Debunking Some Amway Arguments?

From another forum:
Quote:
The majority of volume comes from the two major brands of Nutrilite and Artistry, both of which are generally cheaper than the competitors.

Not true. They are, in fact, far more expensive. Let's take Nutrilite: Their vitamin C tablets (300 tablets) cost -- are you sitting down? -- $52.49. Compare this to, say, Shoprite's vitamins which cost (for 100 tablets) $3.95, or about one fifth the price of Amway's stuff. This 5:1 price difference is typical of Amway products. Amway lies and says it's due to the products "superior quality" -- their Vitamin C is "natural" or "organic" or whatever (yeah, like the molecules give a flying duck!) But the truth is that it is more expensive because ca. 70% or so of Amway's sticker price is payments and commissions to the "uplines" in the pyramid. Except for, perhaps, other, even more expensive pyramid schemes (I presume that's who you mean by "competitors"), Amway's products are ludicrously overpriced.


Quote:
The majority of Amway's members are not in the US. Amway is a business, not a job.

Actually, It is a job. Amway reps are salesmen whose sales pay for their upline, their upline's upline's, and so on, comissions -- just like a saleslman in a store pays for his boss, his bosses' boss, etc., salary. It is only a "business" in one sense -- you don't get paid. Unlike salesmen in stores or other places, Amway folks work on full commission, get no salary, health benefits, or anything else. Heck, they don't even need to be fired if they stop selling -- they fire themselves by not renewing. It's no wonder their bosses, the "upline", love them so much. They work for them for free!


Quote:
Like any startup you will generally work for little or nothing for months or years to reach decent profitability.

Not really. Startups finally become profitable IF THEY SELL ENOUGH PRODUCTS OR SERVICES TO THE PUBLIC. Amway folks only become profitable if they GET ENOUGH PEOPLE BELOW THEM IN THE PYRAMID. Nobody cares about the product -- it's just an excuse that officially makes the pyramid legal. It's not as if anybody except for Amway drones, brainwashed by their "upline" to be "team players", actually buys a $52.49 bottle of vitamin pills -- of which $40 or so is pure commission to the upline, the upline's upline, the upline's upline's upline...


Quote:
The rest of your "analysis" is based on this false assumption it's a job. Please compare to starting an running a business, with all the attendent strengths and weaknesses.

WHAT strengths?
It is a business selling incredibly overpriced products, where nobody has any contractual guarantee of any territory, and in which you are very strongly encouraged to RECRUIT YOUR OWN COMPETITION. If Amway were a business where the goal was to make money selling products, it is a suicidal business plan -- it's as if McDonald's priced their hamburgers at $100 a piece, and encouraged every franchise owner, not to sell hamburgers, but to recruit every customer to open another McDonald's next door in order to "join the great opportunity".

Amway's pricing and strategy of recruiting make it crystal clear that it isn't a business, but merely a pyramid scheme where the real, indeed the only, money is found by getting people "under" you to buy tons of overpriced stuff so you'll get a comission... just like YOU paid tons of money to YOUR upline buying tons of overpriced stuff so HE'LL get a comission.