Mystery Shopping, Part 1 - Tip of the Day!

Posted Mar 16th 2009 at 9:00AM by Boydie Beener (Subscribe to Boydie Beener's posts)

I went out on a limb and spent a few hours doing the mystery shopping thing for Market Force. Like many of you I was curious – is this the real deal or just another scam?

Mystery shopping isn't as cut and dry as it seems. There is a lot that goes into the process. Before you even set foot in a store, you undergo an application evaluation. This was surprising because I thought that anyone would be able to shop, but that just isn't the truth. Fortunately, my application was approved and I became a mystery shopper.

After my app went through, I was able to go onto Market Force's website, the largest mystery shopping company in US (and totally viable). I quickly accepted three assignments in very different areas – two mystery shops at a local Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister, a theater evaluation to see "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" (hilarious by the way), and fast food joint McDonald's.

My list was well rounded and I was ready to shop. Stay tuned to see just how my shops went and if they were really worth my while.

Tags: companies, jobs, market force, mystery shopping, mystery-shopping-jobs, scam, shopping

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Ozark Mike 3-16-2009 @ 10:35AM

I have done a lot of searching for extra income since my employer has cut my hours due to the economy!

I do appreciate my job and thank god every day for my employment, but losing hours made me seek out something I could do basically on my own time.

I searched 100's of money making opportunities and spent some money in the process. I found a lot of scams, along with some good information in the process. Through my research I came across Mystery shopping and for me it became a solution for extra income!

I have found this work, at first a daunting process due to my learning curve in making reports, but after a few trial and errors I found success.

I do an average of 30 assignments per month, with an average income of around $450.00 per month working 10 to 15 hours per month. In most cases I plan my assignments over the weekend when I want to take a mini vacation.

For example: Last months trip to St Louis - Missouri

It take's me about 2 hours to drive to St Louis so I left on a Friday and arrived 11:00 am and stayed at a nice motel for free.

Did my Motel Mystery shop that paid for my room and paid me $50.00 - my report took about an 1 ½ hours so now it's around 1 pm.

Now I have 3 Apartment Mystery Shops paying me $40.00 each for a total of $120.00 - Each shop took me about 45 minutes and now it's around 4:00 pm, so I went back to my room to freshen up and do my 3 reports. I spent about 45 minutes each, so its now around 7:00 pm and time for dinner!

I went out for dinner and, of course, it was a restaurant shop. This shop paid $30.00, my meal cost was $18.00 and my tip was $4.00 for a total of $22.00. I arrived back to my motel room and did my report. This report only takes about 30 minutes, and it is now around 9:30 pm and it's time for some night life.

This is a cool shop but hard to come by! I went to a local casino and played for a couple of hours and yes, this was a Casino Mystery Shop that paid $200.00. It is now 12:30 am and I'm back at the motel. I spent $35.00 at the casino and no I did not win a dime. I did my report that took 1 hour and 45 minutes and headed off to bed. See this 2 page info booklet about Casino Mystery Shopping at: http://www.indiangaming.com/istore/May07_Karoul1.pdf

My total take for the day was $400.00 - My total cost for gas and expenses was $82.00!

I made a net of $318.00 and had a great time and headed back home on Saturday around 10:30 am.

It has been truly rewarding both on a personal level and financially.

Before I started I studied many articles and read a lot of e-books both free and some I paid for! The top two for me have been "Be a Mystery Shopper" and "Get Paid To Shop"!

Some of the best mystery shopping job sites I found is www.volition.com, www.nationalshoppingservice.com , www.amusementadvantage.com, www.bareinternational.com, www.bestmark.com, and www.secretshopper.com.

The sites I have listed provide Training, tips for improvement, and Mystery shopping jobs without charging a fee, but do require you to be a registered member.

You can also get Mystery shops for cruise liners, department stores, fitness centers or health clubs, service centers, salons, banks, homebuilders, amusement centers and parks, and the list continues on. You get to enjoy being paid and getting free product all the while building a great side line source of income.

Mystery Shopper Basic Tools:

A computer & printer A digital camera A note pad & pens A daily planner

Mystery Shopper Advanced Tools:

A Digital Voice Recorder A lap top with wifi A video camera

If you are good at time management and have good attention to detail this may be a wonderful opportunity for you.

I hope that you have found this to be of help and that it may provide you the extra income you have been looking for!

You can go to my Freelancers Public Library in the business section and download for free ebooks on mystery shopping called Be a Mystery Shopper, Get Paid To Shop, and Get Paid To Shop 2.

To your success, Ozark Mike