Note: In order to protect their identity as a mystery shopper, the author of this article has chosen to remain anonymous.
I am a part-time shopper and a full-time employee of a hotel. I have been a shopper since 2010. I like this job because I can enjoy shopping and traveling to a lot of places where I have never been before. Being a shopper keeps me update to newest fashion, technology, and I learn a lot of different industry. And, of course I profit from a lot free meals and cosmetics. This job for me is a pleasure of my life while my routine full time job is an essential for my living.
My average earning a month as a shopper is about $1300 including reimbursement. My most profitable month in 2016 was in April. In this month, I earn $2597.82. As a part-time shopper, I hardly self-assign or apply jobs online except for gas station or high bonus shops. I have very good relationships with a lot of schedulers and I am always offered well paid shops. Please see my break down:
- 12 gas stations shops pay $15 each came to $180. These shops require quick reaction since they were gone quickly. I tried to take as much as I can and as near as possible. I never go over 20 kilometres for a gas station shop. Since I am working full time, I do the gas station shop after work. So I choose all the gas stations near my home or my work if they are available. It takes only 5 minutes to do these shops and no more than 10 minutes for a report.
- 9 fast food shops pay $550 including reimbursement. All these shops are offered by phone or email. I never schedule these shops online since they were very low pay on the job board, but once they were close to the deadline, I would be offered a big bonus. The average pay of each shop is $50 plus reimbursement. If you schedule by yourself online, it would be only reimbursement or under $10 pay each. So it is always good to wait for the scheduler to contact you. It takes about 30 minutes to do a shop as required in the guideline and about 20 minutes for a report.
- 5 hair salon shops and 12 cosmetics shops, with total pay of $699, including reimbursement. These are my favourite shops. I enjoy having my hair done every week and fill up my skincare and make up for half a year supply. Even though most of the shops were reimbursement only, but I still tried my best to get some bonus on the non-purchase shops. It was pleasant to do the salon shops which took about 1 hour to enjoy the hair wash, treatment and blow dry. The report was about 20 minutes to write. The cosmetics shops were also full of joy while I could have free analyses of the skin or a free make up. It takes 10-20 minutes to do the shop and 20 minutes for the report.
- 8 car dealer shops with total pay of $810. These are the most profitable shops, but also the most stressful. I did them about 2 years ago and I had a nightmare of all those salesperson following me. This year, I really don’t want to do them again, but the scheduler called me and sent me big bonus. So I do them all in 4 days. Two dealers were a bit far and I got $210 for both as a route. It took me 4 hours to do them both including driving and the report took about 20 minutes each. The rest of the 6 paid $100 each and they were either close to my home or my job. So I did 3 a day, 2 a day, and 1 after work. It took about 45 minutes to 1 hour to stay in the dealer, and the report was about 20 minutes each.
- 4 cell phone shops, with total pay of $110. These shops are not very well paid, I only do them on the route alone with other shops since they were very easy and only takes about 10-15 minutes each.
- 1 price audit shop paid $80. It is a very easy but very tired shop, it would take me 2 hours in the store to scan about 200 items, but no report at home which was pretty good.
- 1 toy shop paid $30. I did it while doing the cosmetic shops in a mall. 15 minutes for the shop and 30 minutes for the report because a lot of descriptions.
- 1 grocery shop pay $17 while I was doing my grocery after work. I took it only because it was a store near my home and it was very easy which took about 10 minutes to talk to a credit card Interceptor and the report was only multiple choice questions.
- 1 online purchase and return luxury shop pay $45 while doing other cosmetics shops at the same department store. 15 minutes in the store and 30 minutes for the report.
- 2 credit check shops pays $50. These shops were pretty easy and only taking photos, no narrative in the report, but to upload photos. It took about 30 minutes for the visit.
- The last 3 restaurant shops paid $56.82 and I did them while having my lunch break of my full time job which, was not a bad choice. For these shops, I don’t make much money, but I still enjoy that since the report was easy and I took a break myself from my routine work.
So the total of 58 shops pay $2597.82 which including $1914 shopper pay and bonus, $683.82 reimbursement.
In conclusion, it was the most busy month for me this year and I did all these while working 40 hours a week full time in a hotel. You might be surprised how I did it. As I said, I do the shops as a pleasure and I enjoy my life at the same time. Since my working schedule is not fixed in the hotel, I can do most of the shops during the my 2 days off(up to 10 shops a day), after work, before work or during my lunch break. This really gives me a lot of flexibility for most of the shops and to meet the requirement of the schedulers.
Don’t be afraid to ask for bonus, you’ve got nothing to lose. Wait for the best moment to get as much bonus as you can. It is always good to wait for the scheduler to call you. Don’t self assign the low pay shops. I have a very good reputation with all the companies I work for. I am never late reports, hardly require rescheduling, have almost no cancellations. My average report rate is 9/10 for most of the companies. All of which is why I have many high paid shops offered to me by the schedulers. My experience would be better for a part-time shoppers since it is a bonus of my life. I prefer to do fewer high paying shops, instead of doing tons of low pay shops. But if you are a full time, you might need to work more. But if you could make this amount as I did this month would be also nice. You can have extra 40 hours a week to enjoy your life.