Mystery Shopping: Get Paid to Shop With These 70+ Companies

August 9, 2009 In Make Extra Money From Home By Alaina Forbes

Mystery Shopping: Get Paid to Shop

Did you know you can get paid to shop? Some of you might be familiar with what mystery shopping is and some of you might be wondering what exactly I am talking about.

How Do I Get Paid to Shop?

Mystery shoppers are customers just like you and me that visit places such as grocery stores, restaurants, banks, gas stations, concerts, amusement parks, and retail stores and get paid to shop and to give feedback on your experience as a customer.

Anyone can be a mystery shopper and get paid to shop but it does help if you are an observant, detail oriented person. Because you are performing a mystery shop in secret you can not walk around with a pen and notepad making notes about your experience or names or employees you interact with.

For this reason, it is really important that you can remember details such as names until you are done with the mystery shop and out of the store and can jot down notes about your experience and people you interacted with during the shop.

All shops pay differently based on what you are required to do. Some may not pay at all but just reimburse you for something such as a free meal at a nice restaurant in exchange for your feedback so be sure you know exactly what is expected of you and how much the job pays.

How Do I Get Started as a Mystery Shopper?

If you are serious about learning to get paid to shop then sign up with as many companies as possible. This will allow you to start receiving emails regarding available jobs that you qualify for.

You can also practice the next time you are running errands or in the grocery store and try to remember the people’s names that you interact with throughout the store. Most mystery shopping companies have some sort of online form or write-up they require from you after you complete a shop.

Now that most people have smartphones many of the mystery shop companies request photos of specific displays or parts of the store to provide additional feedback.

Once a company hires you on as an independent contractor you are under no obligation to take a certain amount of shops that come available in your area. You can pick and choose based on how well they pay, what part of town they are in, and if it is the type of shops you enjoy doing.

Some people apply to lots of different mystery shop companies so that they have a wide variety of shops to choose from. Some people may even choose to only do a certain kind of mystery shop such as gas stations or restaurants.

It is all up to you and that is one of the great things about it. It offers the flexibility of working as much or as little as you want and only working when you want to work. It is a great option for stay at home moms that use their time when their kids are at school to run errands and could make some money while doing so.

How Do I Know Which Companies Will Hire Me?

Like many of the work from home scams out there, some mystery shopping listings will not be legitimate. None of the legitimate companies will ask you to pay any types of fees before hiring you on as an independent contractor.

If you are not sure what else to watch for you can always visit our Work From Home Scams page to make sure you do your research correctly. Get paid to shop with our list of legitimate mystery shopping companies listed below.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in then why not give it a try? There are no fees to get started and many of the times you are doing things you are already needing to do anyways.

Sure it might take you a little extra time while you are at the store but that is some extra spending money in your pocket. If you try it out and feel it is not for you then you can always check out other ways to make extra money from home.