1. Forums
  2. Mystery Shopping Discussion

Where are the red gas stations?

May 31, 2025 05:33PM
I used to do the red gas stations all the time, and sometime last year they seem to have disappeared, aside from occasional rebrands and stuff. Anybody know which MSC has them? Or what happened to them in general?

Edit: Ok, guys, sorry for the vague description. I’m referring to the red gas stations that IPSOS had/has. I think Market Force had them before that.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2025 08:12PM by cryssyshopper.
Reply
Log In
x

Create an Account or Log In

Membership is free. Simply choose your username, type in your email address, and choose a password. You immediately get full access to the forum.

Already a member? Log In.

More About Gas Station Mystery Shopping
May 31, 2025 08:52PM
There are more gas station shops than ever before here, basically due to competition among the different brands and the proliferation of new gas stations being built the past couple years. However, I do not know what brand might be a "red" gas station, so maybe they are unique to your area.
Reply
May 31, 2025 09:07PM
I agree with wolfman. We might need some more hints about which brand you are talking about.

There is a history of using colors too hint at gas brands, and they are often ambiguous. The two that annoy me the most are saying "blue gas station" and "green gas station.". There are at least four major shopped gas brands that have blue as a primary color, and there are at least two that are almost entirely green.
Reply
May 31, 2025 10:27PM
Famous highway? Not till July, I think.
Reply
June 01, 2025 07:31AM
The famous highway shops can be red/gray, white/red, or orange/blue. There are two different brands that go with the Image/Customer First/Stars audits, one is blue with a little red, and the other is red and black. There are C-store shops that are red with either white or yellow, and there are several different names that go with that one.

More info is necessary to answer your question.
Reply
June 01, 2025 05:39PM
Ok, guys, sorry for the vague description. I’m referring to the red gas stations that IPSOS had/has. I think Market Force had them before that.
Reply
June 01, 2025 05:57PM
That's when I stock up on overpriced, generic sandwich bags, aluminim foil, plastic wrap and pricier snacks. Expensive, but it still saves me from buying usable things out of pocket. I'm surprised that the MSC hasn't talked them into a more structured, and cheaper, reimbursement yet. It's coming, I'll bet.
Reply
June 01, 2025 08:31PM
Again, the hints are too vague. Ipsos took all of MartizCX's gas stations and then stole the rest from other MSCs. There are other gas station shops on Alta360 and ISS/Intouch Insight. But now that all the MSCs have been named, we can't name names of gas stations.. this entire thread is a waste now.
Reply
June 01, 2025 11:51PM
MF had the famous highway last.
Reply
June 02, 2025 04:38AM
Omg, I have been so confused as to what “the famous highway” gas stations were. Having to use code for everything is so obnoxious ????. Not you, just the situation. Anyway, I just figured out what people are talking about, and YES, those are the ones I’m referring to. I haven’t seen them on IPSOS in nearly a year. Where did they go?
Reply
June 02, 2025 04:40AM
What do you mean by “not till July”? Are you saying they won’t be posted until July?
Reply
June 02, 2025 04:41AM
Yes, I’m talking about the famous hwy ones. In my area, there are generally only the red ones.
Reply
June 02, 2025 08:02AM
Yes, the next round should start in July. The Q2 shops were in April and May.
@cryssyshopper wrote:

Yes, I’m talking about the famous hwy ones. In my area, there are generally only the red ones.
Reply
June 02, 2025 12:24PM
@cryssyshopper wrote:

I haven’t seen them on IPSOS in nearly a year. Where did they go?

Presto

Have synthesizers, will travel...
Reply
June 02, 2025 06:54PM
I think that some of the younger people are not familiar with old timey road trip history. I, myself, was a mere tot when interstates took over and killed the scenic routes. But I do watch the history channel and old movies. And classic advertising such as, "You can trust your car to the man who wears the star." This may be why some hints just don't register with the youngsters. Sorry, kids!
Reply
June 02, 2025 09:40PM
LOL Ses, that is not a famous highway brand. fork I'm old.
Reply
June 02, 2025 10:47PM
I remembered someone had referred to the man with the star when talking about a different brand a while back.
Reply
June 06, 2025 12:57AM
The Red highway, that includes the orange ball and that other shop will resume on 07/01/2025.
Reply
June 26, 2025 03:52PM
New quiz to take - with the same Q&As as last time. No rotation.
Daylight. Now with 120 hours to complete (instead of 24) starting 7/1. Yay!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2025 07:59PM by sestrahelena.
Reply
June 27, 2025 01:04AM
In my area, they generally go fast since they're now on Presto..

