http://desicritics.org/ Superior South Asian bloggers on Culture, Media, Politics, Sport, Business, and Technology. en Copyright 2006 by the authors Fri, 6 Jun 2008 11:29:48 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss BC custom software http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-334122 My neighbor, an old lady became a widow way back in the 60s. and she brought up her children, by herself with Tupperware sales for over 50 years! 334122@desicritics.org Fri, 6 Jun 2008 11:29:48 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-331137 Good article and sage comments...everyone seems well informed. I add the following reinforcement from the US Federal Trade Commission: "Be skeptical if a distributor tells you that for the price of a "start-up kit" of inventory and sales literature - and sometimes a commitment to sell a specific amount of the product or service each month - you'll be on the road to riches. Often consumers spend a lot of money to "build their business" by participating in training programs, buying sales leads or purchasing the products themselves. Too often, these purchases are all they ever see for their investments." http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts /pyrdalrt.shtm Ciao, Guido 331137@desicritics.org Sat, 3 May 2008 07:28:03 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-331134 A friend of mine tried to induct me way back during college days. I found the idea of hosting dinner parties and selling tupperware to be social suicide. 331134@desicritics.org Sat, 3 May 2008 06:33:26 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-331113 Interesting! I too floated on the fringes of the Avon pyramid for awhile. I used it mainly to buy stuff for myself at the discounted rate, then realised I wasn't getting proportionate commissions and I was buying make up I never used. Fortunately I realised my folly before I spent too much and don't go near any pyramid schemes with a barge pole. 331113@desicritics.org Fri, 2 May 2008 19:42:57 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-331007 MLMs work on a 60-80% profit margin. a "decent" MLM has their products at the 60% level and the "bad" ones at 80% (maybe even more) The problem with the Us is that most people have no idea of what any "product" is truly worth. In India, owing to a strong awareness of manufacturing and what commodity costs are, it is easy to "peg" the cost of a product. As long as you look at MLMs as "supplementary" income rather than making your riches, I think they are yet another "indulgence" towards greed! 331007@desicritics.org Fri, 2 May 2008 03:14:56 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-331006 MLMs work on a 60-80% profit margin. a "decent" MLM has their products at the 60% level and the "bad" ones at 80% (maybe even more) The problem with the Us is that most people have no idea of what any "product" is truly worth. In India, owing to a strong awareness of manufacturing and what commodity costs are, it is easy to "peg" the cost of a product. As long as you look at MLMs as "supplementary" income rather than making your riches, I think they are yet another "indulgence" towards greed! 331006@desicritics.org Fri, 2 May 2008 03:14:03 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-328300 Great review! I have 4 books that I am in various stages of reading, and all are about Amway/Quixtar. They are "Behind the Smoke and Mirrors", "Amway The Cult Of Free Enterprise", "Consumed By Success", and "The Dark Side of The Pyramid". "The Dark Side of The Pyramid" also has the original "Fake it 'till you make it" by Phil Kerns. Thanks for the inspiration. 328300@desicritics.org Sun, 6 Apr 2008 13:55:29 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-327366 Ledzius and Ruvy thanks for sharing your experiences. @Billy: The link doesn't appear to be authentic enough and we're expected to pay for reading rest of the article... Please share links from any well known magazines/newspapers/government agency websites 327366@desicritics.org Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:23:53 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-327365 Ex-Amway distributor admits lying http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=HRNB&p_theme=hrnb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_referrer=HRNB&s_dispstring=Scheibeler&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=("Scheibeler")&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no 327365@desicritics.org Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:03:03 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-327342 There is an old saying in the States credited to P.T. Barnum - "never give a sucker an even break". And Amway and the many other Ponzi-like schemes are perfect examples of this. Having floated on the edge of such schemes for a while, and even having sold Tupperware once, I figured out that the real money was in hustling the motivational materials, and in sucking in fresh blood all the time, thus selling the company's central delusion of ever expanding wealth. When I was trained as a Burger King manager many years ago, it was made clear to me that what I was selling was the delusion of flavor - that I was hustling dreams to hungry people watering at th the mouth to consume them. The same "Whopper" is sold by Amway and its brother con-artists - but instead of deluding the customer, you are persuaded to delude yourself. 327342@desicritics.org Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:27:30 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-327338 When in the US, I had come across many Indian couples who were into Amway. Needless to say, they were an annoying lot. They would walk up to an unsuspecting fellow Indian at a grocery store and begin their conversation with a lie : "Oh, have we met before?" or, "You attended XYZ college, didn't you?". Even if you answer in the negative, they would not leave you then. Of course, doing so would defeat the purpose. I considered them losers who needed to get a life. They generally had few friends outside of their Amway circle. And they had to religiously attend Amway meetings dressed in suits, like going to church. I had the misfortune of attending one such meeting at the invitation of someone I knew. The word "cult" came to my mind. 327338@desicritics.org Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:03:05 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-327332 Thanks People for your comments. @Smallsquirrel: It is proven truth that only people at top make money. @NAveen... I am prepared for insane comments... Let us see... 327332@desicritics.org Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:32:31 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-327309 Wow!! You have guts to write about this and other MLM schemes!!. I wrote an article once and got whole page comments ridiculing me and my thoughts on Ponzi and other MLM schemes. So bad in fact, that I took the article down. I advice you - prepare to get INSANE comments supporting MLM schemes on this post!!! 327309@desicritics.org Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:49:32 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-327304 actually, I misspoke... I just read up on what my understanding was and apparently they were not forced to restructure and were not declared a pyramid scheme. they were charged with tax evasion, though. anyway, I still hold the opinion that they only server to make the people at the top very rich. 327304@desicritics.org Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:32:52 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-327303 There is a reason why Amway was forcibly dissolved in the US and was declared illegal. It is a pyramid scheme, and only the people at the very top get rich. The government here finally stepped in to stop the madness because so many people fell for the scam. 327303@desicritics.org Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:27:55 EDT http://desicritics.org/2008/03/29/111543.php#comment-327302 Wow. Amazing. 327302@desicritics.org Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:21:34 EDT