SoCal companies still shopped?

The Southern California diner chain where “life happens 24/7” with the orange big N sign and the discount bulk grocer with the red sign where every purchase is Intelligent&Lasting —I used to shop these frequently. Has anyone seen these lately?

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1. No, but how they didn’t know that my son and I weren’t the shoppers is quite a mystery.

2. Haven’t seen them done in years. I used to pick those up everywhere.

I have a pancake chain shop tonight. I am so excited and craving diner breakfast. It’s my first ever shop of this establishment.

yes, the "big N" just opened a location in vegas. I never did one of those shops, but went with a buddy who did them. I was amazed at how long the report was for that dump. I know they had good breakfast, but i can't remember the last time i stepped foot in one of the locations. same goes for Denny's and the others.

Fart and Smile? yeah, those grocery shops were on a Sassie MSC for a long time and then went somewhere else briefly and then went away altogether.

I remember doing the Ruby's locations with the same MSC. I want to say they had Lucille's too unless I'm confusing MSC.

It's been many years since I did one of the "big N" shops, but both my gust and I got sick afterwards, and so I put that client to rest. I do remember the report being somewhat obnoxious as well @hbbigdaddy

The big "N" is the restaurant that the server and manager ganged up on me and got me deactivated by the MSC, the very FIRST restaurant shop I ever did. I like that bulk grocer you speak of HB, it was one of my favorite stores to shop at on my own dime. I never got to do a mystery shop there. I think I'm jealous.. Here we have a similar type of store called Gordon's, and I've only been inside the store once, but we're in the parking lot about once per week.

Some of the "big N" would get bonused pretty good. Most are in older, poorer areas with not many English speaking people. I still would not do one. The report looked heinous to me and I was crushing it doing Cheesecake Factory shops instead at the time.

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

Some of the "big N" would get bonused pretty good. Most are in older, poorer areas with not many English speaking people. I still would not do one. The report looked heinous to me and I was crushing it doing Cheesecake Factory shops instead at the time.

I did them all for you. There was a big sports center in Anaheim and sometimes the teams played at the convention center. You're welcome. I did them all with big fat bonuses. I am fluent in Spanish. My son is fluent in Mandarin. We are of Eastern European descent. Never got sick. I don't recall the report being awful. I have not done a Cheesecake Factory shop since around 2001 in San Diego at Fashion Valley. Sent the eggs benedict back 3 times. Meal got comped. Haven't been back since.

Worst report ever = 99 cent only store. Who created that form? Awful!!!

@BayShopper22

I'm thinking of the Big N form compared to other, better restaurants and it was much more work and longer. I mean it is not as terrible as the knee ligament MSC or the "big C" MSC in NY.

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

@BayShopper22

I'm thinking of the Big N form compared to other, better restaurants and it was much more work and longer. I mean it is not as terrible as the knee ligament MSC or the "big C" MSC in NY.

YEA, that was a thing in the guidelines, they wanted it compared to fine dining restaurants that cook real food. So I did, and the editor wanted me to change my answers because they aren't a fine dining restaurant. I followed the guidelines. And I detailed everything that the server and the manager did to me, the editor said I was supposed to remain annonymous. So they deactivated me.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2025 11:40PM by Morledzep.

I still have some of those Cheesecake Factory gift cards. Every time I think of going to use them I look at the price of one slice of cheesecake and decide to just get a whole one from Costco for a few dollars more. Their food is not my cup of tea. I did pick up from them during the pandemic but they would not take the gift card.
I have not done any of those diners but a long time ago did an after midnight bfast job at IHOP with my son.
The report was not bad but I don't really like eating at 1 AM. It was during a brief time when restaurants had to hand you a menu with calories on it. OMG after seeing the numbers of calories on the lucious sounding pancake dishes I ended up just ordering a salad.

@BayShopper22 wrote:

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

Some of the "big N" would get bonused pretty good. Most are in older, poorer areas with not many English speaking people. I still would not do one. The report looked heinous to me and I was crushing it doing Cheesecake Factory shops instead at the time.

I did them all for you. There was a big sports center in Anaheim and sometimes the teams played at the convention center. You're welcome. I did them all with big fat bonuses. I am fluent in Spanish. My son is fluent in Mandarin. We are of Eastern European descent. Never got sick. I don't recall the report being awful. I have not done a Cheesecake Factory shop since around 2001 in San Diego at Fashion Valley. Sent the eggs benedict back 3 times. Meal got comped. Haven't been back since.

