Best companies to work for Southern California

Hi, I'm recently retired and looking for a way to supplement my social security. I've checked out mystery shopping videos on YouTube and it looks like a fun and fairly easy way to pick up some extra money.

I've done a couple of shops through the Field Agent and Mobee apps just to get my feet wet, but from what I can glean apps like that are the minor leagues compared to some other companies.

So in preparation for getting serious about all this, I've signed up with:

Gigspot
iSecretshop
Secretshopper
Premise
Bestmark

I haven't done any shops for any of these companies yet but from looking at their menus I'm pretty optimistic. Seems like there are some decent shops in my area (Santa Barbara California).

So, I was wondering what you guys think about the companies on my list and if you have any recommendations of your own.

Thanks

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2025 08:47PM by Naykidape.

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I live in the big city to the south of you and am here to tell you this is not a job with easy money. This is especially true with the high cost of living where we both live. In Los Angeles it is difficult to find jobs with bonuses but I have seen bonuses advertised in Santa Barbara so perhaps you will not have the level of competition up there that I do in my area where most jobs get snapped up before I wake up in the morning. I personally have not done any work for Gigspot, Premise which i have never heard of or Bestmark. Gigspot and iSecretShop have listings from several different companies that use their platform.
As a new shopper you should try different types of shops to see which are the best fit for you. Keep reading the forum and you will see that mystery shoppers often do shops at gas stations, cell phone stores, supermarkets and do merchandising and price checks in stores as well as the typical retail and restaurant shops.
But to me the best companies are the ones that have shops I like near where I live. I used to love Secret Shopper but they have only had cell phone shops near me for the past several years and I do not do those shops.
Perhaps someone else will chime in with some Santa Barbara info for you. Good luck.

Welcome to the forum. You’ve done the right thing by getting your feet wet.

I’m in Alberta, so no suggestions specific to your area. The best advice I got from here is just keep signing up for companies and see what they have in your area. It is something that changes over time. I used to do a variety of shops for Market Force and now they haven’t had a shop in my area for years, just as an example.

Also, read what people have posted about Gigspot, it seems to interfere with being able to login to the companies directly.

sandyf, I had never heard of Premise either. It's one of those apps. From their description on swiftsalery.com:

"Hourly earnings on Premise range from $1.00-$10.00/hour. Average hourly earnings are $5.33/hour while median hourly earnings are $5.00/hour."

Sounds comparable to Field Agent or Observa.

Read the forums a ton to learn more about shops and companies. Sign up for all the companies one the list at the top of this forum.

One word of caution - bestmark used to have issues paying ICs. I am not sure if the issues are resolved but I'm not wasting my time to find out.

Good luck!

I like to try out different types of shops to see what I enjoy and find simple. I live in Southern california and have enjoyed work for Intellishop, In Touch Insite, Cx Group, A Closer Look, IPSOS, RBG, Bare. It helps as a new shopper to do Sassie shops and get an IC Pro 100 banner. It helps to self assign.

There are sometimes good shops in the area. However, there are not that many (compared to the Los Angeles area) and there are rotation requirements like you can only do a shop 1x every 3 months on some gym shops or 1x every 3 years for some apartment shops (yes, 3 years!!! And that really chips away at the number of available shops vs shops you can actually do). Then there are age requirements like you have to be 21-28 so you get carded. Right now there is one where they want you to witness 6 transactions, make your own for like $12. Seriously? $12!! They aren't paying you to drive to multiple locations. It's not always very fun and takes a lot more time than the pay is worth. Postal shops are a true PITA because there are so many requirements. Suggest you wait until the end of the month to pick up shops because they pay more as they are trying to meet their quotas by the end of the month. If you want a steady paycheck where you don't have to look for the work yourself and apply for it, then I suggest finding a regular part time job. That being said, you can do shops anywhere in the United States, so you can make it a working vacation.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2025 08:20PM by cherubino3.

There are plenty of bonused shops in Santa Barbara.
Reasons:
High cost of living
Low population
Not easy to access (101 N or S). You can't easily access it from the east, and the west is the ocean.

Most well-to-do people can't be bothered to do a $10-$20 shop. They also aren't going to spend 60-90 minutes in the fancy grocery store, asking questions in every department for $35-$50.

I think that shoppers from Santa Maria, Oxnard, and Ventura probably pick up a route of shops when it is profitable and knock out 10-20 in a day.

P.S. most real shoppers hate gigspot, so eventually, you will disable it. For now, it will help you find some companies.

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Best companies to work for Southern California

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