How will the upcoming recession affect MSing?

I, for one, do almost no retail at all. And, for instance, as the mortgage industry has moved online or to phone applications, so have the mortgage shops. The pay is lower than my in-person mortgage shops, but there is no travel time (a big deal in this congested area) and it is easier to shop more people when they do not see my face in the branch office. Just an example, but much of what I do is not moving online or, if but did, I could do more per day. New homes, apartments, automotive test drives, assisted living, hotel, restaurant, and any cash integrity work, would not be adversely affected by automation. Now, if all garages became "pay at the machine" environments, they would still need a ton of in-person shops to detect other high risk (liability) issues and, believe it or not, cash theft. (You would be amazed how many times those "pay-on-foot" devices fail and cash still changes hands in "automated" locations, folks. Since someone on site must be able to unlock those to trouble shoot, you get the picture.) Convenience stores, gas stations (drugs, etc) , banks (think disclosure regulation issues), auto repair and oil change stations (fraud), you name it, it will still need MSers.

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

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@Luna126 wrote:

I have only been a Mystery Shopper several months and I love it so far. However, when a possible recession is to come how do you think this will directly impact the industry? For those who were shoppers during the 2008 recession, can you please speak on this.

Edited: To sound less dramatic.
You are putting the cart before the horse. However, I began full-time shopping in 2008 and may be able to shed some light. Yes, the recession affected mystery shopping jobs, even in the prosperous state where I lived.

Some companies could no longer justify spending money for mystery shopping. Casinos and large hotels suspended their mystery shopping for a couple years. New home mystery shopping (video especially) took a hit, because builders did not survive. Those that did have the capital to wait out the depression, stopped building. No new homes meant no new home mystery shops.

Some companies did not survive the depression and closed. Almost every business, including ours, feels the effects of a recession to a degree. I was fortunate to be living in a state where the depression effects were not as severe as in most other states.

I don't think this is the forum to introduce politics, which are the only thing I can see determining a recession in the near future. Right now, our economy appears to be in a growth stage. Watch the Fed rate movement, and read the Fed reports each quarter. That will give you a barometer of the state of the economy and trend.
@Luna126 wrote:

I have only been a Mystery Shopper several months and I love it so far. However, when a possible recession is to come how do you think this will directly impact the industry? For those who were shoppers during the 2008 recession, can you please speak on this.

Edited: To sound less dramatic.

For what it's worth, my mom and I were watching ABC news (I think...maybe CBS) together one night during the government shutdown and saw them talking about government employees who had to resort to odd jobs, including ms-ing to get by during that time.

I'm guessing that when there are layoffs that ms jobs would have much more competition.

Seems like lots of people have side hustles nowadays, though.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2019 09:22PM by shoptastic.
I started mystery shopping in 2007 or 2008.
I can't tell that it has changed much over that time in my area. Clients move from one company to another. Some companies disappeared. Rates have not gone up.

When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.
Alexander Den Heijer
@shoptastic wrote:

Seems like lots of people have side hustles nowadays, though.
Only the smart ones. It's the best way to build wealth.
[www.forbes.com]

"Hustle is simple - it's doing the work. A lot of people like to talk about it, a lot of people have ideas, but it's difficult to actually do the work." ~Troy Carter

"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
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