Reading through recent posts, and everyone is from different areas and has different experiences. How is MSC overall in your area? Competitive? Slow? Less work?

For me, I always thought Dallas / Fort Worth suited me. It's not a tourist destination per se, but has enough shopping, dining, and activities. More and more corporate headquarters are being relocated here. In terms of MS, it's big enough to be shopped by a good number of shoppers. It's a little competitive and bonuses can be less frequent now, but it's steady and frequent enough.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2024 02:35AM by Okie.

Jobs do disappear. I only look for a few jobs, so I don't really know.

I live in North Jersey where there are malls galore. However, I rarely go to the malls since I really don't like them and find they take too long to park, find the store and go through the hoops of the retail shops. I have a low bar goal for each month and even when the month starts out really looking bad, I always seem to find a way to make my goal or exceed it. There's a ton of shops around here. I prefer banks, gas stations, dining and the odd ball Field Agent or Ivueit to fill in the gaps. I've also nabbed some usps shops for $10 bonuses + the fee and reimbursement. (via phone calls) This month I was helped by a $250 market research study that was interesting. I love when special projects appear such as something with Mintel or others that pay a nice fee to boost the bottom line. I do have a lot of competition here. I noticed someone grabs almost all of the Exxon shops in the area as soon as they're posted leaving me with a few stragglers but that's fine with me. I don't route them like others do. I add one or two along a route of other shops. I'm busy enough that I could shop every day, but I usually don't do much if any on the weekends. Tomorrow (actually today - I need to go to sleep) I am going "down the shore" and will do a few banks before and after the beach and car counting before meeting friends for dinner.

When I first moved here getting jobs, except in the big city to the North, was pretty easy, there was plenty of work as long as I stayed out of the city. And I could wait for the bonuses until they were acceptable. Especially with MF and RBG, the bonuses were predictable and no one wanted to come this far out of the city to do the jobs. They grabbed EVERYTHING at base pay in the city. We did ok until the Pandemic shut down. When we could go and shop again it seemed as if all of the folks that lost their jobs decided not to go back, and started doing gig work and mystery shopping. Suddenly the pay per job for my son's door dash and uber eats jobs went in the toilet, there were more jobs, because of the folks that were afraid to leave their homes, but they didn't pay so well anymore. Then as the mystery shopping jobs started back up it seemed like folks were desperate and willing to lose money driving to remote areas to get ALL of the jobs before they ever got their first bonus. For a little while they still left my little area here alone and I could get some ok bonuses. But that didn't last long either.

Since March of this year I've done very little mystery shopping and the $60 bonuses are now $45 bonuses because whoever is coming here from elsewhere won't let them to go over $45. The previous round of green\yellow gas stations disappeared at $40 the day that I suggested to my son to grab what was left. We managed a couple $50 famous highway jobs this last week, but we were lucky to get the local shops at base pay this round, we let a bunch of them go back on the board because all of the gas cans were already full, and they were grabbed up the following day.

I don't go out of my regular area anymore. Between the POS Jeep finally dying and not being able to find anything that isn't a Jeep or a Korean car in my price range. I have to get rides to where I need to go in my son's car, which I will not drive, and riding with him driving is scary.

I live in a coastal town in New England (I call it semi-rural), where most of the businesses are mom and pop or very local chains. We do have a few big box stores, though. A lot of the shops and clients that people discuss here are just not in my area. So, in my immediate vicinity, there aren't a ton of MS opportunities, but enough to be able to do at least a few regularly. There are about 8 or so MSCs that I see regularly or semi-regularly have shops available around here, plus a few that will pop up once in a blue moon. I would say there are really only three that are my core MSCs. I also try to do phone shops as much as I can, especially in winter so I don't have to go anywhere in heavy snow. So, I'd say it's kind of medium-slow here, but practically dead compared to when I lived in a major city.

However, the good thing is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of shoppers around here either. This region isn't densely populated. So, thankfully, every so often I've been able to pick up shops paying way more than they usually do. Those are generally in cities that are at least 1 to 1.5 hours away (each way), so I have to create routes, which is sometimes tricky to do. Those cities have malls and large business districts, whereas my local area does not. Sometimes I create a route that goes out of my state into other parts of New England. I don't do this every month but don't mind doing so every now and then if it's worth the time and gas. Plus it's good to get out of my local area - sometimes it seems like the employees at my usual gigs all know I'm the shopper when they see me coming.

.

Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2024 04:15AM by shopnyc.

I'm in the fastest growing market in the country, so jobs are pretty plentiful.

Too bad I refuse to take most of them these days.

Competition does not seem to be too heavy. As I've commented elsewhere, there's an Exxon just down the street from me (urban area) that will usually go to bonus (though it seems to be taking longer this round).

Last year I moved to the area where I'm now living, which is a small town in the Northeast, somewhat equidistant from a few major towns or cities....this after decades of big city life, so it's an adjustment. lol....that said, I find here I naturally spend a lot more for gas than I used to in the city, which makes sense. So I try to do gas or convenience store shops that are on my errand routes - to at least cover or help with the cost of gas....there's no traffic here and the scenery is beautiful, so it's all good.
A few major chains in the bigger city, like Five Guys, Best Buy, etc....but this area is mostly served by independent or local chains....so not as many opportunities and the good ones are scooped pretty quickly. I've learned which parts of this area has shoppers....some locations even only five miles away are always waiting to be picked up - so that shows me that shoppers are very careful with how much travel expense and time they are willing to give these shops and understandably so.
I was recently banned from Texas Roadhouse after many years of successful shops at their locations around the US. I was coming back from a very popular viewing site for the solar eclipse this April and got stuck in a massive traffic jam nearby and couldn't make it - and apparently that's all it takes to get banned - one missed shop after nearly 10 years of good shops.
There's a local chain of gas/convenience stores here. I've been shopping them for about a year - same MSC....some of the locations are remote and on country roads, they are easy and good to pick up...some are hard to fill, so when I had to miss one, I wasn't banned forever. I guess they need to keep some of us around for those that are much harder to fill.
One thing about this area - casinos are popular and growing. I've only done a little bit of MSing for those, but want to increase if I can because I enjoy them. I wonder if the casinos, as part of their security team, just do much of their own internal work.

