Seeing less and less shops posted and the ones posted are not worth doing!

November 16, 2025 06:41PM

$15 to go to a mall and take a list of pictures and make a lot of observations? If questioned- say you ae doing an audit? Really? $15?? Go to a mattress tore be annoyed for up to an hour or more for $10??? Go to 5 Guys for a greasy heart attack burger for a starting fee of $9?// Honestly, I think mystery shopping is on its way out!

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November 16, 2025 07:01PM

Those $15 mall shops never get higher than $15 here. Haven't done one.

I need a hell of a lot more than $10 to do a retail store shop, especially the mattress stores.

A lot of the Five Guys shops here get into the high teens, and coupled with free food & drink I think it's an okay deal. I just don't feel like eating there.

I mainly stick to bank shops and audits. Bank shops typically pay better, and audits pay better and I don't have to be concerned with presenting a scenario or remembering a bunch of details.

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

November 16, 2025 07:04PM

I was doing bank shops but for some reason I have been banned or whatever as I get notices and am asked to apply then never hear a word- applications deleted. They paid reasonably well. I am not going to run myself ragged for these low fees. I assume all the lay offs, cut backs and moves to AI are affecting mystery shopping.

November 16, 2025 10:36PM

I've worked more in the months of October & November than I ever have.

November 17, 2025 01:47AM

Agree with the Fat lady .Guess I must live in a crappy area with no shops…yeah I do which I think is why there are no good shops worth doing posted.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2025 01:51AM by OldmanJames.

November 17, 2025 08:38PM

I'm noticing fewer shops that DON'T require putting out your own $$$. My pin money, petty cash reserves have dwindled. I'm no longer putting out $$$ for greasy burgers w/soggy fries and other situations that require 30+ day reimbursement. As for "shops" that don't require an output of cash (merch, etc...) but don't pay within 10 days, "FORGET ABOUT IT!"

November 18, 2025 02:08PM

Yes, it's definitely fewer opportunities. But we've seen that with the receipts asking for feedback about visits as well as automated checkouts affecting numbers. Once upon a time, I never drove from point A to point B without picking up a shop to cover my gas. I've never relied on MS, but I can understand that for those who do it's a tough market right now. I do find it's still feast or famine in the specialty areas, including apartment rentals, assisted living facilities, financial institutions.

Evaluating and mailing packages since 1994. I am an undercover connoisseur of customer service, a master of disguise in the aisles, and a sworn enemy of subpar experiences. I blend in, observe, and report—because excellence should never be a mystery.

November 18, 2025 02:10PM

inflation happens every year. its been way worse the last 5 years
car shops are back for me this year

shopping north west PA and south west ny

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2025 02:10PM by cooldude581.

November 18, 2025 02:18PM

The mall shops I usually get 25 for. Thats about as high as I see them go. Same for mattress shops. Has to be 25 or more, those shops are ridiculous for $10. The greasy burger shop I can't eat anymore so I will only do it if one of my kids wants it, otherwise, pass.. unless it is 30 but I never see that anymore.

November 18, 2025 03:57PM

Viv, what types of shops are you doing, that you've been so busy?

November 18, 2025 04:46PM

Fatlady opines--....I think mystery shopping is on its way out!

Bob agrees--While some shoppers, myself included, have discovered a profitable system, most folks have a need greater than working all day for an unacceptable net. What has occurred for me, is the great reduction of work in category #1: money. There was a time they annually numbered in the hundreds; I have completed 5 this year.

I believe those shoppers who are primarily or only interested in my category #2, leisure, will not be as adversely affected. For them, a $200 meal is worth the time and any aggravation. For me, I am happy with an Early Bird steak at the Roadhouse on my dime. The location I visit offers 20% off on Mondays for veterans and 30% one day a year.

November 18, 2025 05:33PM

Unemployed and federal workers take many shops these days. At lower rates because a few are desperate. I met a mid manager looking for a bank job for 6 months, 2 teenagers, one child with disabilities. It is tough out there.

November 18, 2025 10:58PM

I'm with viv.

I have to work to take days off. And I only do well bonused shops. If I could push myself beyond my limits, I could work all day, every day, But my health won't allow me to do that, and I need time to stare at the walls and get my head back on straight regularly.

Currently scheduled I have about $300 - $500 in gas station shops, one station brand will net me about $100 and about 6 - 8 gallons of gasoline, the others are just audits, no outlay of cash to begin with. I'll get these done with week, and the pay will likely go up next week, and I'll do the rest of the local stations (within 60 - 80 miles) probably before the end of this month, or the first week of December.

