Hello to all,

I am new to this type of work and I am looking forward to it. I hope to mystery shop as well as be a merchandiser. I question whether this will work for me in rural southern WI. But I can not find out if I do not try. Right?

I am so new I am not sure which way to look next but I am glad I found this forum. I already signed up with Market Force and after reading the newbie thread I am going to sign up with CORI and SI.

Thanks for being there...

Welcome to the forum! I assume you have also found the NARMS.com website for merchandising. A number of shoppers have found that shopping was not enough and added merchandising. It seems to be a viable combination or at least can provide you a lunch shop between your merch duties.

Thanks Flash, No, I had not heard about NARMS.com until now. I learned about merchandising on Shadow Shopper which was referred to me by a friend. I am a Bronze member there and first read about mystery shopping and merchandising on their web site. I found this forum by performing a Google search on Shadow Shopper to find out if it is for real. I am very glad that I did! The learning curve is very steep this early in the game. There is SOOOO MUCH more to this than I first thought.

Is the training at MF, CORI and SI worth while (aside from the fact that I think it is mandatory)? Does it teach you what you need to know?

I think CORI does a quite decent job of introducing you to the terminology and types of observations that are most common as the basis of shops. MF and SI tend to be pretty shop specific, but again these are straightforward enough shops that you are looking at the basics.

The real advantage of doing some work with CORI or MF as a beginning shopper is that inevitably you WILL mess up a shop. These companies work with a lot of beginning shoppers so often the mess ups will not be mission critical such that the shop is rejected--though you will likely get your knuckles smacked. Eventually, though, these are the companies that probably pay the lowest in the industry and overall have the lowest required purchases. So if a shop is rejected it is less catastrophic than losing a large reimbursement or being terminated by a company that has become the bread and butter of your business. So working out your timings systems, your 'automatic pilot' for basic observations, your organization for what will work and won't work for getting jobs reported, etc. is the practice these shops can offer.

And of course a real advantage of these companies is payment like clockwork. CORI pays every two weeks, MFI blue portal pays during the second week of the month for the previous month's work, SI pays on the last business day of the month for the previous month's work. As you get deeper into shopping you will find companies that pay erratically, slower or only after you start inquiries for your payment.

Thanks for the information Flash. Your input is invaluable for me now - just starting out. When I looked at the available assignments on the MF search for my area I was pretty disappointed. The number of postings for my location is pretty low. I expected that as I live in a rural area. But I was disappointed most with the payout for these jobs. I started to think that this was not something that would pay off in the long run. You have given me hope that as I grow in this industry my opportunities will grow. I am now taking the attitude that I have to pay my dues and learn my lessons in the small ponds first. That little insight meant a lot to me. It awakened me to the realities of this industry, and gave me the motivation to take these lower paying jobs to develop my skills.

You will never get rich in this work. There are some shoppers who do this full time and seem to either do a lot of travelling or are in major metropolitan areas. A shopper friend used to make a route once or twice a month down the East coast of Florida and it worked as full time income, but he shared a home with a bunch of other single folks so was splitting up monthly bills. For most of us it will work best as supplemental income.

The highest fee shopping jobs tend to be upscale resorts and hotels, but these tend to also have the most observations and the longest reports. For some folks these shops are the cat's meow and for others they would be an utter disaster, depending on your writing and typing skills. The next highest fee category seems to be the video shops with your own equipment, which I have not gotten into because once I exhausted the few local options I would be out of business for a year (due to rotation) with my equipment gathering dust unless I took extended road trips to reach locations I was not out of rotation for. Then you have the bank shops, which can range from not worth doing because of low fees to quite reasonable. You do need to 'pay your dues' with any company you sign up with to get to the point where you are highly likely to be given all three of the $25 shops posted for your area that you are in rotation for. And a reality of this business is that when another scheduler is assigned your area you may be out in the cold again for those $25 shops.

Thanks again. I am not looking to get rich. Just help pay the bills. I started my own small company 2 1/2 years ago. I love it and have long term plans for staying in that business but money is tight right now. It is slow partly because of the economy being what it is these days, but also this business slows down in the summer. I will always have the need for extra cash flow in the summer months. It just happens that this summer was real slow and I will be needing extra money through this winter too.

Welcome to the boards, one big advantage to living in a rural areas is that there are less shoppers to compete with. What this means is that towards the end of the month when mystery shopping companies' deadlines are nearing they will start adding bonuses to entice people to travel a little farther than normal to do the job. After a few months you will get the idea of how often people take jobs in your area and you might find it is better to pass on the $7 fast food job and wait til the end of the month when its at $20. When I first started out I took anything in my area, now I am making twice the money doing half the number of jobs.

Thanks for the post Brak. This forum has been a great help to me. I can't imagine trying to start this endeavor without the wisdom passed on here. The next thing I am going to do is start the training with MF (already signed up) and get signed up with CORI and SI. Then I will dive in with an assignment! Perhaps wade into the first assignment.

It is great to see the spirit of cooperation and of helping people out that I find here. Not like the fend for yourself - feed em to the wolves attitude I have found in other industries.

wahbiz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello to all,
>
> I am new to this type of work and I am looking
> forward to it. I hope to mystery shop as well as
> be a merchandiser. I question whether this will
> work for me in rural southern WI. But I can not
> find out if I do not try. Right?
>
> I am so new I am not sure which way to look next
> but I am glad I found this forum. I already signed
> up with Market Force and after reading the newbie
> thread I am going to sign up with CORI and SI.
>
> Thanks for being there...
can I ask you how you started as mystery shopper and how did you find out about the companies you do work for,,,was there a book or what? Since your in WI I am asking for a very specific reason

Hello Wabiz

I HAVE MYSTERY SHOPS IN SOUTHERN RURAL WI!!! Where? Beyond Hello is actually located in Madison, WI. So we have shops in our area and nationally as well. Make sure to register with us at www.BeyondHello.com. I hope you all the best!

Gina Richardson
Scheduler at Beyond Hello