Originally Posted By JohnS1 I heard this sort of enterprise was real, but you needed to avoid services that charged you. So I started searching for "consumer reports" type sites, and as I read through them, they all tended to end up recommending a site that also charged. If it's true that manufacturers, restaurants, hotel chains, banks, etc., etc. value the experiences of secret shoppers, then why should any providers charge the "shoppers" anything? They should get their money from the businesses wanting to have people checking out their franchises. Does anybody here know if any of these programs are real, and what site someone might go to in order to assess the legitimacy of any of these sites? Yes - as you can see, I'm still considering any thing I can do to avoid full-time work! (-;
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP I don't know how you would be a "real" mystery shopper, but I know they exist. I know when I was an assistant manager at a KFC in the mid-ninties that we had one firm that would "shop" each of our stores (200+) every month. I also know that the same person would shop the same stores in region, say 7 or 8, within a couple hours. I know this because the managers compared the reports they got back, would compare handwriting and trends, ect., to try and stay one up on the shopper. Also, when they got a probable "shopper" an assistant would be in charge of call around to the rest of the regional stores to alert them. Also the reports we got back were quite detailed, paragraphs about food description, restraunt condition, pictures, temperature of all the goods, as well as a taste. I can imagine that after purchasing and tasting 7 KFC meals w/in about 2hrs the lure of free food would beging to lose it's appeal. From my observations it's pretty much a "real job", though possibly not full time!! If you have a BA or BS I would highly reccomend substitute teaching. You get paid anywhere from $60-$110 a day (depending on district) for 6ish hours of baby sitting and you can work anywhere from 1 day every 2 years to every school day.
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP just a BA or a BS (in underwater basketweaving or anything else) and to pass the CBEST. The CBEST will require you to write a 5 paragraph essay, read a short story and answer Multiple guess questions, and do basic algebra 1.
Originally Posted By JohnS1 Ah, then the rules are different in CA than in WA. Teaching degree required here. (Except for college teaching - go figure!)
Originally Posted By kmsandrbs JohnS1- You may not be able to substitute teach, but you might be able to be a substitute teaching assistant. I did for half a year in between undergrad and grad school, and worked regularly (but not all the time) around Vancouver, WA. I was willing to work with challenging students (behaviorally disordered, usually), so I was called frequently. But I also had the option of saying no when I wanted to.
Originally Posted By retlawfan Now back to Mystery Shopping for a moment... A few years ago, I worked as a Mystery Shopper for a major fast food chain. I was paid $8/hr, paid $.35-.45 per mile(and sometime I made more on the mileage), and had all the food paid for. I worked directly for the parent company of the franchiser(not the individual franchisees). I found this job in the newspaper classifieds. It was a real 9-5 type job, although it was normally about a 20 hour work week, over various days/times. These jobs do exist. The money is not great, and you really do get tired of the food. One important note for mystery shopping food: You have to be willing to eat just about anything. The shopper is usually given a list of places to go to, and a menu for each place. My problem with this one was mushrooms. Then there are mystery shopper "jobs" that are a lot more informal. I had a "job" once that was very casual. A major pizza chain would call me up about once per week, and ask if I could do a shop for them at a specific pizza restaurant in my area. They would reimburse me for the pizza, and pay me a whopping $5! Again, I wasn't going to get rich doing it, but at least with that one, I got a meal paid for. Not bad for a 20 something occasionally. I found this one as a referral by a family member. I don't know where they heard about it. As far as paying to get a job like these...I wouldn't. Would you pay to get a job at Wal-Mart? If you have to pay to get a job, then it's not a real job. And, with both of the mystery shopping jobs I had, I WAS PAID to go through training. I did not have to pay anything. I hope that helps, and if you get a job shopping foods, get a good diet plan lined up. They're a killer on the waistline!
Originally Posted By iluvdisneyland Disneyland also uses Mystery Shoppers. We get "shopped" quite often, and they help provide feedback to management on how we can improve.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom My sister is a mystery shopper for shops at airline terminals as her husband is a pilot she can more easily fly and "shop". She has asked me to help out some because they always need people to "shop" stores in off the beaten track airports like Hartford, CT and Providence, RI.
Originally Posted By t1lersm0m I've been a mystery shopper. I've only done it twice. I shopped at KMart, and got paid $15 for it, and I shopped at a Texas Roadhouse, and got reimbursed up to $35 for our dinner. It's great to do as a side thing....it's very hard to do it full time and make a good living. I never paid for the sites I registered on. A lot of the shops that I could have done weren't worth the money. For example, shopping a pool supply store, you have to spend about 30 minutes there and then write a report. For that you get $5. No thanks.....I make a lot more than that an hour.
Originally Posted By peeaanuut I was a mystery shopper but I didnt work for an outside agency. I actually was employeed with the company. It just depends on what the company would do. Besically its a very boring job. Alot of paperwork and not alot of field work.
Originally Posted By retlawfan The company that I worked for that shopped the pizza place did mystery shopping at Disneyland. Unfortunatley, I always forgot to let them know that I was going to DL before I got there, and it was too late to get an assignment.
