New in Minnesota

Hello shoppers. For our blue light special today we are introducing a new spook.

I'm a retired, former business owner and starting a new career checking out gas station restrooms, hotels and retail outlets. I've already had about all the burgers and sundaes I can stand.

I've been at it now for about a month and it's been interesting (may I have an interesting life). Actually I kind of enjoy it; I'm certainly not doing it for the money. I guess one question I have is how do people avoid spending more time filling out submissions and uploading photos than they spend doing thee shops, or is that just the way it is. That is sure where I spend my time.

Wish I had known about this site when I first started and I could have avoided one or two problems, but sometimes we learn better making our own mistakes than from someone else's. I have to keep telling myself that when my kids don't listen to me.

I'm working about an hour west of the twin cities and trying to concentrate on shops within about 30 mile radius, unless I can get some mileage (good luck with that). I'm learning how to deal with the frustrations of dealing with schedulers who think they are doing you a favor offering you a shop 30 miles away for $8. From what I have already read on this forum, that is the classic issue with most MSPs.

By the way, do they have to hunt when they hire editors to find people with an attitude? I would have never talked to an employee the way they talk to me! I dropped one outfit already just because of the rudeness of the editor. I welcome constructive criticism but I am not a belligerent teenager and they are not my parents.

If anyone can suggest which providers are most likely to have shops for rural areas in the midwest I would welcome that information. I have spent many hours filling out applications for MSPs who claim to have loads of $30 shops available and coming up completely empty. So far, Intelli-shops, Maritz, BestMark, and Corporate Research seem to be working best for me.

From what I can see, by the way (again), the only time you will see a shop for $30 is when they are really desperate. Seems like the name of the game in rural settings is to combine half a dozen shops on one trip and then try to get them all submitted before midnight after you get home (exhausted from a long day on the road).

Enough rambling for now (us old farts tend to do that) and back to hunting for good MSPs and planning out my nest routes.

For a while I will be sucking up whatever information I can from those of you who have 'been there and done that but no T shirt' (since the T shirt would identify you) and, hopefully some day I will be able to pass on the great wisdom and experience to the next sucker who thinks they can make money and collect TVs at this game.

Keep your head down,
Eldon

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Welcome to the forum Eldon! As you read around the forum you will find that as far as MSPs go, there are lots of fish in the sea. I would encourage you to take the free registration at Jobslinger.com and check the companies that have posted in and around your zip code. The jobs posted will likely be gone, but at least you will be signing up with companies known to have shops in your shopping area.

Indeed it does appear sometimes that some schedulers and editors are not the brightest bulbs on the string. For the schedulers I put their offers in the 'hope springs eternal' category. They have to find a body to throw at a shop regardless of how ill conceived and low paying that job may be. They don't 'have time' to figure out that the email they are sending you is for a shop 3000 miles away and there are maximums they can pay to have a shop done. Even when their requests are financially absurd they need to have that positive attitude that of course you would be happy to drive 200 miles for a $10 shop with a $2 reimbursement and a 'big bonus' of $3. They also have to overcome the obstacle that their editor tore you a new one for no obvious or identified 'minor editing' and slapped you with an undeserved 6/10 or 7/10 on your last report (when you had been running 10/10 on everything previously) so you have no interest in possibly having that editor again.

On the brighter side, though, there are some very professional companies out there who treat shoppers as colleagues rather than industrial waste or disposable wares. The attitude appears in schedulers, editors and payroll processing. It is really too bad that there aren't more of these and/or that they don't have more clients to offer. Hopefully you will find companies such as these with clients in your area.
Thanks Flash.
How do you get time to do shops and still mentor all of us goslings? You deserve a medal for being willing to donate so much time to helping us.
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