How do you find a legit mystery shopper job and

I registered for about 20 of them 4 or 5 mos. ago. I found that to be a complete waste of my time! The only jobs they'll offer to a newbie are crappy ones. Lots of lying, or things that wouldn't be feasible to take a child to. For example, computer shops and TV shops in the mall - they want me to go in, prompt the clerk to give a certain sales pitch, then you have to take a questionaire on what they said or didn't say... yah right! I would have a hard time just focusing on keeping my kids from tearing the store apart, I don't think I could remember the whole sales pitch!

Then I got excited b/c they wanted me to do a Babies-R-Us. But once I found out the details.. they wanted me to go in and tell them I was pregnant and fill our a registration, answering questions like, "How did the clerk congratulate you? Did the manager come out to congratulate you?" You could never take a child to that one! (well, unless you really were pregnant )

I ended up doing one in January at the Panda Express in the food court of the mall. That was fine, but the only would reimburse for 1 meal, and it's not somewhere we would eat in the first place. So it was kinda just a fun distraction for a rainy day. But I just got the check for that (a whopping $5.77) only a short 3 mos. later ... Just not worth it for me.

root*children,
Sounds like you got some crummy shops I got a full-service sit down restaurant that reimbursed up to $40 several times and some other decent eating places. We did get fast food shops but those weren't too bad -- I often was able to swing through the drive through and hubby had them as a snack :. There were some bank ones and gas station ones and even several mall ones that were worthwhile if they were in my close area. I wonder if it depends on where you live? I have several good size cities that are close to my home and lots of retail places. Anyways, good to know what to look out for and avoid!!

Don't get me too wrong i've had good offers, too. Just the only one I've actually done is the food court one. A couple weeks ago, we were supposed to do a sit-down steakhouse, but it came time to do it, and we didn't have the funds. Since the one and only shop I'd ever done hadn't paid me yet, I was uneasy about doing the pricey one, not knowing when I would have been paid (i mean, I know they tell you a time to get paid, but my check came quite a bit after that date). I also get lots of gas station offers, but they are all about 1/2 hr from our house, and they only give you $12 worth of gas. I'm done. Glad I tried it out though, or I always would have wondered. I actually did that and a friend of mine IRL tried out giving samples at stores (like at Sam's club) as an independant contractor. Neither panned out, but since we each tried one, now we know about the other one, too

Its usually a marketing job, so I might suggest setting yourself up as a mystery marketing spy for hire The guys at work would often go incognito from the marketing department (lol as if) to see what the same products we made other people sold for.

For example you see that places like walmart always have the cart if you bought at Kmart you'd pay 50 here you'd pay 40.

Approach a local store, If you did a feasiblity study for them such as my local toy store drives me nuts, they are so overpriced but local I don't buy there their prices are 20% more... If you took a store then showed them that their prices are lower than most (something they could highlight) or that they are way overpriced compared to their competators so should adjust their prices accordingly. I think there's many stores that would pay $50-100 dollars a month to know they are in the ballpark...just a thought.

Or you could hire yourself out as mom private investigator - for 15 dollars I'll drop in on your kids daycare, your son's hockey game so that your husband is being nice and not yellling, not picking up a hockey mom your contractor actually arrived at 8am and worked the whole day (there's many people who work who have stuff done and think oh crap they are drinking beer and smoking....not working) your pooch is treated nicely at the kennel.

Mystery shopping sounds cool but I'd make a list of the places you go to anyhow and start your own blog have something to show companies that you can do - a blog would show what you thought of restaurant x, get a list of how to critique, what to look for...

I do this! I haven't for awhile because there are no places really close to me; but I am a mystery shopper for Longhorn Steakhouse. Shhh... it's a secret. They reimburse for I THINK $40, which is enough for my mom & me & Joe to eat. We have a 45 minute drive to get there & then we do a little shopping so it makes for a nice day... I am always reimbursed before they tell me I will be.

I will try to IM you the name of the company; can't remember it at the moment... they might be local though...

Some of the mystery shopper jobs are worth it; some aren't. "Shop" around.

You can (usually) also scan your receipts. I don't have a scanner or fax machine, I just took photos with the dig. camera and emailed them to the company. That always worked fine

What is a focus group? Like a survey?