Correct me please if I am incorrect--Weeks back it was said that this msc's popluar Italian restaurant chain shops are only assigned to tenured shoppers??? First time shoppers stand no chance of being assigned any of these???


Thanks Much

Arch,

I don't believe that you would get a restaurant shop with A Closer Look. Their restaurants are high end. Read their Guidelines, take the test, fill out the narrative section on the profile page. Get experience from other companies first. Have you been rated yet? Don't start with A Closer Look. They are not just an Italian restaurant co.

Since when did Arch become a first time shopper?

Meant to say first time shopper ONLY with A Closer Look.

And their BBQ chain in the NYC metro area is far, far from being high end!!

Thanks for the quick, helpful replies everybody.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2014 06:51PM by Arch Stanton.

They have a ton of shops that aren't high end.

This MSC has multiple tiers of shops available. If you put the time in with them and do good work, it pays off....

I feel for the length of their reports, they need to pay outside of their low reimbursement.

In many cases you spend more than maximum reimbursement plus fee (if any) fulfilling shop requirements. So it's more for enjoyment rather than profit.

I love this company. Their office is down the road from me. I had a shop for them right next to it once, and wondered if they were watching me somehow.

I just completed my first shop with ACL. It was a high-end lunch and I stayed under the reimbursement amount with two diners and I gave the server just over a 20% tip. I received positive comments and a suggestion for future shops. Now I am starting to receive offers from them that I have never seen posted before.

There are no fees, so you are basically going out to dinner. You will spend more than the reimbursement at some of their restaurants. I also feel that the reimbursement should be much higher considering how much work and detail they require for their reports. I perform other restaurant assignments that are less hassle.

I don't do many assignments for ACL anymore. They are holding me hostage for their fitness shops. I would love to do them but, unfortunately, the closest shops are at least 15 miles and 45 minutes away without traffic. No way to even route them, but ACL seems to think I should grab them up anyway. After I do a couple of those, then they'll let me shop their restaurants again. Not happening.

Thanks again for the informative replies everybody!!!

Happy weekend

I didn't see the Italian shop myself. However, after reading on here that I have to have done shops with them to see the Italian restaurants I really wanted, I took a pizza shop. It was a fast casual pizza shop and although it was reimbursement only, it was $25 worth of food and wasn't any harder to do than any other fast casual restaurant (Five Guys, Panda, Panera, etc.).

After doing that easy shop and getting a nice dinner for myself after a busy day at work, I am now able to see the other shops available including the Italian restaurant.

To what basis are you guessing he would not pass a high end shop?

shopper8 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Arch,
>
> I don't believe that you would get a restaurant
> shop with A Closer Look. Their restaurants are
> high end. Read their Guidelines, take the test,
> fill out the narrative section on the profile
> page. Get experience from other companies first.
> Have you been rated yet? Don't start with A
> Closer Look. They are not just an Italian
> restaurant co.

CanadaMommy, I am not saying that he would not pass the high end shop. Just that is what I did myself to get something that I could go to without needing a guest (I was really wanting the Italian restaurant which would need a guest). It is a easy way to get what I wanted.

lbw1000 sorry That was to shopper8.
Shopper8 in the beginning of the thread thought it was not good for him.
You are absolutely right in that a guest is almost a necessity for cover and for notes.



lbw1000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CanadaMommy, I am not saying that he would not
> pass the high end shop. Just that is what I did
> myself to get something that I could go to without
> needing a guest (I was really wanting the Italian
> restaurant which would need a guest). It is a
> easy way to get what I wanted.

I did a high end lunch shop for ACL back in January and it was not bad at all. I was able to take my mother somewhere really nice for her birthday and get reimbursed for it and the experience gave me confidence to take on more higher end shops. One thing I love about ACL is that if you have any issue/comment/question/concern at all, drop your scheduler an email and you will get a response. In my book they are great to work for. ACL seems to be for me more of an "experience" MSC - I don't do their shops for money per se - though my first shop for them had a $25 bonus attached to it. I do ACL shops more for higher end experiences and having said higher end experience reimbursed. And now that I have done a nicer hotel chain for them, also for the reward points that can add up to a nice little getaway for myself.....I'm happy to do shops and fill out reports to earn a nice little getaway.

marg704 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There are no fees, so you are basically going out
> to dinner. You will spend more than the
> reimbursement at some of their restaurants. I
> also feel that the reimbursement should be much
> higher considering how much work and detail they
> require for their reports. I perform other
> restaurant assignments that are less hassle.
>
> I don't do many assignments for ACL anymore. They
> are holding me hostage for their fitness shops. I
> would love to do them but, unfortunately, the
> closest shops are at least 15 miles and 45 minutes
> away without traffic. No way to even route them,
> but ACL seems to think I should grab them up
> anyway. After I do a couple of those, then
> they'll let me shop their restaurants again. Not
> happening.


