I really don’t love the parties. I do have a bunch of Pampered Chef stuff that I use regularly but I haven’t been to a party in years. I also have the Norwex window cleaning cloths and those are almost miraculous. I also have Norwex cloths for eyeglasses which work great.
I’ve bought one Tupperware item that I use sometimes.
I’ll also be very glad to be done with kids’ school fundraisers. No more butterbraids or cookie dough for me. I’d rather donate cash than get stuck with that in my freezer.
Hosting a party to sell stuff would be 100% be an event that I would dread and cause me much anxiety!
Years ago, when we bought our first home, it was in an area of starter homes with a lot of young families. There were SAHMs on the block that would invite us to this sort of thing regularly.
I always dreaded it. I’d have an easier time politely declining an invite nowadays.
I do buy Mary Kay moisturizer. I don’t wear make up and so don’t buy it. I am very fair and also lazy. I use the MK moisturizer because it has sun screen in it and the lady mails it to me, so I don’t have to go anywhere to pick it up!
I have alot of Tupperware, it lasts forever and if something breaks it either gets replaced or I get a credit towards something new.
I have one Longaberger basket, it is a small address basket. It still has addresses in it from 20 years ago. it is hiding upstairs in the spare bedroom. I now have all the addresses on the computer and rarely go up and look in that basket.
It’s been some years since I was invited to a home sale party and I think at this point I would decline. The only purchases I ever made at home parties were Tupperware, back when I was a newlywed and needed some containers.
Many years ago I attended a Mary Kay party and a jewelry party, but bought nothing. I turned down an invitation to a Longaberger party as the products didn’t appeal to me.
Before our daughter started school, I hosted 2 DK books parties. DK makes great books-- we owned a number-- and I was happy to promote them (and to get more as hostess rewards.) Subsequently DK was sold and the home parties division was terminated. I suppose it’s one thing to order plastic containers from a catalog photo, another to order children’s books that one has not been able to leaf through.
I have been to a few tupperware and pampered chef parties over the years and have bought stuff, almost all of which I still have. A family member was selling Mary Kay for a while and I bought some mascara from her, she only sold Mary Kay for a few months, though. I can’t stand Amway and Cutco, those people are so pushy! My sister in law got invited to a passion party where they sold “adult goodies” she said it was sooooo awkward!
@Parentof2014grad Oh god, the school fundraisers! Not just from my own kids, but from other people’s kids as well. I like to be supportive, but come on! We had one of those huge tubs of cookie dough in our freezer for months! Those things probably make at least 500 cookies! For many years most of the gift wrap we owned was from my kids and other kids selling wrapping paper. Now, I just buy bags and tissue paper from Target. I didn’t mind the magazine fundraisers too much. I also never said no to Girl Scout cookies, but it’s been a few years since I’ve bought anything since no one I know has kids in Girl Scouts anymore. Geez, we could start a whole thread on school fundraisers!
Like many of you, I still have and love some Pampered Chef items that I got over 15+ years ago. My friend recently had a “virtual party” (just online, look at some ads and buy if you want) and I happily replaced the items that had broken since that one PC party so long ago. I bought and sold Arbonne, and still use it for myself happily with the discount.
Ah Longaberger…my sister in law lives near the HQ and the basket building looks pretty sad these days. Those were a lot of jobs that dried up in an area that needed them. I guess it was great while it lasted. They built a whole retail area that I wonder if it is still standing. I still use my Longaberger breast cancer awareness mugs every single day, I tell you those mugs keep my coffee warmer than any other mug!
^^^ I visited the BIG BASKET headquarters, the main storefront and the town of Dresden downtown area which was basically “all things basket” a few times years ago. Easy since I’m in Ohio. There used to be buses that would literally haul hoards of women to shop there!
Eons ago, when I had little kids, the next door neighbor invited me over. Silly me, I thought it was so we could get to know each other. When I got there, there were about a dozen people all unknown to me. I got handed catalog but the hostess got mixed up and I got her script. Amway! And the opening line was " invite friends and neighbors over but don’t tell them why." I came up with an excuse shortly afterwards.
Longaberger- I got invited to two parties by two neighbors at the same time and day.
Mary Kay- I don’t wear make up (only for special events) and the hostess told me how much better I looked with foundation on. Uh…nice and no, I’m not buying it.
^^^That’s awful! A fake invite!!!
I uses to use Amway powdered laundry detergent…and I really liked it…a lot. But my salesperson quit selling…too bad.
@jym626 use that Skin So Soft for one of its many other uses! It cleans patent leather very nicely, for example.
I sold Barefoot Books for a while when my kids were small. I’m not much of a salesperson, so I put too much money in and didn’t make any. But the books were gorgeous and we still have a number of them among the books to be saved for grandchildren (at our children’s request). I bought very sparingly from a couple of Pampered Chef parties and from someone at work who sells it, and I do like the pieces I have. Someone else at work sells an overpriced but really pretty jewelry line. So far I haven’t succumbed.
wonder if the skin so soft will work on car leather
Amway is like a religion!
H and I were furious when an attending doc while he was a resident invited us as a family to what we thought was a party and turned out to be Amway. (H knew she sold it but she assured him it wasn’t–went by some other name but was definitely part of the Amway family). I mean c’mon, she was a doc, her husband was a research scientist, but they needed a fancier lifestyle and tried to rope us in. My kids were stuck playing with her kids who were kind of mean. Everything about that still makes me angry and it was like thirty years ago!
I think it’s wrong to invite folks over under false pretenses, but especially when one works together. Talk about awkward! I rarely had our kids sell things – generally we just bought or donate whatever the recommended amount was and were done with it. The exceptions were entertainment books when they had good offers, like 50% off at restaurants that were popular and enjoyed by the people wanting to buy the book for $30 and later we made discount cards that we sold and our school was able to keep close to 100%! It was a great fundraiser @ $10 per card and using local merchants that supported the schools. It was a win/win.
https://www.smore.com/zz9s9-100-uses-for-skin-so-soft-bath-oil
- Use it to clean leather; it will also keep it soft and supple
I still use my pampered chef cookie press for the holidays. It has been quite a while since I have been to one of these parties. Are they less common or did my friends all get “real jobs” (or realize they that once they ran out of friends, they weren’t really able to sell a lot). A co-worker used to sell Avon and I would buy some things from her.
Tupperware and Discovery toys were probably the parties I actually purchsed stuff at. And occasionally jewelry at the later parties. I still know someone that sells Stella and Dot. And my niece is selling the essential oils from Young Life or something like that.
Can you order these products directly online now? That may be why there are fewer parties.
The big ones around here are Thirty One (never been to a party), scentsy, and Rodan and Fields.
No thank you!
My charity thrift store gets Pampered Chef Apple peeler corer slicers all the time…can’t sell them for $1. And used Tupperware? That’s hard to sell also.
I bought my PC apple peeler at a Goodwill. I think people get caught up in how “fun” it looks to peel apples and get suckered in - then stick it in a cupboard and forget about it! - till they donate to the thrift shop!
Oh yeah,Thirty One. One of our docs was selling it for awhile - I never understood why…he H is a surgeon and she can afford to buy all the product she desires. I actually never liked any of the looks they had.
I fell for some 31 a number of years ago and never loved it. It appealed at the party but is definitely geared to young mommies taking their kids to the pool crowd.