Beds- JM Ridgeway

If you like writing a lot of narrative for little money.. take one of these in-person shops. Ugh. Too much work. I decided to grab one for $10 since I was eating lunch right next door. Not fun.

Please tell me someone has done this one for a lot larger bonus.

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The first one I did was the last one for the exact reason you stated. Way too much narrative for 10 measly dollars.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
About a week ago I asked to see the guidelines, but was told she had to assign it to me for me to see them. I then asked if it had much narrative, but did not get a response. Now I know why. What a waste of time today. Maybe I'll save someone else some trouble.
Yes, you've saved me a headache...so thank you! Hubby & I really do need a new bed, and I had been contemplating doing one of these shops, but no....not for what has been said here. Thanks again!
I got my mattress from Aldi's middle aisle for $200. It's a queen sized memory foam with a 20 year warranty. If I remember correctly, the shopped bed was $4,000-6000.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
Any assignment for them is crazy narrative for the pay, but for $10? The mall corn dog one pays more.
I know the shop you're talking about. It's virtually the only thing they offer in my area. (the other one I've done is a story all by itself). I personally didn't find it too obnoxious but I really was interested in the beds and I had a really good salesman.

The other shop they have in my area is a store that sells kind of strange stuff. Some is political, some is cat themed, some is feminist, cheap jewelry, and impractical gadgets. The shop required a purchase with a reimbursement of $4.00 plus $12.00 shopper fee. A couple of things made it a problem job. I thought based on the store's address it was located in a particular mall. I checked the mall map on-line and it wasn't listed among the stores. So I programmed it into my GPS and went looking for it in the area around the mall. My GPS kept getting confused. So finally, I called the store and found out it was in the mall but under a different name. So I finally found it and went in and while doing my observations, I looked around for something to buy. This is a very small store and the guidelines required staying at least 15 minutes. I spent most of the 15 minutes trying to find an item that came in under $4.00 with tax. It was impossible other than for candy which I didn't want. The best I could do was $3.99 plus tax for a total of $4.32 for something I still didn't want but might be able to give as a gag gift to someone. Of course the report had lots of questions and narrative. There was a section to make comments to the scheduler not seen by the client. I took the opportunity to point out both the name problem and the lack of under the reimbursement items. I don't know if they paid any attention.

What's done is done. An egg cracked cannot be cured.
There are 3 kinds of lies. Lies, Damn lies, and statistics.
I did my first one of these for $10 way back in 2010. I have since done a few of these for $20. Once you do a few the narrative is not bad. I would not do one for less than $20 before reading this thread but now that I know someone got $25 I would not do one for less than $25.

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.
@HonnyBrown wrote:

I got my mattress from Aldi's middle aisle for $200. It's a queen sized memory foam with a 20 year warranty. If I remember correctly, the shopped bed was $4,000-6000.
YIKES! Hubby & I would never pay that much for a bed ($4-$6K)! The Aldi's price sounds like it was a great deal! How's the mattress feel??
I've done one for $40 and another $25 but with different MSCs. Anyone doing them for less should feel used. That's super bad. That's a lesson I learned on my first jewelry store shop I did for $8. Sheesh. I did the same shop same place for $22 which was probably still too low.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2017 04:32PM by margovt.
@margovt wrote:

I've done one for $40 and another $25 but with different MSCs. Anyone doing them for less should feel used

I definitely felt dirty after filling out the report.
I've done a tempurpedic shop for a different MSC. I think I was paid $15 for it. It was time consuming because it was a specialty sleep store and I was the only customer so they were super focused on me, but it was also actually kind of fun so I didn't mind the narrative. Also if it weren't laughably out of my price range I totally would have bought the mattress I tried out during that shop, it was heaven.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2017 05:28PM by liz688.
Ugh. I signed up for one of the phone ones... :/ Dang it. I was hoping for an easy afternoon lunch break.

MegglesKat
Thanks for the heads up! I will stay away from this shop. I have one of these beds already (and yes I paid over $5,000) but was thinking about getting some pillows and was going to take the shop since I would already be there.
I did one when it was $10 + $7 bonus. The salesperson didn't go into explaining everything I think she was supposed to, so it was rather easy. I also record my shops to make it easier to do the report later. For $10 I wouldn't do it though.
I actually didn't like the bed that the MSC is shopping. I bought a wonderful Temperpedic that was not part of a shop.
It was heaven.

It came in a tall box on wheels. I rolled it to checkout, got $1 toward it for my shop, and put it in my trunk. Well, dude in the parking lot helped me put my back seats down and get it in the trunk.

I went home, and hubby got it inside. We unwrapped it and watched it take form (20 minutes, start to finish), put the sheets on it, and took a very lengthy nap.

@guysmom wrote:

@HonnyBrown wrote:

I got my mattress from Aldi's middle aisle for $200. It's a queen sized memory foam with a 20 year warranty. If I remember correctly, the shopped bed was $4,000-6000.
YIKES! Hubby & I would never pay that much for a bed ($4-$6K)! The Aldi's price sounds like it was a great deal! How's the mattress feel??

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
WOW, that sounds pretty cool, Honny! There are 2 Aldi stores next to me....next time they offer that, I think I'll take a good look at it!! Thanks for the description.
I agree..a lot of writing for small pay..I did it last time a few years ago and stopped..in addition I get terrible neck pain after visiting such places.

Shopping Eastern Pennsylvania since 2009
They usually come up in August.

@guysmom wrote:

WOW, that sounds pretty cool, Honny! There are 2 Aldi stores next to me....next time they offer that, I think I'll take a good look at it!! Thanks for the description.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
Well then....only 11 more months....ha ha!! Hubby and I have waited this long, guess we can wait a bit longer. We never rush about stuff unless it's an emergency.
Thanks for the heads up on this shop. They just added a $10 bonus. Glad I didn't take it.
Doesn't it average out to about $3 an hour when you factor in drive time, time onsite, and report time?
I like these shops. They are easy on-site and the report and narrative are not overmuch. Apparently, we have different ideas about what is "a lot" of work. On another thread, I posted a question about a comparison of narratives for various shop types. So far, no one has answered that. (But if anyone also reads that thread about shoe shop comparison, the narrative for this shop type is easy for me. How does this fit into your comparison of narratives? Again, tia.)

When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination. - Thomas Sowell
@JASFLALMT wrote:

Doesn't it average out to about $3 an hour when you factor in drive time, time onsite, and report time?

????? What is the starting point? Are there additional assignments in the trip which change the overall ratio of pay:work?????

This is another unique factor for each shopper. Some shoppers might make good money, depending upon where they are and how they schedule their work.

When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination. - Thomas Sowell
No problem! It comes to the stores in August.

@guysmom wrote:

WOW, that sounds pretty cool, Honny! There are 2 Aldi stores next to me....next time they offer that, I think I'll take a good look at it!! Thanks for the description.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
30 minutes in the shop. Probably at least 60 minutes in on the report. I think there was 6-8 narrative boxes, some I just wrote a couple of sentences because I was over it. Drive time would have been 30 minutes for me. So, $5 an hour. The primary reason I took it was because I was going to lunch right next door anyway.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Doesn't it average out to about $3 an hour when you factor in drive time, time onsite, and report time?

????? What is the starting point? Are there additional assignments in the trip which change the overall ratio of pay:work?????

This is another unique factor for each shopper. Some shoppers might make good money, depending upon where they are and how they schedule their work.
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