I am in SW Ohio. For me, category one--money and two--leisure, have almost disappeared. The shops still exist, but the work:reward ratio is unacceptable to me. As to category 3--defrayment of travel expenses, they have been plentiful, but only for a single client.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

I was recently banned from Texas Roadhouse after many years of successful shops at their locations around the US. I was coming back from a very popular viewing site for the solar eclipse this April and got stuck in a massive traffic jam nearby and couldn't make it - and apparently that's all it takes to get banned - one missed shop after nearly 10 years of good shops.

That is extreme to me. After a long history of successful shops, to be removed from a program after one commitment you couldn't honor due to those circumstances. Sorry to hear. I heard it happens more often if someone self-assigns early.

And I remember reading a thread about another long-term program that required monthly shops, if someone was out-of-town just one month and couldn't do that month, they immediately got dropped from the program. Too much.

The work has really slowed down in the Northeast and it can be competitive!

Slowing down here in eastern North Carolina. More shoppers grabbing shops at base pay. Strong bonuses only in the really remote, distant areas where it's hard to build any kind of route around them. Devoting more of my time to other income sources. The future of shopping looks bleak here.

In California's central coast, I have done very few shops. The fee has been reduced significantly on most shops, so with gas hovering at $4.50+ a gallon, I am not inclined to travel the 90 mile range I have on the profile. The new MSCs that have taken over from previous ones, are notorious for offering less than half of what was offered before. .

wow, something going on all over - maybe we need to start a thread in the general chat - about alternatives to MSing....other gigs - referring to anything that doesn't require having a boss -

I'm in a rural area but in the middle of a few large cities, so it can be hit or miss here. We have some of your basic chains and gas stations that get shopped by the big MSC, and then mostly small businesses.

During heavy travel weekends or summer, shops that normally get bonuses will get picked up for base, or smaller bonuses. I wait for bonuses because I have to factor in time and mileage to my fees, otherwise, these companies will gladly have you out there working for sub-minimum wage. A $14 shop for a place that's an hour round trip isn't worth it to me unless I'm able to do a route. If another shopper comes around and wants to do it for that fee because it works for them, more power to 'em.

I did a MAO on their burger shop in what I consider last shop window and it was rejected. It's at MAO in what I consider this shop window, and the rejection is still there. So apparently they don't have multiple shop windows each month, they just repost shops with new date windows.

And here I thought they were shopped multiple times a month.

Also in the Northeast and while there are a good amount of jobs, there are also a good amount of shoppers. Certain shops are a feeding frenzy. The email goes out for certain jobs and they are gone within minutes and that is not an exaggeration. When I first started last year, it was not this competitive. It has gotten pretty crazy plus they take jobs at base pay and that just makes it harder to make money. Then there are certain jobs that nobody wants to do so I just wait for those to get bonused and I wind up doing less work for more money. Have to adjust to the market which is forever changing in so many ways.

In my area, there rarely are well-paid jobs, but I prefer to wait for those, as I already have a full-time job.

Some jobs posted at base pay may stay there for weeks and are rarely bonused.
When travelling, I usually check the jobs in those areas to see if anything's worth it.

Im in Providence, RI, and there are a lot of jobs in RI and nearby Massachusetts. I notice the low paying ones tend to get bonused, as well as ones further out (southern RI and Cape cod). I’m away for the summer in Palm Bay, FL, and much less jobs here. palm Bay has just as many people as Providence, but that’s not a lot by Florida standards. So since it’s not a major city for Florida the way Providence is for RI, maybe that’s why the lack of jobs. On top of that, the jobs that do come out get snatched up quickly and don’t get bonuses. Especially with 5 men shops - they go for $9 here! Probably because cost of living in FL is now so high compared to the salaries (whereas in the northeast salaries have kept up better….i make 6 figures as a teacher for example). In RI/Mass I always get 5 men jobs for at least 20/25. However funny enough no one was grabbing the Rolex shop down here. Ended up going for $90. So of course I did that one. I have no problem pretending lol.

I'm in SoCal, and I am also seeing lower rates and less shops.

I've been calculating the cost of gas and parking fees along with the hours of driving before accepting shops for a route.

It usually doesn't make sense compared to other work I can do.

I will usually wait until the end of the month for increased rates. I've also stopped taking long report dining shops for less than $150 reimbursement.

Looks like there is sufficient interest, so I'll start a thread in General Chat for Independent Contractor ideas. In theory, it should be more collaborative, since we're not competing with each other for the same one job....usually it's all takers.

@MHN wrote:

I've also stopped taking long report dining shops for less than $150 reimbursement.

Yes; That's my starting point of interest for dining reports.

I am only looking a hospitality shops and I see numbers this year in So Cal that are close to the pre-pandemic levels, but most have not adjusted for recent price point increases.

I don't have the competition that I had for the last couple of years. Im getting bonuses on most every shop in town. I don't know how long it'll last...