Grocery Stores
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There are a lot of different grocery chains and they are shopped by different MSPs. In my area most of them are done by Service Intelligence or Customer Perspectives. In some other parts of the country they are done by companies such as Market Force, GFK and others.
Thanks. I am on the central coast in California. I complete alot of shops for Market Force and have signed up w/ GFK. Have not seen grocery stores under Service Intelligence. Since I cannot name specific names of stores, does anyone else know of MSP's in California that assign shops for grocery stores?
cowgirl1
Trendsource does grocery shops in Calif. They are very easy shops. The only grocery shops that I will do. they pay the 5th and 20th of each month and are very reliable. Not the highest paying company but easy audit forms and quick pay. If you aren't already signed..here is their link. [www.trendsource.com]
reality check does a grocery store shop
Market Force has them also. They don't pay anything though, literally. They will give you a $10 or $15 reimbursement for your grocery purchase, but that's it.
Most grocery shops pay little or no fee. The ones that pay a better fee pay less reimbursement for groceries in most cases. Because I need to buy groceries anyway, I generally find that a shop that pays a fee + reimbursement of $15 or better is generally worthwhile. I have seen some in other areas of the country that pay $3 and give a $5 reimbursement and that is hardly worth the report and paperwork even if you are going to that grocery during the appropriate time period anyway.
I feel like Flash does. I have to buy groceries anyway, so I view the whole thing as a discount to our monthly bills.
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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
I have pleasant experiences with MFI. One scheduler calls me regularly for distant grocery stores. I've never had the least little nitpick on my reports. Of course asking you twice for your IN and OUT times is a little irritating. LOL.
I've found the Market Force grocery shops to not be not worth the fee. To get paid nothing but a $10 reimbursement for 60+ questions, when I can go to another comapny, and go to a bank and chat with someone for 20 minutes and make $17.50+ with half the questions? Or to an upsacle store shop for $20+? That's a no brainer for me.
At first I was all into Market Force and Certified, but now that I realize I was having to perform 3 of their shops to equal one from another company?? No thanks! If I'm driving to a specific location and they happen to have something I might pick it up, but I don't need their less than average paying work.
What I find annoying about Market Force and Certified,etc. is that we as shoppers know they can afford to pay us more, but they choose not to. I doubt they are charging the client much less than any other company would, they are just keeping the profits. As long as shoppers log in and take $1.75 phone shops and shops that pay $5, they will offer them. It's too bad for us really.
At first I was all into Market Force and Certified, but now that I realize I was having to perform 3 of their shops to equal one from another company?? No thanks! If I'm driving to a specific location and they happen to have something I might pick it up, but I don't need their less than average paying work.
What I find annoying about Market Force and Certified,etc. is that we as shoppers know they can afford to pay us more, but they choose not to. I doubt they are charging the client much less than any other company would, they are just keeping the profits. As long as shoppers log in and take $1.75 phone shops and shops that pay $5, they will offer them. It's too bad for us really.
I did some of the $1.75 phone shops. A small amount, yes, but also a small amount of work - at home, no gas used. Everyone has different criteria.
I just feel like we are worth more. Regardless of the amount of work, it's almost an insult to ask someone to spend their time on the phone, answer questions (even if there are just 7) then have to fax a CPI report, etc for $1.75. We are simply worth more than that.
I agree with Flash if there is a fee and a reimbursement involved that is fine,because then I'm totaling both, but so far I have never gotten a grocery shop on my list that paid a fee, just $10 for $60+ questions, which to me is excessive when a bank shop is almost $20 and there are less than half the questions. But of course that is with a different company.
I agree with Flash if there is a fee and a reimbursement involved that is fine,because then I'm totaling both, but so far I have never gotten a grocery shop on my list that paid a fee, just $10 for $60+ questions, which to me is excessive when a bank shop is almost $20 and there are less than half the questions. But of course that is with a different company.
I completely understand. And a $10 shop is just that--to me not worth the 60 questions and the time.
I have figured out over time who does all the groceries in my area and to some extent, January brings a reshuffle of companies doing the shops. There are definitely positives and negatives to the same shop when done by different companies as well as the new year on the same shop by the same company.
I want to see $15 value to a given shop. My rule of thumb about fee plus reimbursement equalling the value of the shop gets very flexible. My most frequent grocery shops are at a store that prides itself (foolishly) on its fine customer service. Their prices are 5-20% higher than the same items at Walmart Supercenter. Their saving grace is that they do have good loss leaders. I figure that their $10 reimbursement is really worth about $8 to me compared to my other grocery store options. With a $7 fee, this still is a $15 value shop, but barely.