I'm not so bored that I need to do these. For that amount of work, I can get a high reimbursement and a $50 fee, pretty much any day from another company. I think that the lowest fee I will take on a good meal is $25. I have no idea why I would do these for reimbursement only? I got a call to do a shop with a $10 bonus. Fortunately, I was booked doing a one day shop at a casino with a .... $150 bonus on top of the fee. hahahahaha Unbelievable. If they want experienced, quality reports, they are going to need to pay for them.

They seem to think the meal reimbursement is enough. Once in a while is okay. I also took my mom out to a nice lunch, and the lunch report was shorter and reasonable. The other shops I've done were all dinner at a tropical restaurant, and that report was like a novel. ACL is the only MSC (out of 60+) that always bounces my report back for more detail. I worked for many years as a medical editor - you can't get more detailed than that job. I really think it's more of an editor issue and which one is reviewing your report. I know what those reports are worth (per word/line/page), and those tropical restaurant reports far exceed what we ate for dinner. Since I'm being held hostage in exchange for a fitness shop, I can't see the Italian restaurant, pizza or other shops so I'll never know if those reports are more reasonable.

ACL does do some fee paid projects. I just did 10 very short photo audits with reports that were a breeze. The fee was quite good for the work involved and all of the locations were very close to me. Too bad; I hated the product that I had to taste, lol.

I can second walesmaven.
I do projects for them that are paid more than the industry standard and are not restaurants (no money out of pocket required).

Agree with basically everyone here. They have one restaurant (similar to Hooters) that they pay me a $20 bonus for about every other month. That's the only one I will take, because I don't like reimbursement only, and it is never enough to cover the ordering requirements at the ones I have done.

I keep seeing their fitness shops on the board, but the workout requirements confused me. I am close enough to do 3-6 of them pretty easily but don't want to feel like a truck hit me when I'm done.

ACL seems to be wooing new clients right and left lately where I live. Last year they picked up quite a few pizza places. I did one and expected it to be upscale like all the other jobs I have done for them but it was not at all. Just a small pizza joint with only a few choices on the menu. Since I had only seen high end (and the gym location) with them since I started working for them I was kind of surprised but when I look at the drop down menu they have for choosing shops I see almost every category imaginable including movies and senior housing types of jobs. I assume they have these somewhere else in the country or in the past.

I have done a few shops for them and even an Italian casual restaurant that they stopped shopping last year. Is it the same chain? I love their macaroni and grilled dishes.

ACL is one of my favorite companies for what I consider "experience shops."

There are three restaurants I've done that did to come close to covering the required purchases.

Two others were very generous and I could not order enough to exceed the limit.

I have not had issues with reports coming back to me.

I really appreciate how they email me to thank me for writing such good reports and how they look forward to my future reports... That's really nice and very few companies do as such.

Its interesting to hear how there are shops that are unavailable to me that I can "earn" my way to seeing.

Now I am VERY curious.

I have had great relationships with them, but I have been shopping for many years.

That's interesting to hear that they have high end restaurants. All I see on the job board are sandwich and salad shops of the same chain.

It truly depends on where you live for this and every other msc. When I started out with A-C-L all they had in my area were high end places and now the job board here is not at all like that. We only had the "Italian" restaurant I think you are talking about once in my area about 2 years ago. (unless they stopped showing me that one for some reason). I did it that one time and decided to never do it again as the food and service were terrible and a waste of my time and effort. I did not order Macaroni so perhaps that would have tasted better.

ACL does not want you to leave over 18% tip. Between 15 and 18%. They state this in their guidelines. I was told I over tipped at 21% once. They don't want you to get noticed.