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Teen mystery shoppers?

July 10, 2008 02:57AM
Does anyone know if any companies are willing to accept teen-age shoppers? My 16 year old son has gone with me to do video game age compliance shops and gets a big kick out of it. Plus, he's always willing to give his opinion, & loves the idea of making money doing just that. Seems to me like companies might shy away because he can't legally enter a contract, being under 18. Anyone??
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July 10, 2008 03:28AM
As soon as he hits 17 there are lots of "Tobacco compliance" shops he can do, but 16 is going to be mostly the age rated entertainment stuff you are seeing.
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July 10, 2008 09:56AM
Ditto Flash. There are many, many companies looking for 17 year olds. Sometimes I wish I could turn the clock back a couple of years so I could do them. I think Ritter Associates is looking for 16-17 year olds for tobacco compliance shops.
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July 10, 2008 02:33PM
That will probably depend on states, Amanda. In Florida it IS legal for a 17 year old to purchase tobacco products but NOT legal for a 16 year old. They are not looking for shoppers to commit illegal acts but rather for those barely legal to be checked.
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July 11, 2008 04:37AM
My daughter is 17. Most of the jobs we do together and she gets half of the money.
We have a lot of fun eating.
She is doing the timing, when I talk to the employees. She also uses her cell phone to write descriptions, prices etc. down, the time I am talking to the employees.
She always gets the bad job at the gas stations. She is doing the pictures (restroom) the time I shop.
When she turns 18 I think she will open her own account, then we can do more jobs especially more restaurants, where you have to wait so long.
I don't no why the time for these is 60/90/180 days shopper rotation.
My family goes to some restaurants each week (not as ms).
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July 11, 2008 02:13PM
A major reason for rotations is not to give shoppers more or fewer opportunities to visit a location but rather to provide the client with "fresh eyes" for subsequent visits. It requires that the MSP have a good sense of their shopper database to know what kind of rotation they can manage to fill. My longest rotation is about 18 months, which is reasonable considering how in depth the evaluation is. Generally when they call me for the job we need to do a quick check as to whether the individual I interviewed has moved on yet. If they have, I can do the job immediately, if they haven't I need to wait until they are moved on regardless of rotation. There is also a job that I got to do once and the client wants no shopper to do a second time no matter how difficult the job is to fill.
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July 11, 2008 02:50PM
VERO4112, My 13 year old loves to do the same. Just this morning she asked me, are we doing any mystery shopping jobs today? I haven't yet decided whether she can accompany on today's assignments, but she was thrilled to hear that tomorrow is a FULL day!!

The 16 year old boy, he is a little pickier about the types of shops he tags along with. If it involves purchasing something more than a token item (you know, "prove that you were actually there by having a receipt"winking smiley, he loves to help spend the money!! We got to purchase a scanner/printer/fax a couple of weeks ago, and he was thrilled. He also likes the electronics and wireless phone shops, camera stores, etc. I'm sure he will BEG to go if I get the chance to do a car dealership, LOL! Tommorrow I have to buy an iced coffee drink (Blech!) that he'll get to slug down when I get back to the car. Only problem is, he usually ends up EATING my shop fees. Everyone knows how much teenage boys can eat...and he eats constantly!
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July 11, 2008 03:02PM
On the brighter side, he would be eating anyway smiling smiley Of course it is a lot cheaper to feed him at home than on the road.

We are headed for a nice Mexican restaurant tonight and my grown son asked that I check my guidelines to see if he can join us. The guidelines say "up to 4 adults" so we are cool. He will reimburse me what if anything we go over the shop reimbursement. I suspect we will stay within the reimbursement on this one even with three of us.
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July 11, 2008 07:13PM
Sounds yummy, Flash - Enjoy! (But not so much that you forget why you're there, Ha!)
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