Here are a couple great resources for getting going in these industries.

The Volition.com Forums are a highly active group of forums about these opportunities and more.

Contractors provide feedback on virtually every company in these industries. It's a great community.

Instead of registering with all of the various companies out there only to find out they don't work in your area, you can use the following sites to see who might have work where you live.

Visit the National Association for Retail Marketing Services(NARMS) job bank and search for merchandising openings in your city, state, or country.

Register with JobSlinger.com and search for opportunities in your immediate area.

As we go, I'll be adding some direct links to companies that seem to be highly rated among their contractors.

Good luck.

I have always been interested in this kind of work. I had a friend who used to do this at Wal-Mart but I was never sure how he got the job. I plan to look into it as it would be a fun extra to do. Wonder if you can take your baby with you? I would definitely look like a normal person shopping around!

mommyof3 wrote:
Wonder if you can take your baby with you?
There are some shops that require children, others that specifically forbid children, and most don't mention it at all.

As Chris said, some may prohibit you bringing your kids but most will not mention it. The key to effective mystery shopping is that you appear to be typical shopper. For most shops you have to evaluate the store's appearance, ease of shopping and performance of store employees. You'll need to interact with employees and evaluate their approach, knowledge and other aspects of customer service. As long as you can accomplish what you need, kids shouldn't matter.

If the store assigned is one that a real customer would probably bring their children it can be a positive thing to see how employees deal with the situation. If in doubt as to whether to bring your children, ask the rep that assigns you the shop. It can be a good test of performance for a store.

I used to work in a department store, ladies clothes and after being there for some time you get to spot the mystery s
hopper....chilren with mothers were allowed.
The mystery shopper would certainly put you through your paces.
Sarah

hello,
Mystery Shopping is a program market research companies use to measure and improve the quality of the customer service provided by retail outlets. By using Mystery Shopping, businesses are able to gain improved insight into how the customer related functions of their business are performing. GAPbuster is a world leader in Mystery Shopping, and has organised over 4.8 million Mystery Shops for some of the world's largest brands.

It involves recruiting people like you, and training them to be "mystery shoppers", who then go to one of our clients' stores and act as customers, making enquiries, asking questions, or legitimately shopping for products. The mystery shopper then completes an online survey about their experiences in the store and is rewarded by GAPbuster with cash payments, purchase discounts, and/or the goods or services purchased.

thanks!!
_____________
Bed Pillow

Mystery shopping is pretty new here in my country and I really appreciate this kind of work since this would give the company a better view of how the sales team is selling and providing customer service.