Mystery Shopping a Funeral

Mystery Shopping a Funeral is Kind of Weird

I think I may have stooped to a new low.  During the first week of April I am mystery shopping two funeral visitations.  Seriously.  Is it just me, or is that a little bit creepy?  My instructions are to check the obituary listings in the local newspaper to find a funeral visitation to attend.  While I'm at the visitation I am supposed to hit up one of the employees for information about planning my own funeral and see what they tell me.  I also have to see if a memorial DVD is playing and whether flowers were neatly displayed.

Why would I do something like this?  Glad you asked.  Simple:  each completed shop pays $150.  In the world of mystery shopping, there are very few opportunities that pay as well as this.  I think I was paid somewhere close to this to go through the mortgage application process once.  But besides hotels, cash integrity shops and distant gas stations, most shops pay under $20.

Is this my new life?  One day I'm stepping into a truck stop shower, the next I'm crashing some family's last farewell.  Just goes to show that nothing is immune to the mystery shopping bug, not even death.