Debunking the Mystery Shopper Myth
For more than 15 million unemployed Americans, times have been tough and money has been tight. And for the past 6 months, I have been busy in addition to my full time position, working in a new industry as a professional mystery shopper. Hubby X and I have been working on shops and projects together working for a number of mystery shopping companies along the way.
The extra money has been a welcome addition to our very strapped income. On average, our family has made between $15-25 per shop in addition to eating for free or taking home the grocery store products we were asked to purchase. I will admit that our family was very skeptical about mystery shopping. I’ve watch the 20/20 and 60 minute specials and read about mystery shopping scams in the news so before I applied to a mystery shopper company I did my research and visited forums and mystery shopper communities, and even read books written by professional mystery shoppers.
While researching prospective mystery shopping companies and learning more about the industry, I came upon some great online resources. Some of my favorites are the Mystery Shopper Forum and Volition. While the layout of these websites leaves much to be desired, they have a very informative forum and resource section in addition to job postings information. Cathy Stucker’s Mystery Shopping Manual is another great resource that provides an extensive list of legitimate mystery shopper companies.
As a mystery shopper you are an independent contractor and not an employee of the mystery shopping company. This means that you are responsible for paying your own taxes as a self-employed individual acting as a consultant on the mystery shopping company’s behalf. This also means that you are free to work for as many mystery shopping companies as you wish which is exactly what I do and have done. A legitimate mystery shopping company will never ask you to pay any money or cash up front. The fact is there are legitimate mystery shopping companies out there that are willing to pay you top dollar to visit companies like grocery stores, banks, convenience stores, and even doctor’s offices.
Photo Credit The Field Force.
