How did you first learn about mystery shopping and how did you get started? have you shopped long distances from home?
My story - years ago, like maybe 15 years? before social media, I belonged to a personal finance group online. In one thread they discussed getting reimbursed for their Cheesecake Factory meals...there was a CF near my home, so I was intrigued. I applied to shop for them and was accepted. For about 5 years, my family enjoyed many CF meals, reimbursed...we loved their food. When we moved from that area, I stopped shopping them and stopped thinking of MSing altogether, not realizing it was about way more than Cheesecake Factory. LOL.
A few years later, around 2017, I noticed our entertainment category expenses - meals out and hotels was getting $$, so I went online to look for ways to save...MSing came up in my search. I was still working full time, so it took me awhile to sign up for all the MSCs and to learn the hang of it - and then the painful process of elimination, painfully learning which shops were a waste of time and which were valuable.
Cheesecake Factory shops are long gone, but they are still the benchmark for me - they were a good deal for the amount of effort required and the compensation. I've since done others that involved even posher situations, but the work required wasn't reasonable...so now I go for the middle rung of the ladder, not too much, not too little.
I have shopped far from home, but only along routes I was traveling anyway for other reasons. I do love reading the stories of others who do long routes just to shop. I once met someone in a Facebook group who was a teacher who shopped during her summers off by living in her RV and traveling the highways of the US. She was an interesting person, but always spurned those whose political views didn't align with hers exactly....so she tended not to have many friends lol. Life is short, friends.

I saw an add in our local paper, for (Spotcheckservices) about 2007.
I went to the website, signed up and waited for assignments.
Luckily there was a hard to fill location and they phoned me to see if I would do it. Then I learned about the job board.

After I had retired there was a piece on a local news channel. Nearly 20 years ago. My most involved shop was one at a large outlet mall, every store and restaurant!! I did a lot of restaurants, some hotels and golf courses when I first started. My favorite was the Mouse.. 2018 was the last year I shopped prepandemic and I was down to several close-by shops with only three companies. Build your own pizza places, a California burger chain , a fish grill and a donut place that has a light.

Now it's mostly Kroger, and a few other shops that the same MS offers. I had shopped for that company in 2018 and was still in their database, or else I never would have started up and it was a good way to test out the pickup services.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2024 02:23PM by melg.

About 10 years ago, I was surfing the web looking for at Home jobs. During that search I found Secret Shoppers. They are a pay site, I never paid for the service. However, every once in a while they would throw a job my way for free --- When the schedulers were getting desperate! Finally after searching the ads and opportunities for about 8 months, I applied for and was assigned a two part Luxury Car Negotiation shop from Research Services Group (this company was sold twice since then, with a new name each time. I think the latest name they are DBO is Intouch Insight, it was Beyond Hello and then See Level HX I believe before that) Once I completed that assignment, and was paid. I was hooked. I went looking for other Mystery Shopping Companies. I did a quick Goggle search for Mystery Shopping and found this forum. The rest as they say is history.

Back in 2005, I was looking for "at home" jobs and first started searching about "car wraps", that put advertising on your car and pay you for it. Well, that led to finding other search sites. Being so green, I knew nothing about MSing, and so, when I found a site called, (IIRC), shopperjobs.net, offering a list of MS companies for $29.00, I bit, and paid for the list.
The companies were legit, and one thing led to another, and I found Volition (now defunct), and found out I didn't -- and shouldn't EVER -- pay for a list or pay to mystery shop. So I signed up with a bunch more companies.....for free!
My first job, back in 2005, was to evaluate a video rental place. I was SOOOOooooo nervous! I had to get the name of the person assisting me, and their landyard was so long, it went to where no one should look! I was sweating!! Somehow, I must've gotten the name, because I was paid for the shop. Then I was hooked!! So from 2005 till 2013, I considered this my part-time job, and made decent money, around $800-$1200/month. But after 2013, this has turned into more of a hobby, and I just do a certain few that are my niche, earning maybe $150-$250/month. But I still enjoy it, even after 19 years!

In 1998, I took some personal, unpaid time off from my full-time job to try to get my head on straight. When my money started getting low, and I needed something other than having my brain imaged and donating plasma to generate income, I began MSing. My very first job was evaluating valet service at a hotel. I did it strictly as supplemental income until 2014, when I made the jump to it being my primary means of earning a living.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2024 08:26PM by drdoggie00.

