There's no such thing as a free lunch...

But this is pretty darn close. Lots of companies want to know how their stores are performing and treating customers. They are willing to pay for detailed, critical consumer insight.

They hire Mystery Shopping companies who employ "Indepedent Contractors" aka Mystery Shoppers to patronize their business and evaluate them based on their metrics (upselling, courtesy, speed, quality, cleanliness of facility, and more). Any purchases are reimbursed, and sometimes there are no purchases at all.

Either way you are paid for your time and enjoy free services, such as oil changes, fast food and restaurant meals, test drives, alcohol ID checks (with paid for drinks!), price inquiries and more.

I've had days where I go to a major breakfast chain (which I can't name as I remain anonymous) for breakfast, then hit a good burger joint (see the picture below for a hint), and hit a couple shops in between looking at jewelry or cars and evaluate the sales people there.

So how do you get started?!

A great resource with a list of the biggest and most used mystery shopping companies can be found here:

https://www.mysteryshopforum.com/companies/

I'm currently signed up with about 10 companies. There's drive-thru, phone shops, entire store audits, product recalls, and more. Only accept the jobs you want, pick and choose. Just do it for the free food and pizzas or pack a whole day's schedule and make some extra cash. It's entirely up to you.

I can't disclose my assignments or tell you which companies have which restaurants as clients, due to confidentiality and legal mumbo jumbo, so you just have to look for yourself. But I can tell you which ones I do the most assignments with (my location is likely a factor)

My favorite companies so far are:

MarketForce

Sinclair Customer Metrics

Intelli-shop

Presto-Instashop

and

iSecretShop (available on Android or iOS)

That's all I have for you today. I will post more on money related topics, freebies, life hacks, news, and everything I find useful and absent from steem in general. If you mystery shop or have a company you recommend, drop it here!

If you like my post and think it could put a few bucks in someone you know's pocket, please like, comment, and share/resteem! Thanks for your support, I'll keep it coming!