Mystery Shopping

I first started secret shopping about 8 years ago after my son was born. (I actually started quite a things soon after he was born; I didn’t want to go back to work!) I think I just did a search on the internet either mystery shopping or secret shopping. Most of them, you just signed up for and hope to get an assignment. One place I had signed up for they actually had called me 8 months later to start doing assignments.

The first place I joined they only paid for yours and a companion’s food. The max reimbursement was $40 for the two of us and I guess for back then (8 yrs ago) that actually is pretty good. Then they started really getting picky about the forms. Then they started grading me. My thought was, for the amount they are paying me it really wasn’t worth it so I stopped working for that company. They wanted me to write 12 paragraphs. It was not simple yes or no questions. EVERY answer needed a 50 word paragraph.

I started working for another company and they only wanted yes or no answers. I shopped mostly fast food, Wendy’s mostly. There were some other ones that I did through a Coke promo. I got to eat at Carabba’s, Applebees, Buca di Peppo, Bennigans, and Denny’s. I hate Denny’s, and the one in the city I lived in was by far the worst of them all. At that particular one, the waitress actually contested what happened. The fact is she didn’t say “COCA COLA” or “COKE” and she said I didn’t even give her a chance. I mean come on, she wanted them to think that she immediately walked up to me and I never gave her a chance and immediately screamed out “I want a COKE!” Had nothing to gain by her passing or failing so why would I do that? But then again, it was Denny's. That turned me off from secret shopping for a while.

When we moved to NC we moved close to a Blockbuster and I somehow got hooked up with a place that did Blockbusters, KFC’s for secret shops and they also did Bruegger’s Bagels. The nice thing about the whole Mystery shopping is that you can go somewhere you might not normally have gone too.

Recently my husband got me back into secret shopping. I had done it when we first moved to NC, but then stopped because I had gotten into eBay so heavily. About 2 months ago his friend at work sent him a link to one secret shopping site that does shops at a particular store I shop at all the time. Since then I have made over $350+ in 2 months. I have since signed up at a few more sites, the first site only seems to let me make about $180 a month. Plus I have shopped my one local store to death so I need to diversify. Last night I did a new chicken place, I will be doing 3 burger joints and 3 grocery stores in the next 4 days.

Is this all going to be worth it with all the driving that I will have to do? Of course it will. We will have to claim it on our taxes since I certainly plan on making more than $600 in a year and the mileage is tax deductible ($.41 a mile). A more fuel efficient vehicle would be nice, but that is probably not in the cards. Now that I am doing this through at least 2 companies I try and schedule shops in the same areas on the same days. This way I can go out a little further and it will make it more worthwhile. On Wednesday I am having breakfast at one place, lunch at another and then a grocery shop at after that all of which are mystery shops.