Worst report ever = 99 cent only store. Who created that form? Awful!!!

I think we are forgetting Ikea when talking about bad So Cal shopping experiences!

And I feel like @BayShopper22 was not playing by the same rules since it was hard for me to get guests to go to the big "N" with me, but she had a child in tow who didn't have much say in the matter. Mandarin or English!

I'm not sure if they still do these, and I recall the MSC owner used to partake in the forum here, but what about the Hooters shops? That was also sometimes inedible food, with standards that were pretty offensive even before the #meetoo era. Somehow easier for me to get guests to go along on those shops, though...

I did a couple of hooters shops. One off 405 in costa mesa near harbor blvd. there was one down in Newport Beach on the peninsula for a short time too. I haven't seen Hooter's shops in a long time. The time I did it, it was with a 5 letter MSC based out of Washington state. Started with letter "N". I see some parking shops for them on ISS now, but that's it in SoCal.

As far as Ikea, my seattle buddy who lived in Orange County did an Ikea for his first shop. It was horrible and he has nightmares still from 20 years ago.

OHHHH the evil IKEA shop! I think alot of us made that newbie mistake! Im sure there is some poor soul still wandering around trying to complete that shop! I should have posted that on the worst shop ever thread....I think my eye just twitched typing this.

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

I did a couple of hooters shops. One off 405 in costa mesa near harbor blvd.

I went there on a Monday night with my family. The Hostess dropped the f bomb twice in 30 seconds. I walked out. Got paid in full, with an apology and $30 for dinner for my family (this was the early 2000's when you could get dinner for 2a/2k for $30).
That Hooters location is rough. I also did it with my friend (female) a police officer. The servers got confused dancing to YMCA. YCMA, etc. I also got a dirty look for looking at a server, as I was actually trying to determine if she was attractive enough to be a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. I hated that question.

I probably shopped that location 5 times, only 4 successfully.

@BayShopper22 wrote:

I also got a dirty look for looking at a server, as I was actually trying to determine if she was attractive enough to be a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.

Yep; that's the offensive standard I was referring to.

On my last shop ever there, the server wrote her phone number on the receipt and told my guest to call her. I retired myself from the program at that point (they went on one "date"

.

And since Cheesecake was mentioned earlier this thread, another friend has recently become serious with someone in upper management at Cheesecake. There have been some good stories over drinks about their MS program and what a debacle it was, but I would have to now recuse myself if they decided to start up another program (or perhaps that's my new side gig! Talk them into a new program).

I do get a free cheesecake whenever they come to visit...that might be good enough.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@BayShopper22 wrote:

I also got a dirty look for looking at a server, as I was actually trying to determine if she was attractive enough to be a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.

Yep; that's the offensive standard I was referring to.

On my last shop ever there, the server wrote her phone number on the receipt and told my guest to call her. I retired myself from the program at that point (they went on one "date".

And since Cheesecake was mentioned earlier this thread, another friend has recently become serious with someone in upper management at Cheesecake. There have been some good stories over drinks about their MS program and what a debacle it was, but I would have to now recuse myself if they decided to start up another program (or perhaps that's my new side gig! Talk them into a new program).

I do get a free cheesecake whenever they come to visit...that might be good enough.

OMG one of the other parents on the volleyball team was a former executive at coffee, bean, and tea leaf. He moved onto a different fast food chain. I told him how ridiculous the mystery shopping form was for coffee, bean, and tea leaf. Turns out he wrote it.!!!!

Hooter's report was not that bad. I did one Twin Peaks shop. Now that was awful. The amount of detail just on the uniform. I never did another one. I remember seeing "undercover boss" and one of the exec from hooter's left and started Twin Peaks. I would take a hooter's shop all day every day over Twin Peaks shop. I don't even know (or care) if Twin Peaks is shopped now.

If Twin Peaks was like a BJ's brewhouse or Texas Roadhouse report, I would be glad to do one again.

I don't do Twin Peaks shops because they require payment all in cash. I tried one, a long time ago, but forgot to take the food pics, so I abandonned the shop and enjoyed my dinner with my son and his wife.

I don't remember the cash payment part. I just remember the horrible shop form from the knee ligament MSC

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