So, are there any other liberals here who occasionally become frustrated with the fact that most mystery shops are for really conservative companies? Do you have any recommendations for finding clients with more liberal leanings?

I'm of the mindset that, if I don't want to patronize a business, then I won't do a shop there either. Whether it be for political, personal or whatever other reason it may be. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find an MSC that caters more towards liberaler clients. For most, money talks, regardless of political persuasion. I say just pass over the clients you don't want and move on.

I hadn't noticed that the MSC's I represent have political leanings. And I really don't care. All I want are shops I like and can make money from. How have you determined that most of them have conservative leanings?

This forum is free of politics.

@LIJake wrote:

I hadn't noticed that the MSC's I represent have political leanings. And I really don't care. All I want are shops I like and can make money from. How have you determined that most of them have conservative leanings?

I'm not talking about the MSCs; I'm talking about the clients themselves. It is very easy to find out what causes a major corporation primarily donates to, where their items are sourced, how they treat their employees in general, how they treat gays or other large groups of people, whether they have been known to use sweat shops, et cetera. It is a bit harder to find this out about the MSCs, though researching the backgrounds of their founders and higher-ups can sometimes give you a pretty good idea of where the money goes.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2015 02:18AM by OceanGirl.

Tangentially, there is an ongoing shop in which your political mail is forwarded to an MSC for purposes unknown to me.

When I shop a client I am there to do a job and earn money. I could care less if they are conservative or liberal.

If I were conservative, I guess that I'd be happy to take their money knowing that I'm helping them grow and do more good.
If I were liberal, I guess that I'd be happy to take their money knowing that they'd have less of it to invest in doing bad.
But I'm a mystery shopper, so I'm just happy to take their money.

I've never really considered a company's political leanings when considering it for an assignment. I have done shops (mainly banks) which I may have had unfavorable dealings with in another area of banking during a previous, unrelated profession, but I never let it enter my judgment and reporting of how the bank handled my inquiry.

Aa someone who tries to shop local, non-chain joints, I wonder if I'm selling my soul to the devil a bit sometimes, though.

@elcarev68 wrote:

But I'm a mystery shopper, so I'm just happy to take their money.

This is who I am, for the most part, but that doesn't mean I can't client-shop to somewhat better suit my preferences. The way I see it, even if I am working for a primarily conservative client, that doesn't reflect the opinions of most of their workforce, and I have the chance to potentially make a positive contribution regardless of where I shop. I don't mean any disrespect to those of you who shop for conservative clients or who just don't give it much thought. Lord knows, I've shopped for conservative clients and will probably continue to shop for some of them. I just wanted to know if anybody else has found any helpful tricks, like looking for MSCs in certain areas or who do specific kinds of shops. Maybe there are some people here who know for a fact that X, Y, or Z MSC owners have certain leanings and are fairly transparent about it. PMs are okay if nobody wants to post it here.

As long as they're legal I'm good.

@retrodaddy wrote:

I've never really considered a company's political leanings when considering it for an assignment. I have done shops (mainly banks) which I may have had unfavorable dealings with in another area of banking during a previous, unrelated profession, but I never let it enter my judgment and reporting of how the bank handled my inquiry.

Aa someone who tries to shop local, non-chain joints, I wonder if I'm selling my soul to the devil a bit sometimes, though.

I think people in most professions are going to wonder that. We all have to decide for ourselves whether or not we like what we're doing. In my case, I think I'm doing more good than harm...or at least, I hope I am. I definitely have seen the results of my work pay off in very satisfying ways, even with conservative clients, and I enjoy what I do, so I plan to keep doing it. In the future, though, I might want to start replacing one or two regular clients with others. I think we're all within our personal rights to attempt this.

@bgriffin wrote:

This forum is free of politics.

I wasn't aware of that. If that's an official rule, could we get it added to the Posting Guidelines?

