Mystery Shopping at Lowe’s

One of my favorite mystery shops I did was at Lowe’s. In fact, I was expecting a mystery shop in the store because of the bad experience I had every time I shopped there before I started my mystery shopping career. Once I saw the Lowe’s store pop up on my radar, I was quick to accept it, as I was sure I could get some revenge on the people who had treated me so poorly in the first place. Now I know that Mystery Shopping is not about looking for bad experiences, but about evaluating people for the work they do. This is how my mystery shop at Lowe’s ended up going for me.

Every time I walked into a Lowe’s store, the first thing I was supposed to do was find three different people to see if they would help me or not. I paced up and down the main aisle of the store, looking at each individual aisle to see if I could find an employee who wasn’t currently busy. Even though I had already had a bad experience with the store, I wanted to give them a fair chance to get a good review. As it turns out, my first experience with the store ended up being pretty typical of all the experiences I’ve had. The first person I approached pretended not to see me and just turned and walked away. The second person I approached did the same, so I followed her to another island. They ended up ignoring me twice. The third person I approached ended up talking on her personal cell phone, which was definitely against the rules.

Each mystery shop has a particular department that you will want to highlight. For this particular store, it was the kitchen cabinet department. I headed back to that apartment, looking like I was interested in buying some cabinets or at least asking a few questions. According to the instructions I received ahead of time, I was to wait at least 10 minutes to see if anyone was going to ask me any questions. After several people walked past me without acknowledging the fact that I was there, I finally decided it was time to reach out to someone. The person I approached was not only not interested in my questions, but also knew nothing about the area.

I know a mystery shopper isn’t supposed to take satisfaction in giving a bad report, even if he’s seeking personal revenge. In this particular case, however, giving them bad grades was quite appropriate. All he had to do was answer each question accurately and provide them with the names of certain employees. I felt like I was giving the company what they really wanted, an honest assessment.