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Why do companies pay for mystery shops and do nothing with the results?

March 15, 2026 05:27PM
I did 6 Texaco/Chevron shops last week. Only one cashier had a nametag. I did 5 others yesterday and not a single one had a nametag. I have found that fewer than 10% of the employees ever have nametags. These shops were my bread and butter a few years back, but I stopped doing them when they started requiring a photo of the cashier if they weren't wearing a nametag. I had a couple of instances when the person got hostile, and that ended those shops for me. Now I do a few of them if a large bonus is posted. Maybe the reason they have a large bonus is because other shoppers know they will have lots of infractions which require photos. Why does the company pay for mystery shopping and then make no changes?
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March 15, 2026 05:54PM
A lot of these shops are tied to franchise agreements. They are a small piece to the overall franchise contracts. While the franchise owner “must” follow the agreements they technically can do whatever they want, pay the fine to the franchisee and keep it moving. I’m sure after repeated violations or severe enough violations, the dba is revoked.

Others like Whole Foods or Wells Fargo are the result of lawsuits or litigation and serve other purposes.
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March 15, 2026 05:56PM
The company can't force employees at the station level to wear name tags.
On a larger scale with gas stations, I've had owners in the past acknowledge to me that the cost of fixing something is not worth whatever the improvement in the score will be, so they accept a certain component is marked off.
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March 20, 2026 01:09PM
Because they are awful?

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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March 20, 2026 07:08PM
I asked myself this very question in 2010. I had accepted a quarterly visit to the Greater Cincinnati airport the prior year. While the pay was not what I normally would require for a round of 155 mls., my thinking was that once I had the stores in shape, the subsequent visits would be a breeze. When they weren't, I could not see any improvement, I inquired of the owner of the boutique MSC. I then learned all results would only be employed at lease time. No one had misled me; the goof was entirely on me. I immediately tendered my resignation.
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March 21, 2026 12:37AM
I have routinely done shops over and over again for years on end where there are continued infractions ranging from non-compliant signage to obvious cash theft (by the same person month after month). That these issues are not fixed is of some mild bemusement to me but nothing else. My job is to provide data. What the businesses do with that data it is solely up to them.
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March 24, 2026 05:46PM
When I was doing Marathons (lots of them) for the old company, I did notice change but it certainly was not immediate. With some though, after a year, I did notice improvement. Really depends if an owner is present vs an employee.
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March 25, 2026 12:45AM
I also think that in certain corporations, there's an aspect of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Some person or persons get the idea that a mystery shopping program might be helpful, it gets approved, then the advocates for the program get involved in something else and a true "enforcement regime" is never put in place.
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March 25, 2026 07:40AM
I just did a fine dining restaurant ($$$) and one set of lights over the door were out. I looked through my photos and one of those lights has been out since18 mos ago and both were out 6 mos ago. I did put a comment in the “anything else you want to share” section that they may have an electrical issue. I can’t imagine it’s just the matter of changing a light bulb since it was out the 3 or 4 random times when I was there.

The biggest waste of shops is Applebee’s. They are supposed to suggest the featured drink and food items. Not only haven’t they done it, but when I asked if the item was good (hoping to prompt them giving the required description) I have repeatedly gotten responses that they never tried it, don’t know or even a shrug. This has gone on for at least 9 cycles of shops (most with 2-3 locations dove). I think I had one who gave a decent recommendation when I asked but not one has suggested the items. I’d have assumed that results were discussed or posted so they knew they were looking for these suggestions to start making them. Nope…
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