I only found one comment on this topic and it was a couple of years old. Does anybody do these? I was told it takes about 60-90 minutes per store and another 30 minutes for uploading photos at home. Pay is good but they don't pay mileage but rather pay the hourly rate for travel. There is a lot of prep work to get started with them and I am wondering if it is worth it. I don't live in an area where many shops come my way so don't expect this to offer a lot of jobs either.

I used to do this project back before they required digital cameras for the assignments. Back then, they provided a 35 mm camera (that was ours to keep), graph paper, pencils, batteries, and rolls of 35 mm film which we dropped off at the nearest FedEx box with the paperwork and invoice included after the project completion. They paid mileage back then as well. I liked leaving the assignment and filling out the paperwork in my car and dropping it off on the way home. Done. When they changed the program, I quit since I knew I would be working additional administrative time of an hour or more for free with the photo uploads and other data entry, and that's provided there were no technical glitches on their end or mine. And now they quit giving the mileage as well? That stinks, as there were a lot of locations that were only 5-30 minutes from my home, but with mileage it came out okay. A location that was about 20 miles round trip I would still get about $10 for with mileage. With just drive time, it's probably about $5, depending on the hourly rate. I was making $14 an hour for the program. I don't even know who has the program now, it used to be with a company called Greet America (since it's not mystery shopping that's not an ICA violation) and I think that company is no longer in business.

Since its not mystery shopping I included the name of the company right in the subject line, ISN. Without looking it up, Its about $22/hr, plus $3 to cover printing. So let's say its a 15 minute drive there and back, 20 miles total, 60 minutes at the store and 30 at home. Total $44 in two hours minus mileage of $11 = $33. $16.5/hr before taxes isn't quite enough when you have to consider paying self employment tax on it. I'm working extra hours at work so don't really "need" they money. Thanks for your input.

What does ISN stand for?

Sometimes it takes more than an hour at the store. There were times where I had to wait for the manager to come back from lunch or errands because the clerk did not feel comfortable allowing me to do the review, and with very large grocery stores it was complicated, since you have to draw the aisles and write what types of food products were on the shelves in those areas.

It's been over 10 years since I quit doing them. I don't think they raised the hourly fee enough.

It is ISN Corporation. You have confirmed my doubts about this job and am going to pass. The "artwork" doesn't sound fun. Thank you!