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
Reply
June 27, 2025 11:13AM
There are very few locations of that brand in my area. The only one listed on Presto is unavailable to me. I keep getting a message stating that I'm blocked from claiming it. That's the only shop I've ever been blocked from claiming. And at $12, I'm okay with that.

I don't think there are any Russians / And there ain't no Yanks
Just corporate criminals\ / Playin' with tanks


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2025 07:25PM by retrodaddy.
Reply
June 27, 2025 02:43PM
@ wrote:

And at $12, I'm okay with that.

It's not the $12 fee that makes these desirable, at least for me.

It's the $10 flexible reimbursement scheme.

I could not do the routes I do were it not for being able to put as little as 5¢ of fuel in my tank/gas can.

Have synthesizers, will travel...


Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2025 02:44PM by CoolMusic.
Reply
June 27, 2025 05:10PM
Yes, the high, flexible reimbursement is the big draw, since some other brands only reimburse $2 for gas and $1 in store.
@CoolMusic wrote:

@ wrote:

And at $12, I'm okay with that.

It's not the $12 fee that makes these desirable, at least for me.

It's the $10 flexible reimbursement scheme.

I could not do the routes I do were it not for being able to put as little as 5¢ of fuel in my tank/gas can.
Reply
June 27, 2025 05:20PM
Since I'm blocked from picking up the shop, I can't see details on the reimbursement. What is the $10 flexible reimbursement scheme?

I don't think there are any Russians / And there ain't no Yanks
Just corporate criminals\ / Playin' with tanks
Reply
June 27, 2025 05:29PM
You have to make two puchases: gas and a store item. There's a $10 reimbursement that you can apportion any way you want between those two purchases. Example - 5 cents gas and $9.95 in store. Or $6.04 gas and $3.96 store. Any way you choose. You can go over the reimbursement if you want, of course. But I don't.
Reply
June 27, 2025 05:34PM
Spend $10 for gas and in the store, dividing it however you like. You could spend 25 cents for candy and $9.75 for gas, or vice versa. I try to go for the gas, so a $12 shop is worth $20 to me, assuming I have room for the gas. I passed up a ton of these when I was out of state and they were going for $18, because I didn't have room for the gas and the $18 by itself just wasn't worth staying an extra night.
Reply
June 28, 2025 07:11AM
yea, I like the flexible reimbursement a lot. Since the price of gasoline here is still well below $3.00 per gallon, we get 3 gallons and then we spend less than $2 in the store, we usually end up very close without going over reimbursement, and when we do go over it's only by a few pennies.

Myst, gas cans are your friend.. We now have 2 cars that barely sip gas, not like my old POS Jeep that used a 1/4 tank just driving into town. So we always have at least one gas can with us, we fill up the car we're driving first then at all the stops after that we fill up cans. A small route of famous highway shops will fill up 3 gas cans and the car we're driving in no time at all now.
Reply
June 28, 2025 11:49AM
@cryssyshopper wrote:

I used to do the red gas stations all the time, and sometime last year they seem to have disappeared, aside from occasional rebrands and stuff. Anybody know which MSC has them? Or what happened to them in general?

Edit: Ok, guys, sorry for the vague description. I’m referring to the red gas stations that IPSOS had/has. I think Market Force had them before that.

Red with a star or red with a 2 digit number where both digits are the same????
Reply
June 28, 2025 01:54PM
Digits
Reply
June 28, 2025 02:33PM
I'm going to switch from "Famous Highway" to "2/3 of the Mark Of The Beast" for clarity. :-D

I was able to snag 4 of the usual suspects (not all showed up) ahead of the start date, and a new-to-me location that is on the 40+ mile drive to the GF's, so yay for that. I usually book pairs of car washes each weekend I spend at her place to maximize my mileage write-offs.

There are still a couple in my area that I will not do unless the bonuses get really significant, or I'm really desperate. One is a nasty store owned/staffed by nasty people, and the other is a mechanic's shop with hardly anything to buy inside and problematic payment at the pump more times than not.

I'm not seeing my more remote usual suspects. Hoping they show up so I can put together more runs this summer to offset lower teaching income. As long as I can gross more per hour than driving Uber/Lyft while having some if not all of my gas paid for I am good.

Have synthesizers, will travel...
Reply
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login