Mystery shopping is a great job for shoppers in both metro areas as well as in more rural locations. If you are close to gas stations, shopping centers or malls, grocery stores, restaurants, or any other venue that serves the public, you can likely find some assignments in your area. However, depending on how remote your location is, the amount of income you can make from mystery shopping may be limited. There are a number of things rural mystery shoppers can do to increase the amount of assignments they are able to work on.
Extend Your Territory. While your small city or town may be rural, chances are you live fairly close to other cities. Whether your neighboring cities are rural as well, or are mid to larger-sized, when you expand your mystery shopping territory, you will be able to find more assignments to complete.
Rural mystery shoppers may be used to having most of the needs satisfied within just a few miles of their house, such as gas, groceries, dining out, and so forth. However, those living in larger areas often drive twenty or thirty miles, or more, to reach certain venues and even to go to work at their “day job.” If you feel penalized for having to make a commute to complete an assignment, understand that you aren’t in a different boat necessarily than an big city mystery shopping. Rather, the scenery of your commute and the hassles of fighting traffic are different.
Branch Out. To make a decent paycheck as a mystery shopper, many rural shoppers find they need to sign up to work with more providers. You can save yourself some time and energy by choosing those providers that have a lot of jobs in your area over those that may have just one or two. If you need help learning about what mystery shoppers services your area, try posting a question on the mystery shopping online forums
Make A Day Of It. As you search through the job boards, if you notice that a city that is just beyond the area you are willing to travel to has a lot of assignments, consider devoting a whole day to completing multiple assignments in the area. You will save on travel time and gas, which will help to make trip worth your while.
You can even turn the trip into an overnight getaway by picking up a hotel and restaurant shop in the area, as well as a few other assignments. A working weekend is a great way to enjoy a break from the doldrums from home while making money at the same time.
While rural mystery shoppers may have to sign up with more providers to find assignments close by, mystery shoppers in urban areas often find there is more competition for the assignments. Regardless of where you live, there is not a “better” place to live to be a mystery shopper. You simply have to have the drive to find the assignments!
Great article. I live in rural New Mexico. It is difficult to find jobs around my area some time. The most abundant jobs are gas stations. To make enough money to warrant doing them, I do work outside my area. The biggest drawback for me is report time. These require photos. I ALWAYS make certain I have enough photos not to have to make a return trip. By the time I get home, sort the photos and re-name them, it makes for a very late night. I will do four shops if I can start early enough in the day. Some shops require evening shops and I will only do three.
I now take my laptop so I can download photos and at least get a start on separating the photos and re-naming a few.
These shops keep me busy for a week or so, then jobs are very spotty the rest of the month. A fast food here, a bank shop there. That is the price you pay for getting to live in the mountains. Not complaining, just the way it is.
I also live in a small rural town. I usually have to travel 20 to miles to do shops. I do a lot of gas shops, too.
Taking the laptop is a good idea. It would be better to upload the photos one shop at a time and maybe name a few as I go along. Thanks for the tip.
Living in a small town, I have implemented all of the tips above. Making a day of it can make it worthwile travelling the extra mile. With the distance to the nearest metropolitan area, being an hour away, I try to schedule a minimum of a $30.00 shop to clear my gas, if I have other personal things to attend to. If I can schedule $50.00 of shops, it pays for my travel time as well. Anything more scheduled above that is clear profit. To do this I plan leaving early in the morning, and getting back sometime in the evening.
I have booked a local hotel shop for our anniversary, and have already done some liquor store shops and will reimbursed for what I picked up and paid for the report as well!
The trick is turning down offers that will put you in the red. Do what works for you!
I am fairly new to mystery shopping. On what mystery shopping forum do I ask or try to find which companies tend to service my area more? I live in Riverside, California all around the inland empire.