mystery shop

mystery shop noun: an instance of mystery shopping; a visit to a business as a mystery shopper.

Noun

mystery shop (plural mystery shops)

An instance of mystery shopping; a visit to a business as a mystery shopper.
- Immediately following the mystery shop, the independent contracter will fill out a static questionnaire that records respective levels of disclosure, customer service and sales effectiveness.1994, United States. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on Aging, Uninsured Bank Products: Risky Business for Seniors?
- Part of our work can be doing a mystery shop. This entails going along to shops, banks, or even the passport office, and pretending to be a customers or a potential customer.2010, Shelley Dekker, I'm a Street Girl Now, page 140

mystery shop (third-person singular simple present mystery shops, present participle mystery shopping, simple past and past participle mystery shopped)

(ambitransitive) To work as a mystery shopper; to pose as a customer or client in order to evaluate a business.
- Don't assume that because you have been mystery shopping for a while, or because you have mystery shopped for the same company or client before, that you know what to do.2004, Cathy Stucker, The Mystery Shopper's Manual
- However, if your budget is too tight to afford these services, then you might want to consider enlisting a friend or family member to mystery shop for you.2007, James Stephenson, Ultimate Small Business Marketing Guide

The best-scheduled day could start with a mystery shop at a local fast-food restaurant (breakfast paid for and one to go) followed by a service station shop ($5 in gas).2011, Judith Adkins-Spears, Jump-Start Your Merchandising Career:
Every imaginable type of business is mystery shopped.2009, PamInCa, The Essential Guide to Mystery Shopping, page 10:
One of my favorite ways to improve a business is to mystery shop.2017, Mike Agugliaro, The Secrets of Business Mastery:

Noun
plural	mystery shops
Verb
third-person singular present	mystery shops
present participle	mystery shopping
past participle	mystery shopped
past	mystery shopped

What does mystery shop mean?: Mystery shop means an instance of mystery shopping; a visit to a business as a mystery shopper.
How do you use mystery shop in a sentence?: The best-scheduled day could start with a mystery shop at a local fast-food restaurant (breakfast paid for and one to go) followed by a service station shop ($5 in gas).
What part of speech is mystery shop?: Mystery shop can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of mystery shop?: The plural of mystery shop is mystery shops.

Adapted from Wiktionary: mystery shop (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “mystery shop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mystery_shop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.