I will never do another grocery store mystery shop again.

This shop paid $25 and $5 toward your purchase. Some of the questions were just annoying. "If you stack all the rows of meat how high would they reach? 1 ft, 6 ft, 20 ft or more? I'm not a building contractor. They want you to do this as a mystery shopper, but many of the questions to have to ask the store employees. Such as "Does the store have an outreach program?" "Do they sell products beneficial to the planet?" It took me over an hour to do the shop....never again. I also cannot stand longer than an hour, my right leg gives out. You cannot see any of the questions until you're at the store and open the survey. They also ask the different ways you can pay...."PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay....and about 6 other ways. You would have to read the list to an employee. The same applies for many of the questions, you have to ask an employee.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2023 10:21PM by johnb974.

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Oh my what a hoot! Whatever company is doing this is off balance. Stupid questions for sure. My wife says all mystery shopping is stupid…this one sure was!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2023 01:54AM by OldmanJames.
@OldmanJames wrote:

Oh my what a hoot! Whatever company is doing this is off balance. Stupid questions for sure. My wife says all mystery shopping is stupid…this one sure was!

The employee was laughing too...."If you take all the rows of fish and stack them end to end, how high would the stack be? 1ft, 3 ft, 6 ft. 20ft? The same for the meat and poultry. LOL
So, you have to guesstimate the meat packages are about 9 inches long, count them and maybe there was 40 packages of meat, multiply 40 times 9 and divide by 12 to get how many feet high the stack would be? I will tell you who would love this, Rain Man. And he could blink his eyes and know the answer.
Are you supposed to calculate by just stacking the rows on top of rows or individual packages on top of each other? Stacking each one on top of each other will yield the higher number. If it were each package, then I would use the @purpleicee method.

How is it that Rain Man gets a headache counting cards, but is okay with memorizing a telephone book -- up to G. Half of G.

Sally Dibbs, Dibbs Sally 4610192
Almost as silly as the Kroger in store shops which pay a LOT less than the easier pick up shops where you have to look at 6 things in produce, see if the produce man says hello as you position yourself where he can see you. Note if he looks at you makes eye contact, smiles and greets or perhaps only makes eye contact without a smile or greet. perhaps he makes a nasty look at you- nothing on the form about that oh well! nasty look produce people are safe as nasty looks are not on the report! And note if he has tats, jewelry, ( I often wonder if a watch or wedding ring counts as jewelry - hard to stand and stare to see wedding rings on fingers and watches often covered by shirts- OR are they only interested in knowing about jewelry like nose rings (yep I saw some of those on shops!) earrings, necklaces with Satan on them or some strange jewelry) a moustache, beard or glasses, figure out his age, height and how long his what color hair is--Is the hair wavy, curly, pulled back or in braids? One store I shop has a man with some hair illness- his hair is black but depending on when you shop he has large white spots in throughout his head- something his hair looks more black than white - very hard to count the spots and figure out whether his hair is black or white on that visit. Poor guy feel sorry for him especially as he never looks at me or says anything to anyone as far as I can tell! Do not forget to check the front page meat ad items and 6 items in meat, 2 milk items half and gallon size and counting days ahead by 10, seeing if the meat man greets you as you stand there looking like a dork staring in the meat case with no idea of buying anything! What the heck do you say when they ask what you want? Geez, I am a shopper trying to see if you say hello, smile make eye contact, one or two of the above or perhaps none of the above? See if the cheese lady says hi as you count how many cheese varieties are there that meet the criteria with no thought of buying as the cheese costs more per pound that the $9.00 shop reimbursement for cheese you never heard of or wanted to buy! So you stand there counting cheese varieties with no intention of buying anything! Oh yes and do not forget to see if the courtesy desk is open and if the bathroom is clean even if you have no need to use the bathroom, along with checking the wipes and the parking lot. And of course full description of the produce man, cashier and bagger and note if they make eye contact, smile and greet you or if they do not smile, but make eye contact but not greet you, or if they greet you but do not smile or make eye contact, if they say thank you and invite you to return, perhaps say only have a good day and not invite you to return? Perhaps none of the above! Kinda ridiculous if you think about it. Squeezing roma tomatoes and picking up puff packs of ground beef, picking up packs of chicken to see if they are leaking, trying to figure out if 85% of items are in stock, seeing whether there is a blue tag or not- opening the milk case when you have no thought of purchasing milk to sniff if it smells clean---- oh my- just what I love to do in Krogers while buying only 3 items worth $9 seems like a waste of time? not enough reimbursement to buy any meat or anything of value- yet in order to get the pick ups you need to do these!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2023 02:41PM by SueW70.
At least we don't have to ask a question at the kroger shops like we did pre covid.
You made my morning with this list of ridiculousness!
My pleasure- as I typed the post I was laughing at how stupid the report form is- So many things to report on for very short interactions! Not good at judging age or height making it worse!
These are horrible. Maybe I won't complain when I have to take 75 pictures in a store and then slowly upload them one by one because the MSC has the worst platform ever. But at least I don't have to do ridiculous things, only be creepy and take pics.
Since the client not mentioned, can someone say the MSC? (Don't want this shop, but it may be an MSC I've missed.)
My last grocery shop I had to upload pictures a certain way. Due to the platform, they uploaded sideways. I only saw the pics as correctly loaded. Of course, there were a bunch of pictures.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
@pegleg2000 wrote:

At least we don't have to ask a question at the kroger shops like we did pre covid.

I did some innercity Kroger shops and stating the question exactly as written was often hilarious. I would state: what cheeses pairs well with....type of meat. I'd get a baffled look. Then say, What cheeses go well with this meat?

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
Those questions were so hard to ask.. the only ones that were easy for me was asking the produce associate how to pick a ripe watermelon.. lol
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