Similar to Guys Mom, I saw an ad in our local paper for a company that advertised mystery shopping. They charged a fee which I paid and got leads to jobs that I found were mostly filled or not available. It took me about an hour to realize the site was a scam and requested a refund, which they begrudgingly finally agreed to after threatening to black list me from all MS companies and getting nasty on the call. This did however allow me to connect with several companies and I did a ton of research on my own...hours and hours of reading and applying. When I was accepted for my first job I was so excited. I think it paid $7, was at least 20 miles away, and I had to buy fish food..I didn't have a fish. I was hooked and that was over 20 years ago. I did it while teaching part time and have since retired from teaching so I shop several days a week now to supplement my income. I have learned the shops I enjoy and the companies that are reasonable to work with, imho. I used to try everything that came my way...car dealerships, casinos, hotels, restaurants, checking "flush holes"(OMG), golf courses, bar integrity Coyle shops and more. Now, I do less stress inducing shops. Easy in..easy out is my mantra.

PS..The original company that took my money was later discovered to be fraud and outed. I can't recall the name of them.

well, I was injured on the job at work, had to have surgery on my knee in 2011. After 2 surgeries he said I needed a knee replacement and the thing that I was doing to try to keep my other knee strong was the wrong thing and now I need surgery on my other knee, that workman's comp wouldn't cover (it never got done). And the company said that I could come back to work in 18 months if I could come back at 100%, and they summarily stripped me of all of my benefits (mechanics that can't get under cars aren't much use). So I had to find another way to get by until I was eligible for my retirement through the company.

I had heard of mystery shopping, seen stupid things on the news and advertisements in the newspapers about "making money at home" and "get paid to eat out" and stuff like that in the news paper. So I found one of those clearing house places that listed all of the MSC's and started signing up. I learned quickly, that Cirrus and Sinclair were a bust. And Coyle was a pain in my neck. The best temporary move was getting invited to work for Ardent, but all the writing burnt me out quickly. I asked for a break, and as soon as I didn't claim any new shops for the second month in a row they deactivated me and refused to reinstate me. I did a bunch of stuff for GFK, and Maritz, I think the tennis shoe shops were from Coyle? I don't remember, but I ended up with a pair of Reebok shoes I couldn't wear. Then I discovered gas station shops, and the old ladies at Maritz became very important to me. I was doing a lot of cell phone audits, and gas stations for Maritz and GFK and getting by, then Ipsos happened and they bought GFK. I moved here, and I was doing well(ish) here in AL until Ipsos starting buying all of the other MSCs.

When Covid hit mystery shopping got considerably more difficult. Between Ipsos taking all the good jobs from other companies, and buying most of those companies outright after they stole all of their income. And schedulers doing things deliberately to keep me from working behind the scenes, making money mystery shopping became a real problem. I'm finally old enough to retire, but I can't get my retirement money from the company because of my ex. So a mystery shopping I go..

@MsJudi wrote:

Similar to Guys Mom, I saw an ad in our local paper for a company that advertised mystery shopping. They charged a fee which I paid and got leads to jobs that I found were mostly filled or not available. It took me about an hour to realize the site was a scam and requested a refund, which they begrudgingly finally agreed to after threatening to black list me from all MS companies and getting nasty on the call. This did however allow me to connect with several companies and I did a ton of research on my own...hours and hours of reading and applying. When I was accepted for my first job I was so excited. I think it paid $7, was at least 20 miles away, and I had to buy fish food..I didn't have a fish. I was hooked and that was over 20 years ago. I did it while teaching part time and have since retired from teaching so I shop several days a week now to supplement my income. I have learned the shops I enjoy and the companies that are reasonable to work with, imho. I used to try everything that came my way...car dealerships, casinos, hotels, restaurants, checking "flush holes"(OMG), golf courses, bar integrity Coyle shops and more. Now, I do less stress inducing shops. Easy in..easy out is my mantra.

PS..The original company that took my money was later discovered to be fraud and outed. I can't recall the name of them.

I’m almost afraid to ask, but…what is a flush hole, and what was involved in checking one?

