Christmas in July: Mystery Shop for your Gifts

I've have posted before about my various Mystery Shopping adventures. One great way to pickup some wonderful gifts for people during the holidays is to combine this with Mystery Shopping.

Last year my Mother-in-law got a lovely jar of lemon curd from Williams-Sonoma and my mom got a fantastic jar of gourmet salsa and my best friend got a great paring knife. These items were purchased as part of my Mystery Shop. Sinclair Consumer Metrics was my first Mystery Shop company and in my area they also do shops for Pottery Barn, PB Kids, West Elm, etc.

These shops are popular, as you can imagine, so if you decide to signup you'll need to keep an eye on the schedule and sign up quickly once new shops open up. But I can say that these shops make great ideas for gift giving/ stocking up because they are for stores that people may consider to be 'treats' for themselves and that means that even finding some small treat can be special for them.

Another company that I have yet to get on the schedule for because of it's popularity is one that schedules the shops for Plow and Hearth gardening stores. I've also seen shops pop up for Brookstone. Right now I'm seeing a lot of Fashion Sunglasses shop requests. Mostly you won't know what stores the company 'shops' until you sign up unless you know someone who already works for them but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It might be something you kow you'll need or turn out to be a place you can pick up the perfect gift for someone you know.

So, start early and stock up on your gifts. Work the schedule well but make sure that you fulfill on the shops that you take. Mystery shopping for your holiday gifts is definitely a Cool Idea and one that we can all take advantage of!