I don't work from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to the Monday after because of black friday shoppers and traffic. I don't go out when folks are behaving badly in large groups and I can't get decent parking spaces.

November 19, 2025 12:25AM

I think it is location dependent, and also has a lot to do with how many hours you are willing to drive, and how many miles you want to put on your car. In my area there aren’t many opportunities.

Every few weeks someone posts something similar, and there are always responses disagreeing, but usually no one specifies what the glut of jobs is. Gas stations I guess? Definitely regional because the only gas station shops near me pay $5, lol

November 19, 2025 01:45AM

Yes to bradkrew and as I have often mentioned in my big city there is almost always a long wait for my turn even with an appt at a bank etc . I did one mattress shop long ago, also remember a plumbing shop long ago. Both paid similar to $10 at the time and I had to wait for my turn 20 minutes or so making the job take up too much time before I even started. And on similar first tries often another customer waiting their turn in back of me overhears and chimes into my conversation with the salesperson and throws my entire shop off. No more retail of that type for me.

November 19, 2025 01:58AM

Gas stations... more than i can count

@LindaS wrote:

Viv, what types of shops are you doing, that you've been so busy?

November 19, 2025 02:00AM

Yes I would like to know

November 19, 2025 05:01AM

I think I made it clear that most of what I do is gas stations. I also do casual dining restaurants, fast food when it meets the criteria (and isn't jersey mikes), and grocery shops (any I can get my hands on). I don't do jewelry shops, or fine dining, or most clothing shops because I apparently don't understand the language that those folks speak, even in English.

November 19, 2025 07:57AM

Interesting! I am the opposite of Morledzep. I avoid gas stations unless they are highly bonused. I gravitate towards beauty, clothing, jewelry, and fine dining. I do enjoy the reimbursed groceries.

November 19, 2025 11:33AM

I do my fair share of fine dining when my schedule allows. I've done two lunches in the past two weeks. My schedule didn't really like that chunk of time taken up, but I considered them my 'birthday' treats (my birthday was in the middle of the two lunches)

I'll do jersey mikes anytime I'm on a route, a bit less greasy than panda! Report takes me about the same amount of time and I don't care about photos, it really doesn't bother me.

@Morledzep wrote:

I think I made it clear that most of what I do is gas stations. I also do casual dining restaurants, fast food when it meets the criteria (and isn't jersey mikes), and grocery shops (any I can get my hands on). I don't do jewelry shops, or fine dining, or most clothing shops because I apparently don't understand the language that those folks speak, even in English.

November 19, 2025 12:49PM

I set a low bar goal of $800 per month in fees and usually go way above that. However, lately it's been getting more difficult to reach that point. Back in the day I could count on a few hundred per month from MF. Today I got a $20 payment. For November I have $0 with MF. I've been doing more for other MSCs and have added some new to me places like See's Candy, car washes and a new to my area fine dining restaurant. I love doing this work and sure hope to continue as long as my weary legs will let me....just not for some of the fees currently offered.

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

Mark Twain

November 19, 2025 03:20PM

I was one and done with Sees Candy a year or two ago. $7 pay and $8 reimbursement cost me $1 out of pocket for a very tiny box of candy.

November 20, 2025 01:33AM

gigi, I would do See's candy all day, every day. It's the only chocolate that I really like. The See's Candy store in Huntsville, AL is only open part of the year, and when the shops are available I seem to always miss them.

My grandparents used to give all of the adults, friends and family a 1 lb. box of mixed nuts and chews every year for Christmas all of my life. And as an adult, I worked at a Smog Test shop about a mile from the See's Candy plant in Los Angeles, we used the same uniform service, and our uniform guy used to bring us boxes of the mistakes. In 65 yeares I've never grown tired of See's Candy.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2025 01:37AM by Morledzep.

November 20, 2025 05:08AM

I went into that Sees factory store one day years ago thinking perhaps they would be selling seconds at a discount but all they had were the full priced items they had in the retail stores. I never went back. But I need a smog check next month. Too bad you no longer work there.

@Morledzep wrote:

gigi, I would do See's candy all day, every day. It's the only chocolate that I really like. The See's Candy store in Huntsville, AL is only open part of the year, and when the shops are available I seem to always miss them.

My grandparents used to give all of the adults, friends and family a 1 lb. box of mixed nuts and chews every year for Christmas all of my life. And as an adult, I worked at a Smog Test shop about a mile from the See's Candy plant in Los Angeles, we used the same uniform service, and our uniform guy used to bring us boxes of the mistakes. In 65 yeares I've never grown tired of See's Candy.

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Seeing less and less shops posted and the ones posted are not worth doing!

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