I just looked up some covert audits in my area. From what I can tell from reading the guidelines, you go into a drugstore or supermarket and have to check on 60 items. For this you get paid $30- so 50 cents an item. How do you do this without being "outed"? Is it worth it? I've never done one of these and am curious about it. Guidance from a more experienced shopper, please!

There are tons of useful threads on here about this. The majority feedback is to avoid these, with a few outliers saying they have figured out how to make these work. Here's a couple:

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

@FrugalCat wrote:

How do you do this without being "outed"?

You don't.

I've never done this shop, but it does not sound particularly fun. That's a lot of items, which means a lot more chances of something going wrong, maybe you forget something, etc.

Though I've not done this shop, I have done similar jobs. I find these type of jobs to be time-consuming, and often not worth the pay. If you can move at a pace of 30 seconds per item and not have any hiccups, you could be in and out in 30 minutes. Not a bad pay rate, but I think it would take longer to scan that many items. It is not for me.

Bigger stores with more customers decrease the likelihood of being outed. Doing the little conveience stores at gas stations where there will be one or two other people in the store when you're there greatly increase the likelihood someone will notice and ask you what you're doing. And wiith no LOA, you have to hope the employee will be cool with a vague 'doing pricing research' explanation.

I've done multiple audits of the same big store with hundreds of items to be checked. I'm sure employees knew I wasn't there to shop, but no one said anything to me. I stopped doing the shop as it was pretty time consuming and about a 40-minute drive.

too much work too little pay--- covert what a joke scouring the tore for items then taking pictures for a whopping 50 cents each! whoopie! I can make generational wealth doing these shops! Shop me up! LOL

wage slaves dont care often or notice. yeah i dont even do the phone shops. the number of photos requred in that small space is to much of a pain.

If anybody wants to try these, A good backstory is you're doing doordash or Uber eats or instacart etc. You can say that whatever was ordered wasn't available so you're waiting on the customer to advise and you're taking pictures of alternatives. That's usually enough.

@FrugalCat wrote:

I just looked up some covert audits in my area. From what I can tell from reading the guidelines, you go into a drugstore or supermarket and have to check on 60 items. For this you get paid $30- so 50 cents an item. How do you do this without being "outed"? Is it worth it? I've never done one of these and am curious about it. Guidance from a more experienced shopper, please!

If you’re referring to the same MSC that has the postal shops, I have some experience. I’ve completed the same covert location 5 times.

For the location that I complete, I am paid about 7 times the amount that you’ve been offered and I do it twice a month on an every other month schedule. The location is 36 miles one way from my home. It takes me about 2 hours in the truck stop to complete the 120 - 160 items that are in the audit.

When or if asked if I can be helped, I immediately reply with, I am comparing prices with other truck stops since I am an uber driver and often stop at gas stations on the way to the area that I work in. It usually strikes up a friendly conversation about rideshare driving and then I’m left alone for the remainder of my time in the store.

These prices are not scanned in but instead, entered by hand through the app on your phone. If the price matches what the company already has in their system, it takes no time to enter. If the product is on sale, you need to include the sale price. If there isn’t a price tag, you basically skip the item. If the product isn’t in the store, that’s another skipped item. For the skipped items, you’ll still need to select the reason why it was skipped.

The part that is the most time consuming is when I have to locate certain things in the actual truck part of the building. Sometimes those things are tricky to locate because what the app says for the description, isn’t what an item has on its price tag so you just do the best that you can. If you can’t find it, skip the item by saying it’s not carried at that location.

The schedulers that I have worked with, are amazing and so helpful. They completely understand that I may not be able to find certain items so they tell me to do the best that I can. They don’t expect me to stay in there forever. The app takes some time to get used to, but the schedules are wonderful about helping you while you’re in the store.

I hope this helps with your decision on whether they’re worth your time.

Note: I have never accepted any of the audits where you stay in the store for 8 hours earning $0.06 per item. I feel like those would be a bit more difficult to remain covert.

@misspocos75 wrote:

@FrugalCat wrote:

I just looked up some covert audits in my area. From what I can tell from reading the guidelines, you go into a drugstore or supermarket and have to check on 60 items. For this you get paid $30- so 50 cents an item. How do you do this without being "outed"? Is it worth it? I've never done one of these and am curious about it. Guidance from a more experienced shopper, please!

If you’re referring to the same MSC that has the postal shops, I have some experience. I’ve completed the same covert location 5 times.

For the location that I complete, I am paid almost 7 times the amount that you’ve been offered and I do it twice a month on an every other month schedule. The location is 36 miles one way from my home. It takes me about 2 hours in the truck stop to complete the 120 - 160 items that are in the audit.

When or if asked if I can be helped, I immediately reply with, I am comparing prices with other truck stops since I am an uber driver and often stop at gas stations on the way to the area that I work in. It usually strikes up a friendly conversation about rideshare driving and then I’m left alone for the remainder of my time in the store.

These prices are not scanned in but instead, entered by hand through the app on your phone. If the price matches what the company already has in their system, it takes no time to enter. If the product is on sale, you need to include the sale price. If there isn’t a price tag, you basically skip the item. If the product isn’t in the store, that’s another skipped item. For the skipped items, you’ll still need to select the reason why it was skipped.

The part that is the most time consuming is when I have to locate certain things in the actual truck part of the building. Sometimes those things are tricky to locate because what the app says for the description, isn’t what an item has on its price tag so you just do the best that you can. If you can’t find it, skip the item by saying it’s not carried at that location.

The schedulers that I have worked with, are amazing and so helpful. They completely understand that I may not be able to find certain items so they tell me to do the best that I can. They don’t expect me to stay in there forever. The app takes some time to get used to, but the schedules are wonderful about helping you while you’re in the store.

I hope this helps with your decision on whether they’re worth your time.

Note: I have never accepted any of the audits where you stay in the store for 8 hours earning $0.06 per item. I feel like those would be a bit more difficult to remain covert.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2024 05:07AM by misspocos75.