This past week I did new-to-me shops at two groceries that I won't do again. They were $10 fee plus reimbursement of specified items. Turns out that the specified items were mostly things I could not and would not use. The value of this shop is $10 for the fee and really nothing for the reimbursement except stuff I can pass on to charity.
I have figured out over time who does all the groceries in my area and to some extent, January brings a reshuffle of companies doing the shops. There are definitely positives and negatives to the same shop when done by different companies as well as the new year on the same shop by the same company.
I want to see $15 value to a given shop. My rule of thumb about fee plus reimbursement equalling the value of the shop gets very flexible. My most frequent grocery shops are at a store that prides itself (foolishly) on its fine customer service. Their prices are 5-20% higher than the same items at Walmart Supercenter. Their saving grace is that they do have good loss leaders. I figure that their $10 reimbursement is really worth about $8 to me compared to my other grocery store options. With a $7 fee, this still is a $15 value shop, but barely.
This past week I did new-to-me shops at two groceries that I won't do again. They were $10 fee plus reimbursement of specified items. Turns out that the specified items were mostly things I could not and would not use. The value of this shop is $10 for the fee and really nothing for the reimbursement except stuff I can pass on to charity.
I'm not trying to sell anyone on $1.75 shops. I did 8 of them over 3 nights. I made $14 and it could not have been one total hour of work.
Wow, very surprising. Except for the lists for Trendsource, the grocery shops here pay fairly for the work-$22 or $23 with $15-$17 fee and the other reimbursement. Yay!
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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
Lucky you, Dee. Must be very little competition for you in Hawaii. Here I have only one grocery chain that shops, and I get either $10 or $15 in groceries, PERIOD. Must be the same one SusanMB does.
The other 5 or 6 chains here don't have shopping, but we're carpeted with MSers here. So I'm sharing that one chain with everyone else, and I'm on a rotation besides. And, like Flash's market, their prices are already too high, so I usually buy sale items. Sometimes I have tough time spending my $15, because I buy most of my food at Trader Joe's and the local fruit market. Total profit from groceries--$0-$30/month. But the MSP sometimes bonuses me for doing 2 stores $20 miles away.
Before anyone asks--TJ's is not shopped, except in certain parts of the country by the competition.
The other 5 or 6 chains here don't have shopping, but we're carpeted with MSers here. So I'm sharing that one chain with everyone else, and I'm on a rotation besides. And, like Flash's market, their prices are already too high, so I usually buy sale items. Sometimes I have tough time spending my $15, because I buy most of my food at Trader Joe's and the local fruit market. Total profit from groceries--$0-$30/month. But the MSP sometimes bonuses me for doing 2 stores $20 miles away.
Before anyone asks--TJ's is not shopped, except in certain parts of the country by the competition.
I just wish TJ's would come to HI. I would love to have the chocolate pancake mix, it makes AWESOME scones! And I love the wine selection. I also used to love the mushroom "burger" before it went away. :-)
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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
No wine here; groceries aren't licensed to don't sell wine. But I buy all my frozen foods, pasta, sauces,pizza, soy milk and loads more from TJ's. Strangely, there's none in Florida either.
ok question on trendsource?how long after signing up w/ them did you start hearing from them? Its been a couple weeks for me.
Also need to ask how do u keep track of which job you are getting payment for when u do several jobs for one company when you have direct dep. pymts?
thank-you
dee
cedar city ut.
Also need to ask how do u keep track of which job you are getting payment for when u do several jobs for one company when you have direct dep. pymts?
thank-you
dee
cedar city ut.
I think I was signed up with Trendsource for more than six months before I got my first email about a job. I contacted them that they had not activated me and I got activated pretty promptly so I could do the job. I gather they activated folks only when they had a need in a particular area. That was several years ago and I don't know what it is like today.
Often the company sending the direct deposit will send an email of what they are paying for or you can look on their site at your shopper history to see what they have set up for payment. I usually just add up my oldest jobs for them and keep adding on until I reach the amount of the deposit. If it doesn't jive then I start looking on their website to see what jobs they think they are paying.
Often the company sending the direct deposit will send an email of what they are paying for or you can look on their site at your shopper history to see what they have set up for payment. I usually just add up my oldest jobs for them and keep adding on until I reach the amount of the deposit. If it doesn't jive then I start looking on their website to see what jobs they think they are paying.
I also got activated when they had a large new shop in my area. It was 6 months after I signed up.
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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
sneakers Wrote:
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> No wine here; groceries aren't licensed to don't
> sell wine. But I buy all my frozen foods, pasta,
> sauces,pizza, soy milk and loads more from TJ's.
> Strangely, there's none in Florida either.
