Hi everyone!

I´ve been reading this forum for a while now and thought i´d write something. First off, yes, i am a shopper from Finland. Second, most of you guys are wrong; Santa Claus does NOT live in North Pole, he lives in Finland in a place called Korvatunturi

I´ve been shopping for about a year now and i am so addicted to this that it hurts! It is a nice way of getting some extra income (which by the way is truly needed as living expences are somewhat high; 1 litre of gas costs 1,63 EURO (2,11$), one gallon (3,75l) 7,91$).

The "World of Mystery Shopping" is a bit limited here in the north, but i manage to get twenty-thirty shops per month. I prefer routes offered by local MSCs as they pay high due to driven miles being well compensated (the norm is 0,45euro/km or 0,93$/mile) so the longer the route, the better the pay no matter how many or few shops you have.

I guess mystery shopping is pretty much the same all over the world. I do gas stations, "golden arches", grocery shops, public transportation, electronic & computer shops, you name it. The pay varies from reimbursement only to 130$ a piece non-purchase shops. Just finished a series of those 130 dollar beauties, seven in total!
I would like to find a MSC that offers phone and/or internet shops, those i´ve never done. Video shopping is also something i have only read about in this forum.

I guess i will be more in the background here, enjoying the discussions on the forum! Being a mystery shopper i sometimes feel a bit of a loner but it is great to read about the subject here! Makes me feel "connected" somehow..

Welcome! Other than the fact you are wrong about Santa Claus, it is interesting to hear how similar the business is in your part of the world

Now you have me curious about video shopping outside the U.S. and Canada. Are we really the only ones?

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Welcome! Other than the fact you are wrong about
> Santa Claus, it is interesting to hear how similar
> the business is in your part of the world
>
> Now you have me curious about video shopping
> outside the U.S. and Canada. Are we really the
> only ones?


In the following link you will find the necessary info about Santas official main post office [www.santaclausvillage.info]

There might be some companies that offer video shopping, i just haven´t found them. I don´t think there are but there´s always the chance of that, so...
One company asked about how i feel if some shops require voice recording but they haven´t spoken of this method since..

Welcome p.antti! It's fun to read about mystery shopping in different parts of the world! How did you find out about it? Some of those shops sure pay well! I'm assuming the $130 shops were video shops?

Hi, welcome to the forum. It is interesting to read about mystery shopping elsewhere. I also feel a bit of a loner sometimes.

But Santa lives in Canada. I don't know how you put links here, but his address is

Santa Claus
North Pole, Canada
H0H 0H0

And he has a section on Canada Post's website. He always gets the letter and writes back even if there's no stamp so I know I'm right. LOL

Today, I got an e-mail from a scheduler looking for shoppers to do phone and e-mail shops. I managed to get one e-mail job and 2 phone calls. But I get very few of these.

The North Pole is like the Fortress of Solitude or the Vatican and isn't in any particular country, despite what the people in Santa Claus, Indiana would like us to believe.

jpgilham Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Welcome p.antti! It's fun to read about mystery
> shopping in different parts of the world! How did
> you find out about it? Some of those shops sure
> pay well! I'm assuming the $130 shops were video
> shops?


Hi!
Those shops aren´t video shops. As i mentioned i don´t know if there are any video shops here..

I came across mystery shopping while browsing through the internet about a year ago. I think i read an article about how the Finnish liquor stores use mystery shoppers to monitor if they ask id`s from young adult customers (the age limits are 18yrs for beer, wine etc. and 21yrs. for stronger drinks. The new policy in every store that sells cigarettes or alcohol is that they must ask for an id if the customer seems to be 30 years old or under). That got me interested and eventually led me working for a bunch of MSCs.

Santa Claus lives in Greenland!
Not that Finland (Suomi) isn't a great place though. ;-)

I know a lot of British tourists travel to northern Finland each year, just before Christmas. Have never heard that about Greenland, but then it is also insanely expensive to fly to Greenland.