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Has anyone ever been told specific day and time to visit a store? What does that mean?

May 04, 2026 12:43PM
I had a shop where initially it had a 2-week window to do the shop anytime I felt like but then they said Mondays only from 8am-10.30am only. I did the shop today and there was only one person working there and they were horrid. They completely ignored me for 15 minutes when I came in as they seemed to be chatting away on the phone then texting or playing a game, completely ignored what I said, gave me the wrong advice, talked down about the other customers in front of them and said how awful they all were, and did just about everything wrong - though not as bad as I've seen. I wonder if the owner had set this up because they wanted an excuse to fire them. Is this the sort of thing that other people have experienced? Do managers use mystery shoppers to justify firing someone?
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May 04, 2026 02:48PM
Sounds like a targeted shop. There is no way to know what the client goal is. If it worries you that there may be consequences, that is always the case whether obvious or not. The assignment is to report the facts. What happens after that is not your concern.
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May 04, 2026 02:49PM
It sounds like you answered your own question. Given how horrible your experience was, if I were the owner or manager, I surely would want to know what a customer was experiencing if I suspected an employee being that bad. But it is frustrating that they apparently only told you to be on the lookout for a very specific time window only after the shop was assigned.
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May 04, 2026 04:18PM
I get specific dates/times alot for shops. Yes, some are open-ended while others are "weekday mornings between 7am-3pm" or "weekend evenings from 8pm-11pm." There can be a number of reasons for this like checking if there is not enough/too many employees on shift to properly respond to the customer needs. Maybe it would change their time for when food inventory is needed most for a shift, etc. Lots of factors.
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May 10, 2026 03:30AM
This restriction is not uncommon. Sometimes it is to target an employee during their specific work day and hour. Sometimes it is a targeted date, time window, and targeted employee to gather evidence for disciplining or firing an employee suspected of stealing, such as a bartender. If the employer has proof, then they do not have to pay the employee compensation and the employer's worker compensation payment amount does not increase.
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May 10, 2026 06:04AM
I do gas station shops that have to be done during certain day parts and on specific days. It wasn't unusual, now I think, other than restaurant shops, they don't have the same requirements.
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May 10, 2026 02:07PM
In the past I would do time window bar shops. Once saw a guy doing a behavior I was warned about.. Put the $20 on top of the till, then pocket it later.
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