This morning, I did some mystery shopping. Two different Lowe’s stores were on my list. Mystery shopping, by the way, is great because it gets a mother and her child out of the house and on a mission. Plus, it pays you to do it!
photo by kylacovert
As I entered the first one, I was feeling a bit anxious. I had never done a job at a Lowe’s before and there seemed to be a lot of things I needed to remember.
Some of my assignments included, observing 2 customers checking out, asking for help in the locks department, and getting close to 6 different employees to see if they would greet me within 2 minutes
I found myself needing to put my spying and acting abilities to good use. (“Spy” was one of my favorite games as a child.)
I began “looking” at some bags of charcoal while observing one customer checkout, and tediously “studied” a bag of m&m’s in the cancy aisle while observing another.
It is an interesting process being a mystery shopper. Sometimes it is quite thrilling and at other times I feel quite nervous as though they are going to catch me and say something like, “Ah-hah! I’ve caught you!”
I find myself hovering in corners, quickly writing down someone’s name, hair color, and whether they wore glasses or not.
Today, I snuck up beside a man who was up on one of those machines that raises you up high. He was indeed way up at the top of one of the shelves stocking. I doubted that he would notice me as I quietly “looked” at patio lights below.
Sure enough within 30 seconds I heard a voice squeak down from above, “Can I help you find anything, ma’am?”
How did he know I was even there?
Needless to say, I found myself wanting to whistle while in both Lowe’s stores. And that is pretty amazing for me. Most stores give me a deer in the headlights feeling.
Today, as I careened my son through the two stores secretivly writing on my many times folded up piece of paper (that I hid under my hand wrapped around the stroller handle, btw), I felt happy.
I kept getting greeted by many sincerely happy people. They smiled, even joked with me, and it wore off on me. I left both stores happier than when I arrived.
I realized I learned some things from shopping at Lowe’s today.
1. You can dictate (to a certain degree) how those around you will feel by how you feel. If you are cheerful, you spread cheer.
2. Lowe’s is doing something right. Their employees seem truly happy to be there and, therefore, are happy to serve. I was therefore a happy customer. I think more companies need to do what they are doing.
3. A smile can change the course of your whole day.
4. Having a big picture keeps you on track. I didn’t feel nearly as distracted as I normally do in stores. I had a mission that I needed to accomplish and it kept me moving and focused. Same with life. 😉
5. I kind of like being a spy, and I don’t know what that means.
Question: What did you learn from your interesting day?
That sounds wonderful – my brother used to do mystery shopping. I’ve always wanted to do it. I learned that I am just a tiny bit smarter than I thought since I was able to figure some things out on my computer that are different from my old one!
Your smartness surprised you huh Ann?! I love when that happens!! 🙂
Yea, it has worked out great for us, I’m thankful for the opportunity to get out of the house and make a little extra money at the same time.
That’s awesome Claudia. I’ve done a few mystery shops before. Hearing from someone else doing it is interesting.
Joe,
It’s funny. I’ve heard of mystery shopping in the past but never thought much of it. Then a friend, Chris Peek, mentioned he does it and how you can make decent money if you do it right.
So, I’ve been doing some as well to supplement our income for a bit. It works great with my current schedule!
That’s pretty awesome Michael. I’ve done it just for the fun of it. It’s pretty cool what you can get out of mystery shopping: Cash, food, products, oil changes, etc…
Hmm… There must be some psycho-alalytical answer as to why you love to spy. Perhaps as a young girl, you didn’t do well in the game of Hide-n-Seeek and were always found out. Now that you are an adult, you relish the fact that you can hide. 😉
Or maybe it is that actress within you!! 🙂
Hahaha Annette,
That is hilarious. I do remember hiding in trees…Funny, I also remember sitting in top of the grate on the 2nd floor at our house in Leola and listening in on our parents visiting. I remember seeing your mom through the grate. I felt so cool.
