Although I’ve had my share of retail jobs over the years, I’ve never thought very much about secret shoppers — people who are hired to pretend to be shoppers in order to evaluate employees at hotels, restaurants and stores, then report to back to management — other than to hope, as a worker, I wasn’t secret shopped. Luckily, Michelle Langlois has given the practice a thorough assessment over at Rabble.ca, revealing why secret shopping is a serious labour issue for service workers, most of whom are women and young workers. Secret shopping, Langlois notes, is “a billion-dollar retail practice [that] entices low-wage workers to spy on other workers.” Read on for her other insights.