In the early 1980s I was a waitress at Howard Johnsons and had been shopped there (bad reports due to my bad attitude. A customer years later told me I had been the meanest waitress ever) so I knew shopping was real. Around 1999 I moved to a new, cheaper state (with a much-improved attitude) but had trouble finding work. Eventually landed a waitress job. And got a desktop computer with dial-up. I wanted to see about mystery shopping once the youngest kid entered kindergarten in 2001, as I had a good idea by that time what service was all about. I may have found Volition first, not sure, but signed up to a few companies each time I could. Man, I did ANY assignment just to get in the doors. Counting footsteps in project groceries, buying cigarettes in places I didn't belong, designer handbags and watches (that I still know nothing about), reward shops at fast foods (the kids liked it), restaurants (Mom liked to eat fancy) and other stuff I can't remember. Oh, the shoe stores where laces were the only things within reimbursement. Ugh. Maritz, Speedmark, Sinclair, Shop and Check and whatever GFK was were my first companies.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2024 07:18PM by sestrahelena.

I was working as a merchandiser and in 1999 another merchandiser that I was working with on a reset job told me that she did mystery shopping along with her merchandiser job. And asked me if I might be interested. So she gave me the name of a few Ms companies that she worked for and told me to sign up with them. She lived in another state and was a 100 miles from me, so she said she didn't worry about me taking jobs away from her.
My first shop was a Mcdonalds,then I did a gas station shop. Well my merchandising job was a route job, different areas every day, so I decided I would do gas stations after all needed gas anyway and fast food shops, free lunch while merchandising. Then I signed up for different shops in stores after all I was driving by them anyway on the way to my merchandising job. When the pandemic came along most of my merchandising work dried up. so did the mystery shop jobs. I have since retired and due to health problems I don't due many mystery shops, a few fast food once in awhile, and a few gas station shops. I don't do any merchandising anymore. The last merchandising job I did was in Dec. 2023. A
cosmetic reset and the woman in charge of the team kept telling me that I was too slow, to work faster. I told her wait until after you have done merchandising for 30 years and see what kind of toll it takes on your body and your also 65 years old.

Around 1980 I was managing a fast food restaurant and the franchise owner hired a local woman to do mystery shops for his small chain. Eventually, he had her reporting to me directly as she lived near the town I was in. When I left this job, I actively started looking in the newspaper for Mystery Shopping jobs and even considered opening my own company.

Everything was done through the mail as there was no internet. I worked with ACL for one. Over the years as I changed jobs I picked up Mystery shops occasionally. I worked in a mall for a while and one of my assignments was to go into Victoria's Secret and ask for a catalog. Easiest $8 I ever made. Other favorites years ago were Hooter's, Steak N Ale, and Whataburger. I once spent an entire day doing a zoo. A month later I was contacted to do a follow-up visit. They were so impressed with my original report they wanted my opinion on changes that had been made.

For the last 15 years I was in a high-paying corporate job. Once I retired, I started looking into it again. I now shop about 80% restaurants to keep my grocery bill down and eat out almost every day.

My top earner is Sonic and ironically, I almost took a job as a field auditor for Sonic around 1984.

Good for you that you can find enough food /restaurant shops....I enjoy them since it eliminates food shopping, cooking and dishwashing - but I'd starve if I tried to eat mostly through mystery shopping....there just aren't many restaurant shops near where I currently live......most food places/restaurants in this area are individually owned...not corporate owned.

Over ten yrs ago...there was rumor of yet another round of RIFs (reduction in force) at work. I had already been planning for this possibility years before. Saved as much as I could in 401k, brokerage, etc. I looked at the severance plan document and realized that I could leave after my birthday and they'd boost my pension to start later. The announcement came just after my birthday and I was one of the only individuals smiling as I signed the separation papers.

Since I've always been frugal, I looked online for opportunities to improve our budget while my spouse continued to work at the place I just left. I took a mystery shop, completed it and waited for payment. It seemed legit. I continued, but mostly just for easy restaurant shops. It's been like coupon offers. Now if I'm disappointed with a meal or service, at least I can say to myself I got reimbursed.

Since then, my spouse went through a RIF as well and now we are both early retired.

