Find out how a trip to a local shopping mall can be the start of low or no cost Christmas presents

It's a trip to the closest shopping mall to me today to conduct three mystery shops and make a little money (but probably not much today.) Alongside already going shopping here, the mystery shops were probably a secondary reason for coming out. I try to find mystery shops that are available when I'm already going out somewhere to try to break the day up, earn a little money and get a few things that I need or want. With Christmas on the way and two children to buy for as well as a large family, there's always a reason to mystery shop and there's always something useful that I can pick up.

The first shop is an international clothing retailer and a multi-part assignment. This involves browsing two particular sections and measuring the service, using the fitting rooms and then the speed and service at the till. It's interesting and shopping for clothes is something I'm quite comfortable with. The fact that you get to browse, talk about clothes, try clothes on and buy clothes at someone else's expense is appealing to most people and I'm no exception. I also really like mystery shops where you have to use the fitting room. It gives me a chance to check my notes, jot down anything that I want to remember and gather my thoughts. It's a natural break in proceedings that you wouldn't ordinarily get.

This shop is known for it's good service (though not usually at the tills, where the queues are invariably long) and today is no exception.

Fee = £2.75
Reimbursement = £15.00
Spend = £15.99
Profit/Loss = +£1.76

The second shop is a higher-end sandwich and coffee eat-in establishment. This mystery shop is designed to measure the product availability and till service times during the lunchtime trade. At least two of every sandwich available and how long it takes to get served at the till.

It's a simple shop for the experienced mystery shopper and a free lunch.

Fee = £4.75
Reimbursement = £5.50
Spend = £10.51
Profit/Loss = -£0.26

The final assignment today comes under the broad category of beauty, as classifying it any further will probably give away who the client is, and I'm not allowed to do that. This type of mystery shop challenges different skills in the people I am assessing as it's a simple enquiry about looking for a gift for someone and then it's up to the staff member to ask probing questions, make a recommendation and conclude the sale. The team member was very good in talking through the potential variables-

• Budget
• Who it's for
• What they currently use
• How old they are
• What they like
• Gender

This makes the recommendation more personal and gives me as a customer more confidence in the product recommended.

Fee = £2.75
Reimbursement = £10.00
Spend = £25.99
Profit/Loss = -£13.24

All in all it was a good days mystery shopping and Christmas presents are stating to accumulate.

TOTAL = -£11.74 + clothing and beauty items and lunch for 2

Like what you read? Want to be a mystery shopper?

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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

Like what you read? Want to be a mystery shopper?

Check out my book on the Amazon Kindle store.