The concept is simple – if your spouse mystery shops, your household will make more money from mystery shopping. While it is possible for your household to actually make more than double what you are currently making when both spouses mystery shop, there are some other factors to consider as well.
More Than Double Your Jobs. You as a shopper qualify for a certain type and amount of shops. Let’s say you are a 35- year old female who is 5′ 3″ tall. You qualify for shops at the general retailers, as well as any female-specific retailers such as Victoria’s Secret. And because of your size, you likely qualify for shops for petite women such as Petite Sophisticate. Sure, a male could pick up a gift at one of these shops, but most of the shops require the female to try on clothing at shops such as these. So typically these shops are looking for a petite female to complete the shop.
However, as a petite, female shopper, you likely won’t qualify for shops with a male-oriented retailer or if there is a certain height requirement on the shop. Take a big and tall men’s shop for example. If your spouse is 6′ 2″, your household would benefit by a second shopper who does qualify to complete this shop. So you can double your family’s shopping income simply by adding a second shopper who can complete assignments while you complete your own assignments. But by simply adding a different set of physical characteristics to your family’s shopper profiles, you can increase the number and type of shops your family can earn money on, and thereby more than double the amount of income you can earn!
Not For Everyone. Keep in mind that mystery shopping requires a very unique set of character traits, such as the ability to keep mum, attention to detail, the ability to complete a shop on time, and so forth. If your spouse would need you to constantly keep on him about completing paperwork, you may want to consider another way to increase your shopper income, such as simply applying to work with more providers and increasing the number of shops you complete. Nobody knows your spouse better than you. If you think he or she is well-suited for this type of job, it may pay to suggest the idea.
Will It Hurt Your Relationship? The idea of adding another job to your already busy schedules may sound like it could be detrimental to your relationship. After all, you already have a limited amount of time to spend together. However, there are shops you can complete together, where you are permitted to bring a friend or family member with you. With these shops, you can actually make a “date” of it. Head to a restaurant, a movie, or the mall and spend some time together as you get paid for it. This is a great way to get out and share some time together, especially if you are on a tight budget.
On the other hand, there are shops that you must complete solo. If you and your spouse can both complete separate shops in the same amount of time, you will enjoy double the income earned in the same amount of time when you would have already been away doing your shop anyway. The great thing about mystery shopping is that you can schedule your “work hours” to coincide so you actually limit the amount of time away from each other. And then when you spend non-mystery shopping time together, you will have some extra money to enjoy yourselves with.
Give it some thought and see if it would fit into your unique relationship to have your spouse become a shopper, too. There are definitely some strong benefits to a dual-shopper family. But just as shopping is not for everyone, a dual-shopper family is not for every relationship.
My spouse does some shops, he prefers ones for couples or where I can at least accompany him as he likes me to complete the paperwork due to his learning disability. This works for us. There are also a couple of shops that we both like that have a long rotation and we can switch off on them, that is especially fun for carryout food that our family likes.
Well, he doesn’t get paid for it but the highend restaurant and bar shops make for nice dates, albeit a little distracted wife. I appreciate the observations he makes that help with the reports.
My husband comes along with me on some shops. He helps me make observations, and while we are in the car heading elsewhere, we manually complete the paperwork and/or take additional notes. Nothing like multi-tasking! When I file the report online later,it goes much faster because the report has already been prepared. Also, he loves those high-end restaurant/bar shops. How can one complain about being paid to eat and drink?