@drdoggie00 wrote:

@MsJudi wrote:

Similar to Guys Mom, I saw an ad in our local paper for a company that advertised mystery shopping. They charged a fee which I paid and got leads to jobs that I found were mostly filled or not available. It took me about an hour to realize the site was a scam and requested a refund, which they begrudgingly finally agreed to after threatening to black list me from all MS companies and getting nasty on the call. This did however allow me to connect with several companies and I did a ton of research on my own...hours and hours of reading and applying. When I was accepted for my first job I was so excited. I think it paid $7, was at least 20 miles away, and I had to buy fish food..I didn't have a fish. I was hooked and that was over 20 years ago. I did it while teaching part time and have since retired from teaching so I shop several days a week now to supplement my income. I have learned the shops I enjoy and the companies that are reasonable to work with, imho. I used to try everything that came my way...car dealerships, casinos, hotels, restaurants, checking "flush holes"(OMG), golf courses, bar integrity Coyle shops and more. Now, I do less stress inducing shops. Easy in..easy out is my mantra.

PS..The original company that took my money was later discovered to be fraud and outed. I can't recall the name of them.

I’m almost afraid to ask, but…what is a flush hole, and what was involved in checking one?

You had to go into restrooms in places that had a restroom cleaning service the day after it was cleaned and check the cleanliness including using a mirror to photograph the "flush holes" in the toilets. Thankfully, the cleaning service did a great job.

Like I said, I'd try anything once and I think they paid quite well for back then...and now.

It was 2011 and my girlfriend's son worked in a retail store at Copley Place in Boston. He would say that Manny Ramirez would come into the store, and also mentioned they had mystery shoppers come in. I asked him about mystery shopping because both me and his mother were interested in earning extra money. He mentioned Service Sleuth shopped them. I found Service Sleuth and signed up. I saw their job board and found they had a chain of convenience stores. I learned my way around Boston's North Shore doing those stores. I did more research about mystery shopping and found this board which lead to a lot more companies.

After my divorce in the early 2000s I needed to find a way to supplement my income. I came across a book about low-cost businesses women can start. I hadn't heard of mystery shopping until then. I started researching and found the Volition forum online. I used the master list and signed up with companies in my area. I started out doing fast food restaurants.
Then gas stations and apartment shops. I tried anything and everything at least once. I quickly discovered my strengths and weaknesses. I suck at scenarios. lol.

In 2003 I attended the MSPA conference in Washington DC. I’m so glad I went. My best long term projects came from that conference.

So for the past twenty years I’ve been mystery shopping off and on for fun money. I retired in 2019 and I was looking forward to filling my days with shops. Well it just hasn’t happened. The pandemic hit and some of my favorite companies didn’t survive. I really need to update my company list and refocus how I want to approach mystery shopping. My 67 year old brain and body play a major role now.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2024 10:50PM by Angelbug.

2001. My local bank invited me to be part of an in-person focus group. In order to be paid, I had to register with some MS company. I then started to get solicited for other projects near me. One thing led to another. Nearly 10,000 shops and audits later . . .

In mid 2023, I started to panic with one kid about to graduate college, the other graduating high school, and I thought about all of the expenses coming up. Looking for colleges for the second kid, traveling for graduation, renting a moving truck, hotel stays. My husband had just closed his business in 2020 due to COVID and we were already struggling. I started looking at some different jobs on-line. I did all sorts of things like closed captioning for REV, survey sites, m-turk, upwork, etc etc. Nothing was very lucrative and it was alot of work for what they were paying. After I got fired from Rev for too many errors, I was looking on reddit and stumbled across mystery shopping posts. I was signed up with best mark years ago but never did a shop mostly because they didn't have much near me. I had no idea there were so many other MSCs!!

So after some research and finding this forum, I read through all of those new member posts, I just started. It really just took off for me and now I am happy to say it is a great supplemental income to my regular, full time job. It certainly helped pay for those expenses and the dinners at TRH while we travel were fantastic. I was able to find quite a few places to eat while traveling that really helped cut back on costs.

I was a mom going through a divorce back in 2009/2010 (honestly can;t remember when I did my first shop) and I was looking for ways to get free stuff. Mystery shopping came up. My kid was 3/4 when I started, so, I initially did a bunch of jobs for the "stuff" the first few years. Food, entertainment (we did bowling a lot, an MLB game, a 2 night resort trip with dining, activities all paid for - SWANKY, McDs (not so swanky), a local ice cream shop, art supplies, etc). These were things I never could have paid for on my own, as I was dealing with lawyers' bills from the divorce, and trying to save for a down payment on a home, on a 25K income. As I got a better job with bigger pay increases, and my daughter got older and busier (athlete), I really didn't have time for MS, although I did do a one-off here or there (she loved Five Guys and I don't think the bowling shops disappeared until 2017/2018?). I still do it because it gives me an excuse to get out, keeps me busy on days I don't have anything already planned (I don't do 8-12 hour days like I did in the summer; just a shop or two, usually, although if I can get a good cluster of 4-5, it might be an 8 hours day), and I have fun with the scenarios that require a back story.. I like to travel (and I don't want to do MS on my travel, generally), so I put the extra money toward that, and enjoy some free meals, drinks, clothing, etc. And I sometimes get to talk about my pretend partner modeled off of Ryan Gosling.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2024 03:09PM by mysterioso412.