I have a vague memory of your grate! But I have very strong memories of your “pinch chair”! 😉
Spying was also one of my favorite childhood games!
Oh yes… the pincher chair. That one lived in the Everett household for a very long time. In fact, I think I just sat on it yesterday when I was out at my parents 😉
haha! My cousins and I used to do this too! When we were at my aunt and uncles place we all lay in a circle around the grate and listen in for any juicy news 🙂
Hahah Crystal!!! It was the best game ever!! Always felt soooo cool and sneaky. They probably knew we were there all along!
Hey Cool, Never done it, but that sounds really fun! BTW, I really like Lowes, and Yes, they have very friendly people 🙂
Rob,
It’s been a great way for us to bring in a little extra money. Love that I can pick and choose where and when 😉
Yea, I was super impressed with Lowes!
Where is the best place to sign up for mystery shopping?
I’m curious about this myself.
Brent,
Here’s what I responded to @RyanKeggenberger:disqus with. If you think you might want to give it a try, let me know. I can give you a few more pointers and talk more details.
If you know what you’re doing a get a system down, it can workout pretty well.
We now signed up with 3 different companies (each mystery shopping company works with many stores). It works best to group shops together and this is done most easily when you combine more than one company.
The one we got started with and still use most frequently is http://www.mysteryshops.com/
The second is http://www.ritterassociates.com/ which we’ve only done a few, but they’ve been going well.
The third is http://mventix.com/ Haven’t actually gone all the way through the signup/tests yet.
Michael, where r u from? Are those websites the same for the Chicago area? In Chicago we have theft outfits who target stores and they are very hard to stop cuz there are so many of them. I always wanted to be a secret shopper.
Ryan,
We now signed up with 3 different companies (each mystery shopping company works with many stores). It works best to group shops together and this is done most easily when you combine more than one company.
The one we got started with and still use most frequently is http://www.mysteryshops.com/
The second is http://www.ritterassociates.com/ which we’ve only done a few, but they’ve been going well.
The third is http://mventix.com/ Haven’t actually gone all the way through the signup/tests yet.
If you think you might want to give it a try, let me know. I can give you a few more pointers and talk more details.
Chris Peek gave me the lowdown on his mystery shopping experience and I signed up with 3 different companies he had used. I got registered and all, took the “training”, but I can see there should be some logistics involved to make it pan out. Chris recommended grouping several together as you mentioned, however, when I figured up the mileage and the amount of payment per shop, it seemed like I about break even. I still get the emails, so maybe some better shops will pop up in my area.
Michael,
Chris is awesome! 🙂
Hmmmm, are you in a really rural area?For us, there are so many places right close by that we can do the same as Chris does… lump a lot of them together. It works really well this way, but if you have to drive really far I can see how it wouldn’t be worth it.
Michael also coordinates them with his teaching schedule and will pick jobs right in the area where he is teaching that day. If you work from home however, that would’t really work would it? 😉
The jobs do pay more the longer they are up… so if you check again your numbers might be higher.
We are semi-rural; about 10 to 15 miles from most large stores in any given direction. I saw some Lowe’s (15 miles) paying around $10 or so, and I figured driving to the store would cost me about $8 in gas alone, so I can see the economies of scale here in the lumping together.
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Quit lyin to people and get a real job your secret shoppers cost five Lowe’s in our areas over 200000 in losses this quarter not including what we pay you and YOU are loosing real Americans jobs and putting America further into debt you bumb.
OOOH sounds like so much fun
I am a secret shopper at lowes in Lafayette replying to this forum. I am setting up a time on Thursday Feb 22nd. 4p.m
I am switching my time to come in at 5pm Feb 22nd. I had originally set it up for an interview at 4pm but am pushing it back and hour!
Sorry it took so long to respond I h ad a family emergencies. If its still available when would u like me to start?
I will do the 1 tp 3am at Meijer! thank u so much!