Blingo awards free prizes like ipods, itunes, movie tickets, cash & more. If you are going to search for mystery shopping jobs, sign up free & search at Blingo & win free stuff. 

discount & free olive garden gift certificate & printable coupons

discount & free Red Lobster gift certificate & printable coupons

discount & Free TGIFriday Gift Card & printable coupon

discount & free Chili's Gift certificate & printable coupon

free & discount Home Depot gift card and printable coupons

A guide for how to Get Paid to Drive your car

Free Grocery savings guide

Valpak - Printable grocery coupons 

online paid surveys

How to eat for 1/2 price at chain restaurants & local restaurants

You have to shop anyways, why not get paid for it? 

Each of these companies gives you a large database of companies that offer resources to get paid to grocery shop, eat out at restaurants, shop for clothes and more. Plus mystery shopping tips, resources, advice, how-to, what exactly is expected of you as a mystery shopper.

How Mystery shopping works:

• Let's say for example you are assigned a job mystery shopping a grocery store, here is how it works: You grocery shop just like normal, but you notice certain details for the company paying you to shop, such as how long it took to check out, if items on sale were in stock, if the floors were clean, were the employees friendly and wearing the appropriate company uniform, etc. If you secret shop a clothing store, you might be asked if an associate greeted you promptly, if employees were socializing or busy working or helping customers, if the dressing rooms were clean, how long it took to check out, etc. A restaurant shop might ask mystery shoppers questions like if dessert is offered, if your meal was served hot and how long between when you ordered and got served, if the restrooms and parking lot and signage was clean and in working order. The mystery shop assignment will outline all the requirements and send you the paperwork in advance telling you what you are expected to report back. It is not hard to do, and you get reimbursed for some groceries, meals, clothes or other items, plus get paid for filling out a quick survey report and sending it back to the company by a set deadline. It is important to be prompt, hand reports in on time, complete and accurately filled out. 

• How you become a mystery shopper and get mystery shopping jobs: There are hundreds of mystery shopping companies, who hire independent contractors (like you) and get contracts with large store chains who want to know what their customers think about the store, its merchandise, and the customer service. To be a mystery shopper, you apply to a company, outline your availability to mystery shop certain days or in certain towns, and write a small paragraph to show your writing ability. You do not need to be a talented writer, just write clearly and spell check your work. Then you are put in their database of mystery shoppers and they offer you jobs in your area, as they are available and depending on their need. You can decline or accept any job depending your schedule. The problem is, you never know which companies have the mystery shopping jobs in your area, and which companies have the contract with your grocery store varies by area. Also, the companies keep this information confidential, so you can't just ask around to find out who has the contract with a certain grocery store. So to be able to mystery shop a certain grocery store, you need to apply to all the mystery shopping companies, and first you have to find all these companies. 

  HOW TO FIND MYSTERY SHOPPING COMPANIES TO GIVE YOU MYSTERY SHOPPING ASSIGNMENTS: 

  • Search. You can spend time looking for this information in the classifieds of your newspaper or search online, find their online applications or addresses and apply to the companies you find. But not all shopping companies have websites, and you do not get the name of the scheduler that would get you jobs, so it is unlikely to hear back from them any time soon, but it is worth a try:

   Mystery shopper search phrases: mystery shopping, secret shopping, secret shopper, mystery shopper, mystery shopper jobs, mystery shopper job, secret shopper job, get paid shop, paid shopping, paid to shop, grocery mystery shop, secret shop, grocery store mystery shopper

  Mystery Shopper Industry Directory. You can pay a small one time fee to get the an industry directory of mystery shopping firms. This lists all the contact information of ALL the mystery shopping companies, their schedulers who will get you your first job instead of just list you in a database with everybody else, their URL's and actual physical addresses and toll free numbers, so you know the right person gets to see your application. This saves a lot of time and gets you jobs faster. 

• You should never pay a company to do mystery shop work for them. There are a few online companies who ask for money for you to work for them - these are scams. BUT this directory is different because this is buying a current industry directory of mystery shopping companies that are legitimate, they update their lists with the current, correct addresses and phone numbers & contacts and emails, etc., so you save yourself lots of time to just get the directory and get to contact the correct person to get you the jobs you want. If you speak to an actual person, you can ask outright for grocery store mystery shopping jobs. 

  • Click here for the current industry directory of mystery shopping companies website. Quarterly updates are included. 

  • Get paid to go bowling, rent videos, order pizza & get your carpets cleaned.- this one appears to be free but limited.

  • Get paid to shop directory this one is a $1 trial for access to a database of secret shopper jobs

  MORE MYSTERY SHOPPING TIPS:

• Use a Cash Back Reward Credit Card when you mystery shop, you will get the reward points credit, and be paid to do the job before the credit card bill comes in. Find the best cash back reward program for you here

• Some mystery shops let you use coupons, some do not. Check the guidelines for each shop. Grocery store mystery shops usually let you use coupons, sometimes restaurant mystery shops do not. You can usually bring one friend with you for a restaurant shop, some prefer you do not bring children, some want children for certain kinds of shops (ChuckECheese type shops for instance, or a family restaurants), some don't care.

• If you mystery shop a restaurant, inquire if they have a frequent flyer or points program so that you get points for your mystery shop that you can redeem later. For instance, TGIFridays is mystery shopped and they have the gold points reward program that you earn free TGIFridays gift cards and free food on future visits. Then you can have TGIFriday freebies even when you aren't paid to mystery shop them.

• It is good to spell check and proofread your mystery shopping evaluation reports at least twice - the mystery shoppers who do not need their reports re-written or edited get more work from these companies since it is less work for them for you to do your own proofreading. If you are good at proofreading, by the way, you might want to consider this work from home job also - Proofread from home - they post proofreading jobs, you bid on them as an independent contractor, you work from home proofreading various websites, documents, term papers, etc.

• Since you are going to go mystery shopping, you might as well find out how to get paid to drive your car to your mystery shopping jobs! Read "A free guide for how to Get Paid to Drive your car"

• It is important to not reveal you are a mystery shopper when you are doing a mystery shop. Have the instructions well in mind beforehand, and do not mention mystery shopping when you are in a store or restaurant. If you blow your cover, then you will not get assigned a job at that location again, and may hurt your overall chances with that particular company. 

• Always hand in your work on time. It is important for the companies to have your report promptly.

• Do not be excessively negative, but do report a situation fairly. If you feel bad about having to write something unflattering about a otherwise nice person, you can also point out their nice qualities of customer service. For instance, restaurant may hire a mystery shopper to see if a waiter or waitress is attempting to promote a certain product or item, say like a special dessert. If they do not offer you dessert, but instead offer coffee, or did something else especially nice, or if there is a good reason not to offer dessert (such as you did not finish your meal and wanted to take home the leftovers), then you can explain the special circumstances. If you have negative things to say, you should be prepared to back it up (don't just say "our meals took too long", state how long in number of minutes it took, what you ordered (i.e. coffee should not take 30 minutes, a chocolate souffle would) and if the staff made any effort to explain the delay or note if the restaurant was very busy or not busy at all. If you have good things to say, do so! The person worked hard to make sure you got good customer service, this is a good chance to reward them!