See how a 2 hour quick mystery shop can be profitable

Yesterday was a quieter day on the mystery shop front, but a quick 3-shop trip out paid dividends, as well as only taking up less than 2 hours. Plus, although I visited 3 locations, all had free parking to ease the strain!

First stop was a local chemist or pharmacy store. I've carried this an similar for the same mystery shopping company (one of several I use) and I always find an element of the shop intriguing. There is always a question about the purchase being under-rung or the money not going in the till in my presence. It makes me think that there's something underhand going on in these locations. My imagination flies away and I think that I'm going somewhere that the staff will steal from me as soon as look at me! Obviously that's not the case, but I'm always looking behind the questions to see what the company is measuring and what they want to know about their teams.

This is a really simple shop, purchase and get  a description of the team member. Easily done and quite well paid for the amount of time and effort taken.

Fee = £7.00
Reimbursement = £3.50
Spend = £3.50
Profit/Loss = +£7.00

The second visit was to a branch of a nationally-recognised health and beauty chain to ask about cosmetics and make a purchase. I like these assignments where I am playing a role that I don't usually play and the chance to be a man buying cosmetics is too much of an opportunity to pass on. SO when I saw this appear in the jobs list of my favourite mystery shopping company, I couldn't let it go.

The mystery shop itself wasn't quite as interesting as the build-up and it was a straight-forward enquiry and purchase.

Fee = £4.75

Reimbursement = £5.00

Spend = £5.54

Profit/Loss = +£4.21

The final visit of the day was for lunch, at a national pub chain. This chain is a regular mystery shop for me, and I know the routine like the back of my hand-

1. Order 2 drinks and a meal
2. Take servers details
3. Take details of the person who brings you your food
4. Assess food and drink quality
5. Check for any promotions
6. Assess the toilets

It's a nice, easy, regular payday and it gets my wife and I a free lunch approximately once every week or so. This visit was no different to the regular ones - great food, great service, great mystery shop.

Fee = £3.25

Reimbursement = £9.75

Spend = £15.13

Profit/Loss = -£2.13

TOTAL = +£9.08 + toiletries and lunch for 2

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