1.   Evergreen Bank has used mystery shoppers every three months for the last two years, said Dan Burke, senior vice president of retail banking.

2.   Indeed, almost every major American retail company regularly uses mystery shoppers.

3.   Kansas City shoppers were not used to buying jeans, garden fertilizer and a pot roast in one stop.

4.   Money used mystery shoppers in its survey, while Registered Representative and Oppenheimer used telephone interviews of clients who work with advisers.

5.   Observers believe shoppers better get used to them.

6.   Shoppers are used to seeing bank branches inside supermarkets.

7.   To combat the problem, retailers install theft sensors on merchandise and at doors, hire security guards and use mystery shoppers.

8.   U.S. shoppers are used to having bank cash machines in stores, but no supermarket has yet gone as far as setting up a fully fledged bank.