Glad it works for you!
I feel so out of touch. I have never heard of most of these things. The only ones i know about are Amway, Mary Kay, Avon, Tupperware, Discovery Toys, Pampered Chef and Cutco. The only parties I have ever been to are one “passion party,” hosted by a former work colleague, and a jewelry party hosted by my then babysitter. I bought something at the passion party, a powder of some sort, that has been in my drawer for more than 10 years. I will probably just throw it out at some point since I don’t even remember what it was for. I bought a pair of earrings at the jewelry party. They were heart shaped CZ diamonds and I wore them for years.
When my kids were younger, the separation between SAHM’s and working moms was intense. I had NO friends who did not work at least part-time until my youngest son was in K (a decade after the oldest). I guess that’s why I wasn’t invited, or maybe people just know I am cheap.
My oldest son got bamboozled into signing on to sell Cutco. I called them up and got him out of the contract, but I had to pay $145 for the set of knives. They are pretty good and worth it for that price, but not $600, IMHO.
" I feel so out of touch. I have never heard of most of these things. The only ones i know about are Amway, Mary Kay, Avon, Tupperware, Discovery Toys, Pampered Chef and Cutco."
Me too! Heard of Lularoe because it’s been discussed here… but other stuff… does not really ring a bell.
Thumper, that Tupperware show was hysterical! The man doing the show was wearing a Flirty Apron, which got me started on them. I still use the Tupperware pieces I ordered
I bought one cutco knife when I let my friends kid do a demo. I loved it so much I ordered a whole set from him a month later with no prodding. I LOVE my Cutco knives. They are better for me an unskilled cook than the really expensive ones I tried at my chefs friendss vacation home which I found hard to handle.
Man, I’d forgotten how many of these businesses there were/are!
No one has even mentioned my two personal LEAST favorites , Princess House (china and crystal) and Home Interiors (just plain junk).
I donated all of my princess house stuff. I didn’t have much, thank goodness. But oddly, I had four crystal holders for forks, spoons so i could rack them up if I had a buffet. I never used them. They must have been the cheapest thing in the catalog!
A friend and her husband, who were both in healthcare, hosted a party to try to get the rest of their healthcare provider friends to buy into a Rexall vitamin/supplement MLM thing. That was an epic fail and a big no.
More than 25 years ago, a Kirby vacuum salesman came to the house while my (now ex) husband was home with the kids. Hubby told the guy to wait til I got home, which he did, for about two hours. He then starts his demo, my H leaves for work, D gets dressed for soccer practice, and this guy will not leave and I was too nice and polite to throw him out. D missed soccer practice, and I finally bought the vacuum, which I did need, but really couldn’t afford.
About 5 or 6 years later, after divorce, a Kirby guy knocks on my door. I tell him I already have one. He says I have an old and he now has the new and improved version. I refuse to let him in and tell him three times I’m not interested. Finally, my nice wore off and I said, “If you don’t get off of my property right now, I’m calling the police.” He left in a hurry and no Kirby person has been to my house since. I still hate that vacuum.
I got suckered into hosting a jewelry party for a friend years ago. I think two people showed up. I’ve never done it again.
I’ve watched the first 2 podcasts of “the dream: MLM” and it resonates with me. I’m sad to know that people that are well educated and have good full time jobs still are sucked into MLM. It’s even more troubling to see their educated child who also has a college degree and also is a full time teacher going down the MLM path as well.
One thing that I find interesting, is that my sister who sells ThirtyOne watched as her very quiet introvert son spent nearly all of a 20k plus inheritance from his grandfather, and many years of his life trying to make a go of it with AMWAY. My sister absolutely hates AMWAY for what she feels was a callous robbery of her child’s energy, emotions, and cash. I remember her talking about how the son would come back from AMWAY conventions all pumped-up about his future with the business, and I see her Facebook posts about her excitement about the ThirtyOne conventions.
What I don’t see is her putting the dots together. Is ThirtyOne OK because she likes the products and feels that at least when they are on sale they are reasonably priced? Is it OK because of the “female empowerment” message that the founder projects? Is MLM OK for her because of her personality, but bad for her son because of his? I’d really like to know what she thinks.
I sold Tupperware when I was in grad school. Really…the only one who was making real money was my manager. But each party, I did net about $40 which in 1975 was a good amount of money. I did maybe two parties a month. I wasn’t cut out for that kind of work.
My manager took me to one state Tupperware convention, and the whole group stood up and sang “I’ve Got that Tupperware Feeling Down in my Heart”…complete with hand motions (it’s done in Dixie’s Tupperware party…). It was nauseating.
@happymomof1 – that’s a great question. No answer for you though. It’s always easier to spot the flaws in what someone else is doing. She probably doesn’t see ThirtyOne as MLM because it doesn’t have the years of negative publicity of Amway. She either has some success or gets a “high” of some sort from the selling.
That’s why I mentioned peer pressure–it’s easier to get dragged into stuff when the “herd” mentality is ignited.
There was a study in Utah, where there are over 600 MLMs active—highest per capita participation in the world. It concluded 99.6% of participants lose money in it. You really haven’t a chance against odds that bad. It is frequently tied to women and religion, including Amway and 31. :-&
^^That’s some statistic, @HImom.
Originally it was Avon where I used a couple products and my d’s all still really like their eye make up remover. But it’s been years since I’ve been to a party…last time (it was a number of years ago) I just went online and ordered it. Otherwise, I’ve gotten suckered into Stella and Dot, Creative Memories and a few others. Once I attended a few, I realized I just couldn’t bring myself to feel pressured to buy things I didn’t want and just declined. The exception was when a very good friend started selling Etcetera clothing. I bought one or two things and then had to just be honest with her that the price point didn’t work for me. No one was happier than I was when she gave it up.
In the podcast, “The Dream” amout MLMs, they do a lot of in depth reporting about the reasons that MLMs are allowed to persist and the numbers—why it just does not work financially for all but the few tippy top folks who cajole folks to “keep the faith.”
I also was reading reddit, some in depth research on MLM numbers—the vast, vast majority of people make no money or lose money on MLMs. There were numbers provided by the MLMs own records of all the people who made $0 by their own reports.
It’s sad to read how apologetic people are when they decide to quit MLMs; they’re made to feel they’re a quitter and that they don’t want to be rich and aren’t willing to work hard enough or don’t believe in themselves, etc. The truth is that they are mostly all making far, far below minimum wage when all their time and inventory is expensed and they could do much better if they got a minimum wage part time job!
If this is allowed, here’s the link for the MLM financial disclosures.
http://www.sequenceinc.com/fraudfiles/2017/04/mlm-income-disclosure-statements/
Longsaberger baskets from 25 years ago. I’ve gotten rid of all but 3, that I still don’t use much. The only thing I use constantly is my manual chopper from Pampered Chef. I use a lot of onions in my cooking and I bet I use it twice a week. Oh…,I also use the garlic press a lot.
Can someone explain to me the difference between MLM and a pyramid scheme? I have a friend who is selling a product called the Bemer. It’s a device that uses an electromagnet field (it’s like a big heating pad–with lots of stuff attached to it) to help in healing and well-being (friend’s description). When I asked more about the product, the friend who is selling it said that it was an MLM and not a pyramid scheme–which, she claims, makes it legitimate. I politely refused–especially when I heard about the price ($$$$).