The Side Hustle Thread (split from Bees with AZD)

Quote: Fleastiff

LOL And she would probably yell back 'I had no intention of paying even one cent'.

It only works the first time. After that, not so funny.

CONFESSIONS OF A CASINO SECRET SHOPPER

The email was unexpected. I get emails from recruiters on a regular basis. Usually I know why or where they got my information. This time was not quite the same. I had done a very few secret shops before to build cred to make it an income stream. Alas, the business is not near what you hear about. I made I think $8 and got a dozen free donuts once. Another time I got $25 or something for opening an account at a local credit union. Idea was to do more shops over time, but they were never local enough. I did various movie audits for $8-80. That one you could get loads of regular work, if you lived very near a theater it might make sense, as it was it was pretty much gas money for going out to eat and maybe the tip.

The lead was that do enough small stuff and you could get big stuff, dinners and hotels. Really I just never had the time. Shops were during work hours, or for so little money it was not worth it. A two day movie audit paid I think $80, at the time it looked like $800 to me. But it took most of two days. The work was compacted into maybe 2 hours, counting people entering a movie. I had to kill all the time in between. Later I got tired of ignoring their calls to do more.

This was different. All-day casino audit. Some of you know the casino, site of the very first and now uncredited WOV-East meet. All I will say publicly as to location. First, I had to qualify. Not the easiest, they wanted casino secret shopping experience. Good luck with that. I instead explained my casino knowledge. I guess I convinced her, I got the gig and was assigned a day to do it. IIRC, I was told a few days and asked what I preferred.

I told people what I did from time to time. People at work or people I deal with at the parties. First reaction is "WOW!" They want to know how to get paid for that. The life was not easy.

So many things to check. Valet parking in and out; two slot attendants and drink service; two table games; two food services; bar service; two restrooms; parking; general cleanliness; and I am probably forgetting some. The details they wanted were incredible. It took hours to fill out the form and then they wanted it fine-tuned. Only certain ways to describe the employee. Can't say age or build, don't even think of saying a race.

I took to texting the employees names to my other phone or the former weather service phone number which I knew would be nonworking forever. That and all the notes from the interactions. For example, did the pit boss greet me? Was the waitress friendly? This was not the easiest thing to do, all those interactions and remember, most table games ban cell phones. Fortunately so many people have their heads in their phones that when I evaluated security I just looked like another mook doing the same.

One thing you notice is that service can be awful at times. Drink service had say a 15 minute limit or it was a fail. Half the time was a fail. You have to be creative asking game questions on slots. That was not the hardest. I once caught a craps base dealer paying me with dirty money. I am pretty sure no other shopper caught that.

There were rules for games. Could pick what you wanted to play but could not play Big Six (like they have to tell me that!) You could buy in for only $40 and had to give back winnings. It was some form to fill out so I just played back any winnings if I was up. Temptation to skim was there, but you are on camera so skimming more than $5 was at your own risk, the eye would see it. Since your PC Card was to be given you were known. You did get to keep your points and got your losses back. But $40? Not much play for that.

It was $20 for slots, and you could not play any progressives. And it had to be penny slots, at one credit per pull! That is not the easiest to find. Really, take a look. Find a penny slot that lets you play one credit and not a progressive.

It was fun the first time or a few. Then I got tired of all the re-writes to the evaluations. It was getting to be 12 hours of work, and they had to be done within 24 hours. I would be too tired to do it all when I got home. It spilled to day 2. I tried to do Saturdays for the evaluations. Then they mad me start doing evenings, after work. Then I was no longer allowed to buy some candy bars for an eval of a restaurant, had to get and throw away hot food. This was too much. Throw in the death of my father and having to take care of things, way too much.

Finally, they shorted my pay $50 for having to "help" with my evaluation. Very last straw. No need for a resignation, I just stopped replying to the group emails asking when I was available. In a few months they stopped coming.

Made about $500 plus free buffets, drinks, and some PC points. Oh, yeah, they wanted me to ask for a host and ask "how do I get comps?" Really? $120 in buy-in and I am to ask a host about that? I am good at making things up for these kinds of situations, a legacy of my management career. But really, looking like a mook with a phone is one thing. Asking for comps at that level, that is one step above below looking like you are there on a free bus tour.

Lessons learned are keep hustling. To drop that I did this in a job or client interview is to make them remember you. Like the beehives, people are naturally drawn to it. Other lessons are how anyone can be the shopper. Except for asking the host about comps, I really liked the little game of putting the employees on the spot and seeing how they did. I took special pride in dealing with the craps crews for obvious reasons. Sort of like pretending to be a PI like on a TV show. TV show PIs are not at all reality, but this was close to it.

Last lesson is move on when things are no longer working out.

NOTE: I have waited a year since my last shop to post this to avoid the appearance of being non-confidential. Other note is this is posted here as a side hustle, not as a casino post to avoid conflict issues.

Quote: AZDuffman

CONFESSIONS OF A CASINO SECRET SHOPPER

I wouldn't last 20min doing this. Give back
my winnings, right.

Upthread there was some discussion about a side hustle of raising worms.
The various markets touched upon were fishermen, composting, scientific research, etc.

It now appears that ordinary red worms when ground up yield some rather important compounds that are useful as catalysts in certain chemical reactions, particularly those involving the recovery of valuable metals or the manufacture of some rather valuable "meds" such as might be used in the Orient.

Product arbitrage.

Buy discounted merchandise at Walmart, ship them to Amazon's warehouse, let Amazon sell them at a slight profit. Largely seasonal merchandise.

Eight million a year is sales, sixty K salary, eleven employees.

This mouse is driving me more insane than I already am.

Quote: Fleastiff

Product arbitrage.

Buy discounted merchandise at Walmart, ship them to Amazon's warehouse, let Amazon sell them at a slight profit. Largely seasonal merchandise.

Eight million a year is sales, sixty K salary, eleven employees.

I heard of this one a couple years ago, never tried it as you seem to have to really need to know what will sell. Amazing something sold at retail can be resold at retail. That is how it is in Japan, where prices are high, but not here.

Duffman, you are missing out on a tremendous side hustle.

28 year old makes millions selling Walmart products on Amazon.

He did it in 4 years.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/28-year-old-makes-millions-buying-from-walmart-selling-on-amazon/ar-AAupB8i?ocid=spartanntp

Quote: rxwine

Duffman, you are missing out on a tremendous side hustle.

28 year old makes millions selling Walmart products on Amazon.

He did it in 4 years.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/28-year-old-makes-millions-buying-from-walmart-selling-on-amazon/ar-AAupB8i?ocid=spartanntp

I heard about this on a podcast a few years back, not this guy, some woman. I'd love to be able to get into it and one day may. I think I've mentioned the couple selling bras and panties on eBay, making a killing.

I understand the most profitable item is a bird cage.

A brick and mortar store needs to heavily discount seasonable items that have not sold because shelf space is vital to them.
Amazon's warehouse shelves are not in desperate demand. So candy, Easter items, Christmas items etc. can be taken off physical shelves and placed on Amazon's shelves 'somewhere' yet still sell at a profit.

Previously I had posted about someone who bought worms at bait shop prices and sold them dockside to boats that were on their way out to fish and just pulled up to her dock without having to worry about lines or bait shop hours. Someone will always pay a premium for some reason.