Beep, Beep, Beep, (shopandscan.com)

Member Name: Poppetshop

Product:	shopandscan.com
Date:	28/02/09 (130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: earn extra money, participate in market research, scan all your food shopping

Disadvantages: they don't accept new members online - it's invite only.

I've been a member of ShopandScan - a market research project, for about a year and a half now, and it's a great way of earning a little bit of extra money.

** What Is It? **

ShopandScan is run by TNS - a huge global market research company who have been around 60 years. The purpose is to measure the purchasing of groceries and food shopping in UK households. You are sent a pack which includes a "clicker" which is a small handheld barcode scanner, which looks a bit like a keyring, a USB cable to connect this to your PC, and a laminated scanner sheet, which lists all the shops you might visit and how much you spent.

** How does it work? **

Basically when you do your food shopping, as soon as you get back from the shop you get out your clicker. Firstly you must load in the information of which shop you have been to, and how much you have spent - this is on the scanner sheet, each has a barcode to scan to input the information. Then you scan each item of your shopping. Doesn't matter what order you do them in, I just scan as I put each item away, it really doesn't take any extra time at all. I actually quite enjoy the scanning part!! You then connect your clicker to your computer and transmit your barcodes to TNS. They require you to do this once a week. If you haven't bought anything you must still connect your clicker and transmit, this will show you haven't been shopping and you haven't forgotten.

** What do I get from it? **

Each time you scan your shopping you are given 1000 points. This translates into £1. They don't actually pay you cash, but you can use your points to redeem vouchers for pretty much every shop you can think of on the high street and online too. You can even save them up and redeem them on tickets to Theme Parks and attractions, so if you have something in mind that you want, it gives you motivation to keep scanning each week!

** How do I join? **

You can only join ShopandScan if you receive and invite code. This will come to you in the post when they are looking for shoppers in your area. I'm not entirely sure how they got my details, but when I got my invite I was more and happy to sign up and give it a go and I feel quite lucky to be one of the 'chosen ones' as I have lots of friends who want to do it and didn't get an invite!!

Overall I have been really satisfied with being a member of the TNS ShopandScan panel. I have received around £50-60 in vouchers so far, and will go on to hopefully earn lots more!

Summary: An excellent market research project