Especially those young people that always come to you with their hand out for cash or a credit card?!

I find it frustrating that these kids or I should say my daughter gets anxious about a situation like that. It seems out of character because she has done presentations for school and more importantly for work without anxiety. It is easy to ask for a manager and like I've mentioned before, if the opportunity to make the late 80s/ into the 90s equivalent of $48-$60 an hour was there doing age compliance shops, then I would've maxed out on those for the 9 years or whatever the window was that I qualified to do it. Unfortunately these type of shops did not exist.

@Luna126 wrote:

Do you guys actually talk to young people and ask why they would hesitate taking these compliance shops or other MS shops?

The reason they all show up is even once they are completed and not available, they don’t take them down because there are too many. If you click on them you will notice that some of them do not have dates on them. But yes they are very easy and fast to do. I recommend.

"Youth is wasted on the young." - George Bernard Shaw

There are two different shops for each location in many cases (one alcohol and one tobacco). The client requires 5 months in between a shop at each location, so at times there will be some that will be available in the future, but currently are not. There are far too many locations for us to manually track this rotation, so we post all shops and then Sassie is set up to track it for us. Once the 5 months are up, there will be dates available on them again.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2023 12:39PM by KSSPete.

My question was “do you actually talk to young people and ask why?”. I did not state there was anything wrong to talk and ask questions. I stated the question because the thread in my opinion was veering in the direction of assumptions about such young people versus actual stated reasons given by young people themselves.

I as young person still in this compliance age range for some shops would not pick up this shop. I gave my main reasons why on a previous thread. However, there are other compliance shops I still do complete.

The mystery shopping field competes with other gig work such as Lyft, Uber, Instacart, Task Rabbit and social media such as YouTube and Twitch streaming. They pay a whole lot quicker than majority of MS companies do, such as same day, same week.

Personally for me in regards to getting a managers approval it’s annoying when I don’t need one on another compliance shop. Very few people would want to interact with management to tell them an employee failed the compliance check. Especially if it’s a local/semi local store where the employees may remember you. Other compliance shops let you report the outcome and the employee is informed after you leave.

@heywave wrote:

@Luna126 what is wrong with talking to young people about this money making opportunity with the age compliance shops? Especially those young people that always come to you with their hand out for cash or a credit card?!

I find it frustrating that these kids or I should say my daughter gets anxious about a situation like that. It seems out of character because she has done presentations for school and more importantly for work without anxiety. It is easy to ask for a manager and like I've mentioned before, if the opportunity to make the late 80s/ into the 90s equivalent of $48-$60 an hour was there doing age compliance shops, then I would've maxed out on those for the 9 years or whatever the window was that I qualified to do it. Unfortunately these type of shops did not exist.

@Luna126 wrote:

Do you guys actually talk to young people and ask why they would hesitate taking these compliance shops or other MS shops?

@Luna126 I misinterpreted your statement about older people talking to younger people about these shops. My statements were from talking to younger people about the shops and I wasn't making assumptions.

It is interesting that you write about shop pay in general and timeliness at this time. I was recently telling someone else that the MSCs should feel pressure to raise fees since there are other apps like you mention that pay quicker and in some cases, better for the time invested. With those apps you do the task, snap a pic, and you are done and with mystery shopping there is the task, time to do the report, wait for it to be graded, get upset with a less than perfect score, and then wait to get paid. In many cases 20-50 days later.

I am curious what the state Alcohol and Tobacco Control Board pays the younger crowd or are they using agents to perform their own compliance checks. I talked to two employees who went thru compliance checks. One told me when she asked the younger person for an ID, the person said she did not have it, and she informed the young lady she couldn't sell the cigarettes to her without one. The agent that was further back in line thanked her for checking for IDs and said that she did a good job. Another employee told me she got a $25 gift card for asking for an ID from someone that looked under 40 during a compliance check.

I love this question. I actually raised this in a thread a while ago as we struggle to find compliance-aged shoppers between 21-28 for our shops in MD, DE, FLA, PA, and NJ. A lot of the conversation shifted toward the feeling that you were getting someone in trouble or possibly fired. I can understand that hesitation but there usually are coaching conversations first which should change the behavior in the employee. I had a shopper in the Orlando area who did these shops for years and came out of his post-secondary with no debt AND paid for part of his Master's with our shops. They can be VERY lucrative but it does take dedication, safe driving habits (route shoppers who get in fender benders more often than I can count ) lol, and a strong work ethic to make it work. I would have LOVED these shops when I was within this age range! I would have fought tooth and nail for them!
For the record, Intouch Insight does not have a rotation on our compliance shops so a shopper CAN pick them up every month AND they can do both alcohol and tobacco in the same month as well, just on different days

@fmitchell wrote:

I love this question. I actually raised this in a thread a while ago as we struggle to find compliance-aged shoppers between 21-28 for our shops in MD, DE, FLA, PA, and NJ. A lot of the conversation shifted toward the feeling that you were getting someone in trouble or possibly fired. I can understand that hesitation but there usually are coaching conversations first which should change the behavior in the employee. I had a shopper in the Orlando area who did these shops for years and came out of his post-secondary with no debt AND paid for part of his Master's with our shops. They can be VERY lucrative but it does take dedication, safe driving habits (route shoppers who get in fender benders more often than I can count ) lol, and a strong work ethic to make it work. I would have LOVED these shops when I was within this age range! I would have fought tooth and nail for them!
For the record, Intouch Insight does not have a rotation on our compliance shops so a shopper CAN pick them up every month AND they can do both alcohol and tobacco in the same month as well, just on different days

As much as I'd encourage others to do these types of shops - I will say I felt like absolute garbage having to talk to the manager after a "fail" shop, and if there were more fails than there usually are I'd probably be significantly less confident doing them. But I'm a couple years too old for the shops yours, anyway.