BARE International Price check audit

Has anyone done the 40 item price checks in convenience stores? This shop says covert. How do you do that in such a small space? I don't think the pay is enough for these. All shops I've done anyway seem to involve more than the MSC's tell you. Thanks for any insight.

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My experience:

I did one in a small convenience store several years ago. The items I had to find were grouped in the app, but the store wasn't laid out that way. That left me wandering back and forth across this little store, which drew attention I didn't want. I was ultimately outed by the manager and told to never return to the store.

I put price-scanning shops on my 10-ft pole list and swore I'd never do another one.

Fast forward to earlier this summer. I kept getting emails asking me to do a truck stop about 25 miles away. I found that very annoying, and I thought, "I'll reply and say I'll do it for $XXX, and then they'll leave me alone." I threw out an ungodly amount that I thought for sure they'd say no to.

Nope. They accepted, and I was stuck doing the shop. It wasn't as bad as the first one, but mostly because 1/4 of the 40 items were tobacco products that were behind the counter, and I couldn't get the prices because the clerk was always standing there.

I wouldn't do another one.

If your path dictates you walk through hell, do it as though you own the place. -unknown

Thanks for the reply. Just what I thought. LOL! Sometimes I wonder what these companies are thinking with some of the guidelines. I've just returned to shopping after several years away and most things seem the same except for some apps that make some shops easier.

I tried to do one of these at a convenience store, and about 10 minutes in the manager asked what I was doing. I didn't realize that these were clandestine at the time. I showed him everything, and he said that his company did not have anything to do with that. He said that I did not have authorization to do a price audit of his store, and he politely asked me to leave. I did so, and I explained what happened to the MSC. I was not paid. So do these at your own risk!

@thunderdeacon wrote:

I tried to do one of these at a convenience store, and about 10 minutes in the manager asked what I was doing. I didn't realize that these were clandestine at the time. I showed him everything, and he said that his company did not have anything to do with that. He said that I did not have authorization to do a price audit of his store, and he politely asked me to leave. I did so, and I explained what happened to the MSC. I was not paid. So do these at your own risk!

That honestly feels odd to me. I've worked with them for years and they've always paid me.

The "40", it's not even 40, aren't too bad. Maybe 10 minutes in total for a large convivence store. For the small ones try to be there are a busy time. I can't speak for every store, but most don't care too much so long as you don't linger.

I've done the ones in the gas station. Depends on what it is. I may tell them I'm waiting to hear back from my husband because He wanted was out of stock. I'll try not to do the gas station ones though unless it's one of the larger stations that tend to have people using their restrooms and getting food and beverages and waiting for the made to order food cuz then you can blend in pretty easily.

I have seen these that are scanning 4,500 items and you're expected to complete them in 8 hours covertly? Has anyone done these??

No, but there are some thread on here about them if you search. General consensus is they are a lot lot of work for a very low hourly rate. You are standing for at least 8 hours on concrete warehouse stores...that alone is not worth the back ache imo! And then you need to charge your phone at some point. And then you need to explain why you have spent ALL day at the store, and yes their security will at some point notice.

Approx. 17 yrs. ago, a scanner walked by and then, employing a device, began handling my product. As there was not any reason for me to permit his actions, I stopped him and he, without any problem, departed. My point is, a shopper scanning without an LOA is encroaching. If one chooses to accept that work, it will probably be riddled with problems.

There's a convenience store near me where I've done the 21-item checks about 5 times and the 40-item check once. Maybe I'm lucky but the employees there don't give a flip about what I'm doing.

I also once did a 40-item check at a gas station that has a few coolers of drinks and a few unrefrigerated shelves with candy, chips, gum etc. flanking a kiosk, where the tobacco is kept. The employee in the kiosk asked me after a few minutes what I was doing. The guidelines, if I read them right, don't require you to deny everything, you're allowed to give them a vague idea of what you're up to, so that's what I did, just told them I'd been asked to collect some price information for research purposes. That satisfied her.

I did check out one of the Bare shops that asks the IC to check 100 items at (the large orange home improvement store) It is the only time in 32 years in this industry, that I have walked away from a shop after starting it. Why? The first five items took an average of 3:38 each to locate, photograph, and enter the answers on the questionaire. A bit of math told me that I would be spending 5 hours on site for the $27 compensation. Talk about 'fair' (a term heavily discussed in another thread).....

Well, my instincts were correct in not wanting to do them.

It's no way anyone does any of these shops. They are not worth the time. Not to add alot of them pay so little.

@thunderdeacon wrote:

I tried to do one of these at a convenience store, and about 10 minutes in the manager asked what I was doing. I didn't realize that these were clandestine at the time. I showed him everything, and he said that his company did not have anything to do with that. He said that I did not have authorization to do a price audit of his store, and he politely asked me to leave. I did so, and I explained what happened to the MSC. I was not paid. So do these at your own risk!

I had a similar experience at a gas station/c-store. The manager didn't ask me to leave but she did ask what I was doing. It was way more time consuming than you would anticipate and there was really no way you could be covert. Some of the items were scanning the fountain drink cups which is really not covert when they're next to the register.

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