I had a mystery shop today.

I got to pretend to put someone in a nursing home one time.

Aren't you glad that was pretend? When I was working for a law firm back in my college days, they had an elderly client who was suspicious of his family and of the lawyers, but he would sign anything a young lady put in front of him. So they gave me some lines to rehearse and then took me over to his apartment to talk him into signing conservatorship papers. Ewwww, I was a little uncomfortable with that at first, but then I thought what if someone really bad went over and got him to sign something that gave away all his money instead. Clearly he needed somebody to watch over him. It was still a hard thing to do to someone.

Pretending to buy a car; that's just so cool... I could act all day too, LOL.. But seriously, never heard of such things. But you said before the internet was invented, so ahhh.... awesome yeah those days. I still understood the meaning of 8 hours of sleep back then..

Hmmmm, thanks, never really thought about focus groups. The only ones I've seen on the net for around here takes a 40 min drive to the nearest big city. Will definitely have to check those out, maybe there's something closer in one of the closer smaller cities. About 2 or 3 times a year I do product testing for one company. Those projects I can still do at home. One is for women's undergarments, and the other is women's cosmetic related. I'd tell you 'who' but they make you sign a sworn to secrecy clause. Anyways, each item is sent in bulk and you test for a month and keep a diary for them. That usually pays 15 to 20 bucks for the project, but it's worth it because the merchandise you get to keep far outweighs what they pay you. Thanks again GG! Will look into those focus groups for sure:-)

Oh, almost forgot...the mystery shopping jobs I had were all through Kern. I never had a shop with them that was lower than $20 bucks, and they don't take forever to pay. They have shops to do all over US and more. Very reputable company! Here's the link: http://www.kernscheduling.com/

My mom did focus groups and tested products at home for years cause she did not get out and about. Could get a ride to a day long focus group and have lunch and enjoyed that a lot.

Thanks so much for all the info, I wrote down all the links.

Today was for Ritter Associates, and I like them really well. I am anxious to get to CAtGods reply. I have had some really good luck through a site called narms.com.

HI JENNY!!! missed you. The way it works in the US is pretty simple. You register with the legitimate sites, and get notified of shops that fit your profile. You apply for or accept them, read the background material and do the job. I had to go to a specific type of retailer and pretend a certain scenario yesterday, to see if someone would offer to help, and see if they would try to close a sale. I do not want to violate confidentiality by telling too much.

You would have to search for your location and see if it is a practice there.

Last I checked, there were none..

That is a drawback for the majority of shops. I have happened to have at least half require no purchase, though, and then the money is good, and when it comes it comes.

My friend did it for AC Nielsen. Some major department stores would hire AC to do the mystery shopper program for them. My friend stopped cold when they asked her to go to a high end mall and purchase a luxury brand handbag on her credit card and they'd reimburse her like 2 months later. She said she'd had it because she kept getting those requests. I'm happy to hear you're enjoying your experience though. Good for you :-)

The sites mentioned throughout this discussion are legitimate, and I can add a few more, like Trend Source, for one. Second to None sends me shops but I have not done any in a long time.

It is good to share sites. This specific one was from Ritter Associates, they seem to have shops all over the US. I have done others as well.

Check out response #8 above. It will tell you a lot about being an IC and getting mystery shop jobs.

There are legit. sites out there. One website that has some mystery shopping is narms.com, as well as having merchandising and in store event positions. I also was just told about jobslinger.com, but do not know how it works it is new to me. This shop was for Ritter Associates.

The person who gave response number 8 explained things and gave some good places to sign up. So did the one on response seventeen. They have some experience with these types of jobs.

Number 17, #8? What in the world are you talking about? Did you get on the wrong discussion or what?

I have quit doing very many. I have offers every day, from various companies, most are a little drive away. They offer, you apply and sometimes you are chosen. Some are out of pocket, others, like today, I only went in and pretended to be shopping for something specific, but I had to see if anyone offered to help me, and if they promoted certain products and if they pushed for a sale. Food shops at restaurants are out of pocket, but you get reimbursed for it, and get a fee for entering the data.

Try doing a search for Mystery Shopping in the Phillipines. You might find some you could do .

Some of my favorites have been looking at flooring or carpeting. Check the whole discussion for some links.

Tina, you are never required to do one. They send notices to your email and you apply if you want to do it. If you go back in the discussion CatGods gave a great answer that will help everyone out.

See number seventeen above you, and also number 8.

Oh, I've done Secret Shopper which is much like it. I would buy a hamburger at McD's and evaluate it, the drink, and the service. I would get reimbursed for the food, drink, and a little more $ (went for gas). Then a few days later, they wanted me to go to Burger King and evaluate theirs. I got to eat at a couple fast food places for free. Your deal seems much better than mine.

You are right, Dawnald. There are shops for all kinds of businesses. I did an apartment shop one time where I had to make sure they were compliant with fair housing laws.

Look at response 8 in this discussion.

Oh wow, that was some post. The sites that have been mentioned did not come up on any search engine that I used while looking for those programs. Thanks for sharing those sites. Ill check them out after posting this. I do hope that I can be a part of it. Thanks!

Check out response 8 for some good sites to join.

That is why I am picky about who I do it for. Sometimes if they are desperate they pump up the fee.