They know you are a shopper when you ask for the in store receipt for a small purchase. Also....I love the printed price of 99 cents on the Arizona Iced Tea cans, when the store then charges $1.59-$1.79 for them...

@salisburync wrote:

They know you are a shopper when you ask for the in store receipt for a small purchase.

Untrue. My parents save all of their receipts because they are self employed photographers.

Once in a while, for a really small purchase, I might say something like "Can I get the receipt? I gotta keep track of everything!" with a heavy sigh, like it's a burden to budget. But to be honest, most cashiers don't care.

The msytery shop portion is over by the time I ask for a receipt. Nothing after that counts. After having done so many, asking for a small receipt really is no big deal any more. I just say may I and please and act as if it perfectly normal and expected.

@salisburync wrote:

They know you are a shopper when you ask for the in store receipt for a small purchase. Also....I love the printed price of 99 cents on the Arizona Iced Tea cans, when the store then charges $1.59-$1.79 for them...

Not really. I know people all the time that scan their receipts.. So what's the difference if I ask for a receipt for an $ 1.50 item or a receipt for $ 10,00 worth of items?


The other day at I was at Wal-mart and I saw a bag of peanuts. The bag had .99 cents but the self tag had $ 1.39 I had the cashier to do a price check and they scanned 1.39..


I asked the cashier if I get this bag, may I get it for .99 cents and she said YES

@shopnyc wrote:

Once in a while, for a really small purchase, I might say something like "Can I get the receipt? I gotta keep track of everything!" with a heavy sigh, like it's a burden to budget. But to be honest, most cashiers don't care.

The other day I was some place (Non mystery shop) and I bought something and I asked the cashier for the receipt please because I like to keep track of all of my purchases Yes most cashiers don't care

I had a convenience store cashier who gave me a hard time, two weeks in a row, about asking for my receipt for a small purchase. He rolled his eyes and told me I was wasting paper. I reported it, and never saw him again.

Ok, I HATE Circle K policy of posting a cheaper price and then charging you more at the register and not honoring the shelf price. That is incredibly shady to me. You can mark down items that you are clearancing but you can't honor a MARKED price. I have started adding notes sometimes to the bottom of my report about it, especially if I don't say anything. Some of the "low-class" workers (some not all and I'm basically trying to be nice) get snotty, or rude, etc when you tell them an item rang up the wrong price. The grocery store and Walmart at least TRY to honor prices when possible. If not for the coffee subscription and mystery shops I'd much rather go to Sheetz or Quick Trip than any Circle K because of how dirty they are and the poor service they provide.
I think the 1 dollar purchase and 2 dollar gas purchase (green gas station) is absolutely HORRIBLE! who the heck buys $2 dollars worth of gas nowadays?? No one unless it's for the lawnmower or weed eater! At least Exxon gives you 5 dollars worth of gas. Phillips 66 and Shell have a better concept of mystery shop and reimbursement than ANY of the other brands. We always go over on BOTH. We buy a gallon of gas (which is 3.30 here) at BP and Valero etc. I can't eat peanuts because of my teeth and my husband is tired of peanuts so that purchase is impossible.
I refuse to pay the new water bottle prices of 2 dollars. The most I will pay is the 2 for $3 Dasani. I refuse to pay 1.79 + for a can of viennas. I don't know of ANY gas stations in my state that sell ramen noodles for less than a dollar and they are the 36-cent kind!
Some times I'd just rather go to Quik Trip and pay the 2 dollars for the coffee and the 3.50 for dogs because the service is better, the store/RR is cleaner, and the food is fresher! The dogs are cheaper, fresher and they have more variety of choices and they almost ALWAYS have jalepeno' dogs or buffalo chicken. Circle K will leave food in the warmer till it's hard and crispy and then still try to charge you full price.

And you can use the QT App and get all those deals and occasional freebies. Too bad QT is not shopped.

There is a Texaco I do and the owners are a husband and wife. Every time I ask for the receipt for the $1.01 Arizona drink, she points to it and says: "For just that?" Then she speaks in her native tongue to her husband who looks over at me. So, this last time after that same statement she always makes, I really over spent, because they had a basket of navel oranges. They looked so good. I knew...I asked how much and they said they were 2 for $3.00. I just stared at them, longingly. The man said: "Or $2.00 for one, it's a good price!" I said: "It's a good price for you, not me." But I ended up taking two. At least they were good, very good.

Purple piece I love that. I WOULD never allow myself to pay 2 dollars for an orange. I would never eat oranges again! LOL

i've also noticed a lot of places have upsized the peanuts now. slightly bigger package for 1.09 or 1.19. annoying. i hope .69 isn't being phased out everywhere. i do usually eventually eat the peanuts(as long as they're honey roasted, or dry roasted... salted are too boring), but the lollipops go to waste. asking for a receipt for lollipops feels even sillier. buying a lollipop as a grown man feels silly anyway. i agree, they should raise reimbursement.

jay225 opines--.......they should raise reimbursement.

Bob's comment--Not until shoppers stop accepting the current sum.

isn't this one of the shops that allows you to leave a comment for the MSC? Maybe we should all start leaving a the comment that "it is impossible to find anything that fits the in store purrchase for the alloted reimbursement.
Therefore it should be raised."

@shopperbob wrote:

jay225 opines--.......they should raise reimbursement.

Bob's comment--Not until shoppers stop accepting the current sum.

I make similar comments "Have to keep track of my spending." I sometimes say I have a rebate for an item or have to scan my receipt into Fetch rewards and I've had several cashiers know about Fetch.

@shopnyc wrote:

Once in a while, for a really small purchase, I might say something like "Can I get the receipt? I gotta keep track of everything!" with a heavy sigh, like it's a burden to budget. But to be honest, most cashiers don't care.

As another shopper did, I would buy the lollipops and then just put them back. I have put in the comments numerous times with one gas brand to request that the client raise the reimbursement, but it hasn't increased in the 16 years I've been shopping.

@jay225 wrote:

i've also noticed a lot of places have upsized the peanuts now. slightly bigger package for 1.09 or 1.19. annoying. i hope .69 isn't being phased out everywhere. i do usually eventually eat the peanuts(as long as they're honey roasted, or dry roasted... salted are too boring), but the lollipops go to waste. asking for a receipt for lollipops feels even sillier. buying a lollipop as a grown man feels silly anyway. i agree, they should raise reimbursement.

If they say anything about asking for a receipt, I always say I use the app Fetch. They are happy to give it to me then.

@salisburync wrote:

They know you are a shopper when you ask for the in store receipt for a small purchase. Also....I love the printed price of 99 cents on the Arizona Iced Tea cans, when the store then charges $1.59-$1.79 for them...

So yesterday, I did a shop where they had discounted chips for $0.99 each. Now, I don't often eat potato chips, thus hardly ever purchase them, but I did this time.
It was near lunch and I thought I would try some and then feed the remainder to the squirrels.
Bad idea! I ate a few - they were very, very hot! Last night and this morning I am now paying for it. I threw them away - they were not squirrel food.

They were Ghost Pepper chips.

French Farmer, you are funny! LOL. Ok, so those chips are something I'd be willing to try IF they were not kettle cooked! But I would expect them to be SUPER hot, even to me and I eat hot food. I LOVE Church's stuffed peppers (when they aren't overcooked) I've eaten Wendy's jalepeno' popper salad, Buffalo chicken hot dogs, etc. I put hot sauce on meat, greens, and french fries. I'd be scared to try the ghost pepper jerky- I could probably only eat a few bites and save the rest for later because of the tremendous heat.