If you can't do the job without your personal politics interfering, then you should skip that one and look for another. There are situations that exist where our own personal biases cannot be overcome. As a mystery shopper, I want to help clients run their businesses better. If there is a business that I would prefer to see fail, I cannot objectively shop them, and won't.

When I'm spending my own money, I'm more choosy about the businesses I support because where your money goes, matters. I don't shop [a particular coffee chain] on my own dime, but have no problem evaluating them, and my reports show no bias toward them. It is not my role when mystery shopping to try to influence their politics. That does matter, though, with my own money.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2015 03:05AM by MrEToomey.

@bgriffin wrote:

This forum is free of politics.

Ya right!

@LIJake wrote:

When I shop a client I am there to do a job and earn money. I could care less if they are conservative or liberal.

I could care less if the establishment is displaying a cross or waving a rainbow flag or a rainbow-colored cross. It is all about the Benjamins.

@MDavisnowell wrote:

As long as they're legal I'm good.

I've shopped establishments with illegal practices.

I'm with you. While practices are often hidden, in many instances if I disagree with a company's practices I will definitely not patronize them personally and often will not complete mystery shops for them.

The politics free zone is an unofficial rule which has resulted in less conflict. I'm not sure your initial post would really qualify other than the reference to liberals. Unless of course we are assuming conservatives won't put their money where their mouth is and refuse to patronize businesses they deem to liberal

I purely focus on the job at hand. For instance, a certain petroleum company caused a huge environmental disaster, yet I complete many audits for them. Do I go there on my own dime? No. But when I'm working I do the best job possible for them, because it's a matter of pride to do good work. I don't give them my money but I see no reason they can't give me theirs.

Good point. I actually frequent a local BP station, but never buy gas there. I learned that most gas stations are locally owned and make their money off the convenience store anyway.

There are a few businesses in my area who have tried to impose their religious and political notions on others and I would not shop them any more than I would go there personally. But not to worry, the Almighty has made them so perfect they don't need to do shops.

Taking a break to clean off the wine I just spit all over my monitor

So apparently both politics AND religion are ok topics now?

apparently

Let;s invite Trump to the party, he goes both ways.

Lets not. He might drop his toupee in LisaSTL's wine and we would never hear the end of it.

Let me get this straight, then. I'm chastised as a new poster for daring to imply that the healthcare bill was passed without reading, but it's okay for certain long-term posters to make disparaging comments about other people's religious and political choices? Different rules for different people, eh? Sounds like a certain political party.

MrEToomey, yes, there are different rules for different people. For example, KimCarvente can post a thread called "North Fork Yuk" and it stands. I post a thread called "KimCarvente Yuk" and it gets deleted. So you see, it is OK to yuk an MSC but it is not OK to yuk a forum member who yuks an MSC. This is one example of the strangeness here. But I do believe that kind of application of rules is a lot of fun because it is so surprising like for example finding fudge inside your ice cream.

In this particular case, I suspect that the two or three members who usually kindly reprimand us for straying into political and religious issues haven't noticed this thread yet. I don't think it's really a rule that we can't talk about political and religious issues. I believe it actually is some sort of agreement but I'm not sure because the standard was established before my arrival. It is probably best we don't discuss politics and religion as those are both topics on which most of us are firmly fixed in our positions no matter how wrong we may be and we are likely to be unkind to one another at some point.

I do sympathize with your feeling of being unfairly treated but I encourage you to forget your pain and see if you can figure out some way to irritate the person who irritated you, not that I know who that was or care. Although we are here to support one another (I hope) it never hurts to instigate a little mischief for the entertainment factor.

I shop companies whose products I would never buy, for a variety of reasons, and feel completely unconflicted about it.

The one thing I will say, though, is that if a local company is using shoppers, I'm in. I don't wait for bonuses and I'll go out of my way to shop them, even if it's reimbursement only, because I want to help that local chain compete. So I guess if the owners were supporting causes I didn't believe in, that wouldn't be the case.

MrEToomey - you are correct about the health care bill. That said, I don't care about the political leanings of a company. MS is a business not a lifestyle.