I love consumer research panels!

Yesterday, I participated in a consumer research panel.  It was about a sweet snack food, and the panel consisted of four women between the ages of 30 and 57.  We talked - and were video taped - for 2 hours and received $75 for our time.

I was the oldest panel member.  I was also the skinniest, even though I never got rid of "middle aged spread" before "medication weight gain" kicked in and before I stopped being very active due to chronic pain and chronic illnesses.  Depending on the charts, I'm somewhere between 15 and 20 pounds more than I should be at my height and age.  But the other women?  Wow.  We're talking big.

My family wondered why I was chosen for this panel, since the food product is not something we have regularly in the house.  None of us would care if said snack food disappeared from the face of the earth.  Well, maybe we would, as we might like to eat "it" or "them" once or twice per year.

The other women admitted to eating said sweet snack almost every morning, as well as often in the afternoons and sometimes in the evenings if there were left overs.

I had to wonder how we - Americans - came to be that way.  What happened to eating fresh fruit for snacks, instead of calorie laden sweets?

Oh well.  I did enjoy getting paid $75 for 2 hours of talking.  :)

Next week, I have to go and pick up another food item at another consumer research office.  With that one, I merely have to pick up the food, bring it back to the house to sample, then log onto their web site to answer some questions.  And for that I'll get $25, which more than pays for the gas I'll use to get there and the few minutes I'll spend answering questions.

Also next week I'm expecting a food product to arrive by FedEx (with dry ice) that I have to sample.  After doing a survey on that one, I'll get $12 deposited into my PayPal account.

What fun.  You can't depend on this as income especially since some consumer research companies (or their clients) have rules about how many panels you can be on, even for different companies, in the span of 3 or 6 months.  Still, there do seem to be more opportunities at this time year, and the extra money comes in handy.

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Remember, even if you live in a small town, if there are any major corporations or manufacturers in the area, you might have consumer/market research companies doing research for those companies.  In bigger cities like where I am in Cincinnati, there are dozens of such companies seeking panelists.  And, if you know a male between 18 and 30, you should tell him to seek these opportunities out as well.  That seems to be the group for which they seem to have the hardest time finding participants.