I got laid off in 2003 and researched various income opportunities. I don't remember how I came across mystery shopping but I found the MSPA and soon became silver-certified online. In June of 2003, there was a gold certification workshop less than an hour from home and I became gold-certified. Time flies and I've now been shopping for more than 20 years.

In late 2006 I had just moved back East after a caregiving stint down South. I was reading a newspaper article about mystery shopping, was intrigued, and researched online. I signed up with a few companies and did my first shops in January 2007. When pay started arriving as checks in the mail, I became hooked. I've been back and forth with caregiver duties, including for my own self. Mystery shopping is flexible enough to stop and restart as needed.

I've shopped my way through and know just about every neighborhood in the NYC Metro area, which includes parts of New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York. When I travel on other business (I do archival research for museums and historical societies) I usually get a couple of shops in. When COVID hit, I said to myself it was time to retire so I stopped shopping. But several schedulers asked me to start up again when their business picked up, so I'm back.

Over 30 years ago I was a single mom trying to make ends meet. I saw an ad in the paper for Maritz Research. I started doing lots of gas station audits. I eventually got with other companies. I am now retired and do mostly grocery stores now. I love doing mystery shopping.

I don't recall how I found out about mystery shopping or the first shop I worked for, ICCDS. This was back in 2010 or so. I had just left a company I was working for and didn't have any immediate good job prospects, so I did a bunch of mortgage and loan shops for them which paid well imo.

I've continued to do it off and on over the years, most recently cause I've been a bit of a snowbird b/t South Florida and Philadelphia and there are lots of PA shops which are in my wheelhouse and offer flexibility.

I don't travel outside of an approximately 20-mile range to do shops. The stories from folks doing routes across a stretch of four or five states are cool, but I have no desire to do that. It would rachet up my anxiety to levels I couldn't handle. I've thought about doing some shops while driving b/t South Florida and Philadelphia, but haven't found much available in my wheelhouse that would make it worthwhile. Not that I've looked that hard.

I try to find as many auditing / observation shops as possible, and stick to mostly banks for mystery shopping. I rarely do restaurants or any other shops which require money out of my pocket, even if reimbursed for the amount.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2024 04:04PM by retrodaddy.

@mysterioso412

I am so sorry for your loss.

I started with IRI in June 1996. Along with scanning at retailers, they had some mystery shops and merchandising. Shipped a bunch of blank paper and hooked up a bunch of sample print buttons. When I left there, I started looking for more MS companies and have shopped ever since.

Gosh, it was so long ago (1997?) that I forgot how I got started in it.

In 2011, a lady in ny vook club mentioned it. She guided me through where to start. Hubby loved it vecause I did a lot of pizza shops.

I worked at a life insurance company. Another guy in the department was doing Maggiano's "shops". They were not really shops and it was INTERNAL program to Maggianos. They would give you a gift certificate and tell you when to go. They did this for several years before getting rid of it. I did it for as long as I could. That is when I found other MSC and just kept adding and adding.

I used to @#$%& myself out just because I was so excited to shop. Plus I did not have the financial cushion I have now. So now I am extremely picky with what I will spend my time doing. But I remember in the beginning, it was a competition between me and a coworker for who could do the most assignments in a day/week/month. He was single. I was not. My wife was not thrilled with this "competition." Now he does not shop that much (mostly golf) and I will do quick hitters like a panda drive thru or panda online. I will take a 5g if it ever gets to $20. I will do BJ's brewhouse because I like the food and the $100 GC allows me to go almost 2 times, so I feel I am "making money" on that one. I will do bank account openings. I miss Cheesecake Factory the most. I remember the Target shops where you would get paid $50 just to go thru the checkout line and see if they offered a credit card. I also like the rental cars shops in the past, but those have been gone for many years now.