Amtrak shop

Has anyone here done Amtrak shops? Any tips, advice?

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I have done many of them. I am not sure what you are concerned about. Just do not fall asleep when riding in coach or business class. Some questions require that you are attentive to any delays and to crew appearing in your car.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
It seems a bit overwhelming since the shopper have to make quite a bit of observations especially at the dining car at what passengers buy and how they pay for the items.
Just bring your phone and text notes. Do a dry run at a fast food restaurant. That would be good practice. The people at the MSC are super nice and helpful.
Great idea about the dry run. Thank you! This forum has been so helpful to me.

@shopsuey wrote:

Just bring your phone and text notes. Do a dry run at a fast food restaurant. That would be good practice. The people at the MSC are super nice and helpful.
Yappy, sounds like you have a plum assignment of a sleeping car and dining car experience. I am jealous!

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
@walesmaven wrote:

Just do not fall asleep when riding in coach or business class. Some questions require that you are attentive to any delays and to crew appearing in your car.
Hmm... Does this mean that if I'm assigned, say, Chicago-DC which is 18 hours and overnight that I would need to stay awake the whole time? Even at 3 am?

"Let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you - and why?” ~Walter Williams
No, no, no! If you are assigned that you will get a sleeper cabin as well as dining car meals (Which are usually excellent, btw). ! My advice: take your favorite pillow and then enjoy the gentle sway of sleeping on the train in comfort.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
What do you think of the reports?? A lot of narratives? Oh... no sleeping car yet. I have the see if I can handle the shorter distances before venturing out to longer trips. I'm jealous you have done many of them!

@walesmaven wrote:

Yappy, sounds like you have a plum assignment of a sleeping car and dining car experience. I am jealous!
The reports are pretty straight forward, and you can summarize a lot of the information instead of giving tons of details. I probably write 1.5-2 pages of narrative, even when I'm on long trips. Heck, if I didn't get motion sick, I could write the narrative (in a word doc) while on the return. Just keep copious, time-stamped notes and try to covertly take pictures of personnel.
Good to know! Looking forward to my shop.

@shopsuey wrote:

The reports are pretty straight forward, and you can summarize a lot of the information instead of giving tons of details. I probably write 1.5-2 pages of narrative, even when I'm on long trips. Heck, if I didn't get motion sick, I could write the narrative (in a word doc) while on the return. Just keep copious, time-stamped notes and try to covertly take pictures of personnel.
I wish I could ask who does these. Sounds like a fun shop.

What's done is done. An egg cracked cannot be cured.
There are 3 kinds of lies. Lies, Damn lies, and statistics.
The MSC uses a very small team of shoppers who must live near specific route hub and who are generally recruited based on recommendations from the MSC's other schedulers. The client's guidelines are very rigid, right down to the order in which you state the description of the associate and his/her uniform, as well as the job titles. You have to really, really love train travel to be happy doing these. Fortunately, I do.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
Guess again
it is not a small team....
reports and not any different

@walesmaven wrote:

The MSC uses a very small team of shoppers who must live near specific route hub and who are generally recruited based on recommendations from the MSC's other schedulers. The client's guidelines are very rigid, right down to the order in which you state the description of the associate and his/her uniform, as well as the job titles. You have to really, really love train travel to be happy doing these. Fortunately, I do.
Do these shops appear on one of the big boards?
No.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
Okay. Well any clues would be appreciated.
@LisaSTL wrote:

No.
It's pretty much an invite only project. The shops are not posted on their job board and you have to live within an hour (I think) of one of their hubs.

Edited to add:
Their main website has them clearly listed as one of their clients.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2018 03:25PM by bgriffin.
If I remember past events correctly, people visited us who had traveled via Amtrak. They lived near a hub. I believe that some if not most of this vacation cost was offset by teamwork. Someone did the Amtrak, another person did a hotel shop, and they might have completed a few restaurant shops while they were near us. Mind you, this happened many years ago, and the program may have changed since that time. Was this fun? Was it practical? I dunno. We rarely saw the adults. It was fun to hang out with the kids.

My garden in England is full of eating-out places, for heat waves, warm September evenings, or lunch on a chilly Christmas morning. (Mary Quant)
Well I don't live that close to any Amtrak hub. I'm probably about 2 hours from the closest Amtrak station. I would be willing to travel up there to do the shop because I do love train travel. But it sounds like it won't work out for me. Thanks for the info though.

What's done is done. An egg cracked cannot be cured.
There are 3 kinds of lies. Lies, Damn lies, and statistics.
I did my shop and loved it! It took me a while to get the reports done because it was new to me in terms of their format. I"m so looking forward to future shops! Thanks for all the advise.
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