Pros
An ASC Retail employee can choose which store(s) they would like to be assigned from a list of available stores and (s)he may choose as few as a single store. I signed up to perform merchandising for a clothing brand manufacturer at one store that is near my home so that minimal driving is involved. Assignments are one hour in duration, once per month and employees schedule their visits within a decent range of dates provided by ASC Retail. You may have noticed that I have specifically used the term "employee" several times now; this is because ASC Retail properly classifies its employees as employees, not 'independent contractors'. That's nice because people who work as independent contractors sometimes get a surprise when they file their taxes because that is often when they realize that, as independent contractors, they are responsible for the employee's AND THE EMPLOYER'S tax obligations (because they are their own employer). So it's nice that ASC Retail doesn't take advantage of the people who work for them in that way.
Cons
Pay; employees are only allotted up to one hour to complete their assignments. One hour is barely enough time to take pictures of the back stock area (notice that I said 'take pictures of', they actually want you to search through a massive conveyor belt of hanging clothing for a specific manufacturer's products and bring any out, onto the sales floor but you will not have time for that). As an employee, you would then, go to the sales floor and take a bunch of 'before' pictures of all the manufacturer's displays. Locate specific clothing items and use them to update the mannequin (updating a mannequin involves disassembling it, removing the clothing that was on it, re-dressing it, and finally reassembling it). Stage the clothing that the mannequin is now dressed in, on the displays next to the mannequin. Next, straighten up all the manufacturer's displays which involves grouping products and arranging them by size, removing products from other manufacturers, and facing all hangers in the same direction (ASC Retail wants you to follow a very specific and intricate plan-o-gram but, again, you do not have time for that). Lastly, take a bunch of 'after' pictures of all the manufacturer's displays. By this time, your one hour is up and you must return to the Customer Services desk to sign out, complete your one-page visit summary/confirmation and have it signed. Once you get home from the store, you get to log into the ASC Retail website, complete a form regarding the visit (similar to the one you had signed at the store) and upload all your before and after pictures, and place them side-by-side for easy comparison. After you have completed all of this (and read through the pages of instructions that they email to you for each visit), you will be compensated a total sum of $13. If you choose to sign up for one store, you will be paid $13 (about $11 after taxes), once per month. -Obviously, money is not the driving factor for my choice to perform this work. I would say that it has more to do with nostalgia for me; I had worked in retail when I was a teenager and this provides me with an opportunity to re-experience some of that time. Clearly, since there is no additional compensation (i.e. mileage reimbursement, office supply reimbursement, etc.), it would definitely not make good financial sense to sign up for more than one store unless you knew you would be in the area(s) of any additional store(s) anyway (i.e. if you were regularly in another area that there is another store available due to already being in the area for your real job).
