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Has ACL lost a lot of shops in your area?

May 02, 2025 10:33PM
I only do restaurant assignments. They had a lot of good ones in my area for a couple of years. I enjoy doing assignments for them. But they're all gone. Just about all that is left in my area are $15 sandwich shops. I realize the clients come and go but this is pretty much the low point now.
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May 03, 2025 12:11AM
I used to do a lot of work for them and the past year almost nothing.
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May 03, 2025 12:56AM
It was the same until the last two months. Now more restaurants are showing up. I am reluctant to do them as ACL has odd requirements, lots of photos and lots of narrative. I can get 3-4 monthly with less.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
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May 03, 2025 03:16AM
I used to shop a lot for them. They were a great company years back. Food/restaurant wise, all I see now is one desirable fine dining shop which I am not able to get, LOL. Others are limited to smoothie and sandwich shops that I am totally not interested in.
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May 03, 2025 03:25AM
They have a handful of things here. Local places, mostly, aside from that sandwich chain.
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May 03, 2025 09:07AM
I used to shop for them all the time. I have completed two shops in the past few years. The last shop, they cancelled. They have storage and a sub shop. I see the high end steak house taken by other shoppers and sign up as backup (but have never been assigned).
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May 03, 2025 11:05AM
Ever since they changed to yet another third party payment system, I can't even see what they have until I give personal information to their payer. I won't. I can log in, but that's it. It's okay, they have not had anything I wanted to do in 10 years or more.
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May 03, 2025 12:39PM
Their shops have definitely dried up. I used to shop for them quite a bit. There also haven't been many shops for the hotel chain that has the same name as a university. But if you would like, you can get a free sandwich "on them"!
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May 03, 2025 07:32PM
Bonus points to Jimmy for "free" and "on them" in the same sentence!
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May 03, 2025 08:03PM
@sestrahelena wrote:

Bonus points to Jimmy for "free" and "on them" in the same sentence!

Well does have his name in it.
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May 03, 2025 10:52PM
I used to do several shops for them regularly years ago. One of them which had been with a few other msc has had the same reimbursement amt for at least 10 years while the prices have gone up consistently. But even with the reimbursement not covering the shop and no fee at all that shops many locations are always already assigned when they hit the boards. I dont even apply as back up as it has never come through for me.
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May 04, 2025 01:51AM
The one restaurant I used to do all the time is gone, haven't seen it in about 5 months. The high end steak place I haven't seen either. The sub shops I see but I don't like those and the healthy yogurt place which is ok but only if they get bonused.

I just did an assisted living tour for them which wasn't bad. I missed a pic thought and will most likely have to go back to get it tomorrow. They still haven't edited the report though.

Thats about it, not much else. I check here and there because that assisted living tour is a high paying job,
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May 04, 2025 12:05PM
The high end steak place is still shopped. I leave the one in my area for other shoppers since I am not a fan and have shopped the location in our city and other cities. They still offer hotel shops, but I have not seen the family chain in quite sometime. I am a fan of the new payment system. I get my reimbursement within 2 weeks as opposed to almost 2 months. I am traveling this month and have scheduled a hotel shop and a fine dining in another state.
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May 04, 2025 01:15PM
They have a good variety and comparable volume to others here. I like how quickly they take care of their part of the process.
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May 04, 2025 08:40PM
Datagirl,

If you haven't done any shops for them in a while, you cant see all the available shops they have open. Until they need them filled.

I didn't see any shops until they needed the sandwich shops done.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2025 08:45PM by wrosie.
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May 05, 2025 11:32PM
They used to send out an email letting you know when new shops will be posted, but they stopped that. They have two steakhouse shops that are always taken each month and I check several times a day. It is frustrating
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May 06, 2025 07:20PM
Yea they have really dried up in my area. I just mostly see the JM shops with reimbursement only.
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May 06, 2025 08:14PM
@wrosie wrote:

Datagirl,

If you haven't done any shops for them in a while, you cant see all the available shops they have open. Until they need them filled.

I didn't see any shops until they needed the sandwich shops done.

I see all of the shops, I just don't like JM and won't do them. I do about 2 shops of theirs a month, usually daycare tours or yogurt places.
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June 02, 2025 03:43PM
They lost a grocery retailer in my area.
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June 02, 2025 03:53PM
They still have the steakhouse, pizza place, hotels and sandwich shops in my area. I completed a hotel shop in May and will do another this week.
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June 02, 2025 06:08PM
Used to have much more work in my area. Now it's just a slew of JM shops, and I don't care for those unless there's a bonus involved.

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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