Restaurants vary. For fast food you will be ordering what they require you to order: dine in, 1 figgy burger, fries and a medium soda; drive thru, 1 foggy burger combo with medium poison. If you order what you are required to order, your shop is likely to be accepted and you will be paid your small fee and reimbursed up to a maximum. Except in expensive markets the reimbursement is usually enough to cover.
For most casual dining the order requirements tend to be a little more open ended. My favorite one is a restaurant shop for 2 people. We are required to order either an appetizer or a dessert to share, 2 different entrees (at least one of which must include a yummy house specialty) and beverages. We are required to tip 15% and our maximum reimbursement is $45. We must tip at least 15% or the shop may be disallowed and anything over 15% is not reimbursed. While we could spend more than $45, we will only be reimbursed $45 and in reality our standard tab is in the $38-42 dollar range. There is no fee for this job, so if we spend $26 dollars and have met the requirements, that is what we will see back and if we spend $58 we will only see back $45.
There are casual dining shops out there that do not reimburse enough to cover the cost of requirements, even if you go to the lowest price items on the menu. You get burned by one of those you likely will not do it again. And in fact you are unlikely to trust the company that puts out such a job. Normally you can look up the restaurant prices on line before you commit to the shop and you know up front how much the reimbursement is likely to be. I remember one that offered $40 for lunch for 2. On line it looked like that could be done. Only after accepting the job did I see the outrageous purchase requirements. We could not get out of there for under $60. We did the shop anyway, it was awful. The loud and unpleasant experience has made it really easy to resist the temptation of that shop even with a bonus.
There are casual dining where there is a small fee in addition to reimbursements.
As with casual dining, fine dining comes with more and less specific order requirements and budgets.
As for whether it is worth it . . . what do you see as a 'profit'? I.e., what are your goals? I could fix dinner at home for well under $45, so a restaurant shop where I need to lay out that kind of money is unnecessary. On the other hand we enjoy the dinner and I don't find the report to be a hassle. I sort of think of writing the report instead of fixing dinner and doing dishes.
I generally don't mess with fast food shops even though they often pay more than casual dining. I neither need nor want the food and in real life would not darken their doorstep.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2010 01:53AM by Flash.