The worlds easiest side hustle you have to try

Let me preface this by saying, fast food is my guilt pleasure. I would probably be going there anyways, and I also love saving money on food. This was the first time I tried a mystery shop with Intelli-shop, but I have to say it was the easiest and quickest $15 dollars I've made in less than 15 minutes AND i got a free lunch.

There are plenty of opportunities and many locations of participating fast food restaurants anywhere from a minute to 5 minutes away from where I live. I was able to pick and choose location and a time that was convenient for me. There are copious instructions to guide you through your first shop but the app questionnaire walks you step by step as you're going through your drive thru shop which only took me 6 minutes because there was no wait.

The signing up and being accepted to do my first shop was the most time intensive part, it entails:

1. Being able to create an account

2. Taking an extended shopper quiz

3. Taking a test on basic recall and following instructions and english language skills and passing with an 85% score

4. Applying for a job you want and getting sent back an email, and then accepting

On the day of my shop, I was excited to try something new. You need to purchase approved items (such as a combo meal) and then take pictures of various parts of your experience. Things like knowing how clean the dumpster is, what's the condition of the building, how clean is the parking lot. It's imperative to have read these things ahead of time so you know what to expect once you start the shop.

As I drove through the almost empty parking lot, I was prompted to take a photo of not only the menu board, but also the second one which is called the ordering board with the speaker. You have to make sure your photos are in landscape condition and you upload them from your camera roll while filling out the mandatory review. Being a UX designer, I found the form and app experience quite arduous at some points but I learned to save my work even if I wasn't done because if you navigate away from it you'll lose what you've already put it. There were also 1 too many steps to do simple tasks, but it's a rudimentary app that could evolve.

I ended up setting a timer on my phone to gauge not only the time from the order to get to the window, but also how long it took my order to be ready before I was handed the bag and was on my way. Each of the steps was pretty short but it was about 4 and a half minutes until my order was handed to me. The ensure there's a high quality of customer satisfaction they have you customize one thing on your order. I chose to add more tomatoes to my sandwich. The order came out correct and I gave an ultra positive store on most of the criteria of cleanliness, efficiency and politeness.

The only thing was that she forgot to give me my receipt so I had to go back and ask her to reprint it. I also knew that i needed to take a picture of it and forgot to ask her at the time because there were a few things going on. I wasn't able to fill out the form during that time, but for next time it's totally doable to fill out things while you're waiting at the window for your food. The great thing about this is that you also get a free lunch! Just wait until you take a picture of the sandwich and fries without the wrapper.

Payments will be paypal'd to you after a successful submission of the form. Other pieces of information to document that are asked for are:

1. How pleasant was the order taker?

2. Did she ask you if you wanted condiments?

3. Was the customization correct?

4. Was the food hot when you got it?

5. Was the voice ordering kiosk clear?

6. Did the order taker wear a mask and gloves?

7. Did you get napkins?

8. Did he/she send you off with a pleasantry?

Note: if you want to make an additional $1.50 per shop you can buy an approved thermometer from Amazon and do this optional task of measuring temperature of sandwich and fries

Additional note: By taking the extended profile survey you may be able to make online shops through cash payment at Western Union.

All in all, the experience was one of the easiest for some of the other side hustles I've tried and I got a sourdough jack out of the gig! It's possible to make the $15 dollars in about 15 minutes and get a free lunch. Make sure you read the instructions thoroughly, walk through and make sure you document and respond to all the questions being asked for you the first time so you don't have to go back and pick locations that are convenient to you. If worst comes to worse and you're watching your waistline you can give it to the many hungry people you come across nowadays.

Sign up for Intellishop or download the Presto shopper app.