They didn't do wine in MD either, due to the strange laws compared to most of the country at this time. But we could go to VA, which on a weekend was 45 minutes away and stock up on "2 buck chuck" (so nicknamed as it is a second label named charles shaw that sold for $2 in the CA stores) for $3.49 a bottle
(higher taxes than CA for wine, but cigarettes were not taxed heavily there for obvious reasons. Yes, I have ALL the bad habits!)
In Mass, where my mom lived, only one city had liquor laws that groceries could sell wine, framingham, so the TJ's there sold it, but it cost almost $5 for 2 buck chuck there. So we only went there one time on a vist, and stuck with VA.
As I understand you live in NY. IF so, you have wegmans. that is the disneyland of supermarkets. I have never seen anything like the ones they had in MD or VA. I would kill for one of those here right along side a TJ's!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2008 07:03AM by dee shops.
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> No wine here; groceries aren't licensed to don't
> sell wine. But I buy all my frozen foods, pasta,
> sauces,pizza, soy milk and loads more from TJ's.
> Strangely, there's none in Florida either.
They didn't do wine in MD either, due to the strange laws compared to most of the country at this time. But we could go to VA, which on a weekend was 45 minutes away and stock up on "2 buck chuck" (so nicknamed as it is a second label named charles shaw that sold for $2 in the CA stores) for $3.49 a bottle
(higher taxes than CA for wine, but cigarettes were not taxed heavily there for obvious reasons. Yes, I have ALL the bad habits!)
In Mass, where my mom lived, only one city had liquor laws that groceries could sell wine, framingham, so the TJ's there sold it, but it cost almost $5 for 2 buck chuck there. So we only went there one time on a vist, and stuck with VA.
As I understand you live in NY. IF so, you have wegmans. that is the disneyland of supermarkets. I have never seen anything like the ones they had in MD or VA. I would kill for one of those here right along side a TJ's!
**********************************************************************
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2008 07:03AM by dee shops.
In FL grocery stores can sell beer and wine but not 'hard' alcohol. So there is half an aisle side of beer in coolers and a full aisle side in many stores of wines. If they want to sell liquor as well they simply have a little store with a separate outside entrance and do the wine and liquor there, many times with a door into the store that makes it seem to be just another department of the store, though I do think you need to pay for your purchases there rather than at the grocery's front registers. Some of the older drug stores in the area have the separate door for liquor but in that case it would appear that the liquor store has different hours than the drug store. 24 hr Walmart Supercenters have wines and I believe a limited selection of harder stuff to go with their 'mixers'. (You can tell we are big drinkers--recently when I was tidying our liquor cabinet I found a still sealed whiskey with 1978 on the tax label.)
dee shops Wrote:
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> As I understand you live in NY. IF so, you have
> wegmans. that is the disneyland of supermarkets.
> I have never seen anything like the ones they had
> in MD or VA. I would kill for one of those here
> right along side a TJ's!
NYS is huge, no Wegman's in my area, so need to envy me. Sounds good, though. I'm happy with TJ's and I buy my produce at a local fruit market, cat supplies from the pet shop, my toiletries from Harmon, so sometimes I have a tough time spending $15 on my grocery audits. I shop where I can get the best quality for best price, and the supermarkets are NOT IT.
I have 3 TJ's within driving distance, and one in the city. Nyah, nyah!!
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> As I understand you live in NY. IF so, you have
> wegmans. that is the disneyland of supermarkets.
> I have never seen anything like the ones they had
> in MD or VA. I would kill for one of those here
> right along side a TJ's!
NYS is huge, no Wegman's in my area, so need to envy me. Sounds good, though. I'm happy with TJ's and I buy my produce at a local fruit market, cat supplies from the pet shop, my toiletries from Harmon, so sometimes I have a tough time spending $15 on my grocery audits. I shop where I can get the best quality for best price, and the supermarkets are NOT IT.
I have 3 TJ's within driving distance, and one in the city. Nyah, nyah!!
ya, rub it in! They have stated they will "never come to HI" as it would force too much of a burden on their price structure. Bummer. I still want my chocolate pancake mix. No one elses makes scones as deep and rich as theirs, and with no chemical taste and way less effort than scratch. I was hooked!
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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
Dee, it is too bad you are off the continental US. Otherwise you could possibly prevail on somebody in a TJs area to use a 'home ship' shop to ship you some. 
Hey, they have almost 100 stores, yet there's none in FL either. That's cuckoo.
Dee--I'll ship you some TJ"s stuff if you pay shipping. Pineapple salsa, cranberry couscous, Kashi cereals, bruschetta, lemon cream wafers, chunky spiced apples...
Dee--I'll ship you some TJ"s stuff if you pay shipping. Pineapple salsa, cranberry couscous, Kashi cereals, bruschetta, lemon cream wafers, chunky spiced apples...
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