Market Intelligence wants ALOT of info, including the names of the companies I have signed up with so thay can get a reference on me. I did not see the https on them on the url. I did not sign up, kinda scared. I did sign up with Trendsource, Bare International, and Corporate Intelligence today. Any feed back from anyone on all these companies would be helpful. Also is there a way to find out who does what clients? Can I ask someone out here what company does for etc.. Walmart and other shops I might be interested in. Thanks

If you read through the ICA you signed off on with any company, there is an indication that you will not reveal confidential information. Some companies are very specific that it includes client names, but obviously no company wants you broadcasting who their clients are. In a forum situation the general rule is not to name the client in the same thread where the company is discussed (or vice versa). Often you can pick up hints about who may be shopping whom. But for starters, although I understand Walmart may have some in house shoppers in CA, generally the shops you see will be of other vendors who rent space in Walmart. Thus I have seen cell phone shops there, the photo developing, the tax preparation, the banks, the McDonalds that (at least in my market) have space there, etc. From time to time you may see a shop of a person who is supposed to be there at a given time doing product demonstrations. I have also done shops at Walmart as competitor shops. But Walmart itself shopping Walmart I have not seen.

Yes, I understand Flash. I really was'nt even interested in Walmart, that was just an example. Bet that one would be a pain anyways I bet! So how would you get the hints without breaking the rules? ETC. there are companies that do clothing store for the teens and adults at malls and outlets, such as first letter and last letter AE,HR,GP,TS,Po,JW. I know,maybe hard to figure out. Hey it's cool if you dont want to respond, like I have said before, alot of the companies will show you who their clients are before u register, then others dont. Love doing the shopping, but hate all the rules. I was on one site where they told me I was not even to tell my husband or child I was a mystery shopper.
Can not remember which one, but I left their sight. And allways, thank you for your help.

Charlene, As you read the forum more, it becomes easier to pick up on hints. Start a list, if you haven't already, with a column for MSPs and a column for clients. Update it when MSPs gain/lose clients. As an example, you may read a post referencing a burger shop that is now shopped by the MSP who used to have the drug store. Then, look at your list to see who had the drug store to find out who now has the burger joint.

For me, it's of more benefit when the MSP has been named.

Generally folks get a little cryptic, such as "I was on the site and picked up some X shops and saw they had some Y ones as well." If you know who does the X shops (or the Y for that matter) you know they also have the other client. I would definitely not be a good candidate for mall clothing stores as I generally stay away from the retail malls. Shops there are likely to be low paying and way too many of them are purchase and return shops, which is like doing two shops for the price of one with no extra benefit at all.

Yea, I have done some mall shops and the the most I got paid for was $25.00 and had to return the high price item in 20 minutes, but it was easy.

Since you are a super star member, I would assume you have a gold or silver MSAP certificate? Is it worth the money to become a silver or gold?

Super Star Member is only a designation of numbers of posts. It has nothing to do with certifications of any kind. Certification has been often discussed here, sometimes it's quite lively! If you don't want to search and read further, my opinion in a nutshell - No, it is not worth paying for certification.

No, and in fact I am adamantly opposed to the selling of certifications. My personal reaction is that any kind of certification in any field represents a knowledge base to give you proficiency in the field of endeavor. My understanding is that the silver for $15 is little more than a proof you can read as it is common sense stuff about obligations of shoppers that can be obtained from reading through the information of any company you sign up with. Even the MSPA on their website states that certification MAY get you consideration where "All other things are equal" between you and other shoppers applying for the same job. Private conversations with gold certified friends who shop adjacent areas a few years back indicated they saw the same shops I saw. By far the more valuable approach is to do good work for the companies you work with and they will look forward to working with you again.

Of course certification is controversial. There have been many many discussions of it on this and other forums. My personal opinion is that it is very much like the Emperor's New Clothes.

I got silver for $15 when I first started to shop believing it would be required. It isn't and if I knew then what I know now, I would have saved the $15. My son shops, without silver, and he sees and gets the same shops I do. I don't plan to do the Gold.

Thanks for for your input. I noticed on the 'What I did today board', that alot of people do alot of shops in one day. And if I recall correctly Flash and AustinMom are 2 of them. Where do you find the time to do them all, fill out your reports etc.. I did 2 in one day and thought I was going to go crazy. Also on Jobslinger do you have any feed back on this IC Pro? I was just looking at it and thought I would see if its worth my time filling out the info, it's free but thay want you to fill out a W9. Oh, one more thing, Market Intelligence, any info I may like to hear about? They what ALOT of info, including the companies I do shops for. Is that legal to tell another company that info?
Look forward for anyones input!

There is a long thread (or perhaps two) on IC Pro from fairly recently. It is not something I have chosen to get entangled with.

You will find that the first couple of times you do a particular report it is very time consuming. I remember spending more than an hour agonizing over a multiple choice grocery report that I now can complete in under 5 minutes. The same holds true for narrative reports. You want to get it right and different companies want different things, at least to some extent, in their narratives. One you have the hang of the report and know that what you are presenting is keeping them happy, future reports fly.

I'm not sure who you mean by Market Intelligence. If you are referring to Market Force Intelligence, they have a lot of shops all around the country because they are one of the better financed companies that can take on large clients with thousands of locations. Their pay tends to be on the low side but their reports are super easy and they have some clients that are real gems. It is not at all unusual for a company to ask you what other companies you are signed up with. This is not for referrals but rather to document that you are indeed an Independent Contractor rather than an employee. I usually list 4 or 5 by name and mention I am registered with more than 200 companies. That should perfectly well satisfy their regulatory needs. It is perfectly legal to tell them what other companies you work for, just not the clients you have shopped for those other companies.

Very nice Flash, I think you should become a Public Repesi
dentive or a CPA. No, It is Market Intelligence, AKA MVENTIX ,or Integrity Marketing, that is why I was getting so confused why they were using so many AKS's. Also I have noticed some shoppers telling who the client they have worked for, not the company but the shop. Is that legal? You know me by now , just trying to keep up with the right info. Sorry if I misspelled a word or two, I'm tired and do not have spell check.

Pace yourself and increase/decrease the number of shops in a day as is comfortable for you. Early on, I thought 3 groceries and a fast casual restaurant in one day was overwhelming. Depending on the shops and my familiarity with them, I can comfortably do more than that now. However, the shops that pay more, require more time in reports. For instance, fine dining assignments take longer to report than a sports bar.

Regarding misspellings ~ ~ ~ Firefox has a built in spell checker. As you type, if your misspell, the word is underlined in red. It's a browser that is friendly with most MSPs, and it does a fine job of remembering, and pre-filling user names and passwords.

What you can do in a particular thread (chain of posts) is mention EITHER the company or the client, but not both. Now in this thread we have already named a bunch of companies, so to be on the safe side I would only mention other companies. At the same time, a different thread might be discussing various shops so it would be appropriate to mention clients but be cautious about mentioning any companies. What is truly a problem in a forum setting is someone who comes on and states "I shopped for Joe's Tires, Crystal Brix and Bank of the North Pole today for Grab Those Shops." Or "Have you seen that now Grab Those Shops now has shops for Joe's Tires, Crystal Brix and Bank of the North Pole?" Unfortunately these are often folks who only post once or twice and they are gone, so no amount of requesting that they edit their post to conform with the thread is going to do any good. This is mostly an unmoderated forum, which is what makes it fantastic most of the time but potentially a problem when folks start violating their ICAs.

As for MVentix, I signed up with them a few years back when they were paying well, including mileage, for some work. They never had that work in my area and soon after stopped paying mileage, I believe. They are primarily a merchandising company.