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Earn Money Doing Mystery Shopping - Men Wanted

Copyright 2006 Elaine Currie

The art of shopping is something of a mystery to most men.

Perhaps, therefore, it is not so surprising that few men realise

there is an opportunity for them to earn money working from home

doing mystery shopping. There are probably not many men who have

even thought about the existence of mystery shoppers. In fact,

it would be unusual for a man to spend any time at all thinking

about shopping in a positive way.

Mystery shopping (sometimes called secret shopping) is an easy

way to earn money: it is very simple to do, you need no previous

experience, no special knowledge and no expensive equipment.

Mystery shopping jobs can be done as part-time employment in

hours you choose to fit in with your current schedule. Mystery

shopping companies employ men and women of all ages and

backgrounds as mystery shoppers. In fact, just about adult who

can manage to go shopping could become a mystery shopper, but

most mystery shoppers are women.

Men are not genetically designed to be great recreational

shoppers: they find it impossible to grasp the concept of

shopping as a form of entertainment and tend only to go shopping

when they have a particular purchase in mind. For example, when

I tell my husband that I have arranged to go on a shopping trip

with my daughter, he will ask me what we want to buy. What sort

of a question is that? We can't possibly know what we want to

buy until we see what the shops have to offer. Research shows

that this is a typical male reaction to shopping. Men have this

odd way of deciding they want something and then going to the

shops to make the purchase. Strangely, they never come back with

anything over and above the item they went out to buy and, if

the item is not available, a man will even return from a

shopping trip empty handed.

Whether they enjoy it or not men do go shopping. If you look

around you will notice plenty of men in supermarkets. Some will

just be dutiful husbands reluctantly accompanying their wives

but there will be numerous other men who are solitary shoppers

actually shopping in their own right. Even if their shopping

basket reaches the checkout containing nothing but a six pack of

beer and a cd, it's still shopping.

Look around the mall and you'll see plenty of men. Some of these

will be driven by the need to buy a gift for a wife or

girlfriend but there will be plenty of men out shopping for

things they actually want for themselves. Men might rely on

female relatives to keep them supplied with socks and underwear

but it's a different story when new footwear or outerwear or

sports equipment are needed.

Most men exist in a state of denial when it comes to the

significance of shopping. If a man and a woman each go shopping

on a particular day and they are later asked what they did that

day, the woman will reply "shopping" and the man will say

"nothing". However, it is this male reluctance to throw body and

soul into shopping that will be a great advantage if a man

decides to try a career in mystery shopping. A man sent to

purchase one specific item at a particular place will be able to

do exactly that. A man will not be in any danger of becoming

sidetracked so that the mystery shopping assignment takes over

the whole day or ends up costing him money because of an attack

of impulse purchasing.

The reason mystery shopping companies exist is that companies

such as retail chains, restaurants, travel companies, hotels etc

need to be able to obtain impartial feedback on their employees

and services. Mystery shoppers are employed to provide feedback

on such things as the behaviour of members of staff, the quality

of customer service and the cleanliness standards of the

premises. There is no reason whatsoever for mystery shopping to

be restricted to women only and some assignments are only

suitable for male secret shoppers.

Apart from general retail mystery shopping assignments that are

suitable for either gender, there are also male only areas that

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require inspection. Companies will employ mystery shoppers to

report on such things as toilet facilities, men's fitting rooms

in shops, men's changing rooms at gyms etc. Needless to say, a

woman secret shopper would not be much of a secret in these

surroundings.

When the subject of mystery shopping is considered, people

normally thing of women buying dresses or shopping for food in

supermarkets but there is a lot more to mystery shopping than

this. Mystery shopping companies will also pay you to do things

such as eat at a restaurant, have a drink at a bar, visit a

cinema or spend a night in a hotel. If you are really lucky, you

might be sent on an expenses paid vacation as a mystery shopping

assignment.

The companies employing the services of the mystery shopping

company need to hear the opinions of both men and women. If you

forget actual shops for a moment and consider the people who use

restaurants, bars, cinemas, bowling alleys, skating rinks,

hotels, theatres, taxi companies, gyms etc, it will be obvious

that a large percentage of customers are men. The owners of

these establishments need to discover whether men are satisfied

with their staff and services, they can't afford to ignore the

needs of half their customers.

An assignment to visit a bar, sample a beer, purchase a snack

and check out the men's cloakroom is not most women's idea of a

great shopping trip but getting paid to carry out such an

assignment will sound like a good deal to many men. Perhaps it's

just the name mystery "shopping" that puts men off and the

companies need to find a suitable alternative title to attract

more men into this work.

About the author:

Elaine Currie has a Work At Home Directory at her Plug-In Profit

Site to help everyone who wants to work at home:

http://www.huntingvenus.com She also has reviews of Online Paid

Survey Programmes, Mystery Shopping Companies and Paid Autosurf

Sites