End of the month

Hello everyone! I am very new, I’ve only completed 4 shops in the 2 weeks I’ve been signed up. My question is, is the end of the month usually very slow? I am in Pennsylvania the suburbs outside Philadelphia and there is like nothing. Do you guys typically sign up for all the shops in the beginning of the month and just do it like that? I am confused because I know a lot of companies will give a bonus the longer it sits so it’s confusing. Sorry if this doesn’t make sense.

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It may be that you are not signed up with enough MS companies to see a more consistent flow of available shops. Some MS companies may have only a few clients with very popular shops in your area. If that is the case, their shops would not last until the end of the month.

As a rule of thumb, on any day when you wanted to shop but see no shops offered that appeal to you, sign up with 5 more MS companies. The forum has a list of over 100 legitimate companies.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

When I first started this is what I did.

I copied the Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies and pasted it into an Excel spreadsheet. I then parsed them and sorted them by the number of discussions for each company. I then started signing up for the most discussed MSCs figuring, the more discussions, the more activity/shops they had.

It served me well and kept me signed up for the companies that had the most shops while I signed up for the ones that only had occasional shops in my area.

As a few have posted above you need to sign up for more companies.

I’m signed up for 67 of the listed companies and on average a month pick up 20-25 shops from my version of top 10 MSCs. A good portion is route shopping.

I can’t speak to the area of Pennsylvania you live in but when I checked 5 MSCs all five have shops available with varying pay/reimbursements listed.

If the area you live in has common franchise
fast food shops or restaurants, storage companies, and gas stations I’m positive there are shops available.

Welcome Nicoleb1985!
Quite the opposite is true. End of month is generally when most shops are available and is also when the good bonuses are offered. I have 18 local shops scheduled for the last three days of this month, and I do not have space on my schedule for even one more shop this month.

I like to schedule shops for the entire month at the beginning of the month as much as possible. I started applying for March shops yesterday (2/28). If you are not finding shops at EOM, then you likely do not have access to enough clients or are shopping in the wrong locale.

Welcome Nicole. I also see that is very quiet right now in my area. There are shops but mostly gas stations which I just haven't worked my way up to yet. I am also new but have completed about 80 shops in the past couple of months. As others have said, when it is slow, I just look for more companies to sign up with. I lost track of how many I am now signed up with and need to update my list! But tonight I signed up with 3 more, one had some good stuff while the other 2 had nothing as of now. Wishing you much success.

I'm fully booked for the end of the month, actually wishing my husband would take a vacation day or two so I could work from sun up to bed time as the bonuses are very enticing.

As others have said, sign up for more companies. Try Servimer.... they have work in Philly. (In my opinion) the pay : work ratio is satisfactory and they pay on time EVERY month. Very easy to communicate with as well.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2023 01:09AM by luckygirl0100.

Some shops are WEEKLY like 5 guys burgers. I would say the majority of the shops are only monthly.

It all depends on where you live, how far you are wanting to drive and which shops you prefer to do. I live in a big city. This time of the month there are not many current shops but many of the msc have already posted their March shops and many have already been taken. Here where I live there are few bonuses. There are tons of shops here and evidently tons of shoppers as well and most go for base pay. Even the ones still available now on the 26th are mostly still at base pay. If you are in a suburb that is close to the city the city shoppers may take those. But yes keep signing up for new companies and at some point you will strike one that has shops in your area.

Yeah, I find just the opposite to be true with most Mystery Shopping companies. I'm going to do 5 shops today minimum.... That is a lot for me.

Just be cool folks.

Oh, wow. If you're not signed up to PrestoInstaMap, please do. They show literally hundreds of shops in Philly and surrounding areas. It's an aggregate of MSCs that use the SASSIE reporting platform. I use the map feature to find shops in my area, then sign up for that particular MSC.

Welcome to the forum, and good luck.

I started in December and have done 12+ shops. To each his own - but as of now I've only taken one shop for March. I learned the hard way, AND on this board that the fee for shops goes higher with time. Of course, risk is someone else taking it. Again, everyone has their own budgets and priorities.

For me, - - the base fee isn't my thing. I am fine waiting for a few bumps in the fee. Of course - last month I missed out on a shop or two due to this - BUT in far more shops, I got higher fees by waiting. Case in point - dealerships. I did one last month for $30 without thinking. Within a week after that - the same shop, same location was $45 - -and by end of month - $80+.

BabyBooey,
End of quarter bonuses for quarterly shops may be even higher. Iff those shops do not get grabbed earlier in the quarter. Happy MSing!

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

car shops in Erie PA went from $40 on Jan 24 to $120 on 2/28 this year.

shopping north west PA and south west ny

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/2023 04:30PM by cooldude581.

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End of the month

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