Amway went entirely the wrong-way with Quixtar. Supposedly the 'Quixtar Revolution,' as they called it, would play on the average person's belief that Internet commerce was where all the money in the future could be made. This, even though Amway has always been and still remains, a 'huckster-like' (face to face) recruitment scam, and in so many ways is an inefficient distribution system altogether (i.e. too many middlemen).
People falling for this Internet wave of the future 'ruse' discovered that Quixtar hadn't really changed after they dumped the Amway name in the U.S.. (They did engineer a online ordering, tracking and delivery system, but then, ironically, prevented the newly recruited supposed 'independents'--by contract--from using the Internet to advertise.)
A 'Quixtar Powered Business' really became an isolating affair for the duped so called 'independents' falling for all the talk about it being a 'Internet Powered Revolution' and other such stupidity. Quixtar 'reps' were--for all intents--the only customers Amway really had, and it did not serve their purpose to have each and every one of them operating their 'own' online store, after all, that is Quixtar/Amway's business; it's their house, it's their store! The Amway Corporation brags about their online sales, but it is only their own 'reps' who make up the customer base (as retail sales to outsiders are only about 4% of total sales).
Oh, sure, a 'distributor' might pay for his own web page on the Amway/Quixtar server, but these could not be accessed by the public as they were password protected. Amway knows how to take the 'independence' out of the word 'independent'. Former Amway 'defacto slaves' were forced to continue operating their recruitment schemes the way they always had before.
Even today, Amway makes the claim that they are the #1 Online Retailer in health and Beauty--a very dubious claim indeed! They obviously represent that these sales are retail, so they ironically admit that their own supposed sales people are their only real retail customers.
Who are Amway's retail customers? They would have the general public believe that it is someone other than their very own 'distributors' who never sell much of anything. So, these so called 'business owners' have always been the only significant customers Amway has ever had. They are the only jack-asses willing to pay extortion like prices for vitamins and cosmetics; all to play in Amway's prosperity dream con game.
All the 'reality inverting' books, tapes, and CDs sold by the 'kingpins' as business training tools (a secondary closed market swindle) contain 'thought stopping' logic (like the term PRO-SUMER) are designed to convince those (gullible enough to believe such blarney) that paying more for anything is a good deal; all while the Devos and Van Andel families continue to 'extract' their cash.
Amway ironically brags about how much cash they sucked out of their own 'reps' pockets; all as if to say that this represents success for those doing the paying?
Devos and Van Andel grew wealthy by operating a monopoly-like 'closed market swinde' on people who believed they could get rich by paying more.
'Pro-sumer' logic isn't anything new. It has been around a lot longer than this reality inverting 'neologism.' Ironically, people falling for such stupidity are also taught to blame themselves for failure. Most quietly leave Amway at some point, all the poorer for their troubles.
Recently it had been revealed that Amway Global's online ordering system had been 'hacked' into (for the second time). In response Amway claimed that "our house' had not been broken into. It had been reported that critical customer information (IBO contact information) had been stolen. Amway's business has always belonged to Amway, and this drives home the point that their so called independents are really the only online customers of any significance that they can brag about. Of course these IBOs are always represented as online customers when Amway makes their glorious reality inverting claims about being the #1 online retailer in the health and beauty, which in my opinion is a crock of pooh. How do they magically represent that purchases made by distributors are retail sales if their distributors aren't retail customers? Riddle me this?
Dear reader, if you've discovered this blog while researching the Amway 'Opportunity' that someone has shown you, you've found the right place to really find out about Amway. Now You Know!
4 comments:
The more telling number is less than 4% of Amway products are sold to non IBOs.
Where would that #1 sales ranking be with the sales reps buying all the goods?
The products are priced to be unsellable on a free and open market. They require a monopoly, or closed market, to sell. They need the 'pro-sumer' folk who stupidly rationalize the extortionary cost as the price to be paid to live the Amway dream, which in the end may be more difficult to achieve than the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
(...The following comment is from the guide to the Amway Labyrinth, David Brear. qiac...)
Although 'Amway' apologists steadfastly deny reality, time and again I've encountered destitute former 'MLM Distributors.' The one thing that they are all witnesses to, is the fact that they were taught to forget about retailing. They were continually told that the only pathway to 'Total Financial Freedom' was contained in a 'Proven Plan of Duplication' - purchase a fixed amount of products each month and recruit your friends and relations to do the same.
Anyone refusing to follow this closed-logic , closed-market program was deemed to be a dangerous negative - a loser who should be avoided and shunned.
However, all witnesses confess that in 'Amway' the organization's own products are deemed to be 'positive' and all other products 'negative' . This sounds quite harmless, until you realize that this classic form of Neuro Linguistic Programming is designed to dissociate individuals from external reality; it is also the basis of aversion therapy. In simple term, 'Amway' adherents are taught systematically to hate and fear everything and everyone that does not comply with their group's 'negative / positive' model of reality. This(essentially) is the same totalistic thought-reform program used in all cultic groups including 'Scientology' .
I have even interviewed former 'Amway' adherents who became so deluded, that they willingly allowed their so-called 'Upline Leaders' to conduct on-the-spot-searches of their homes, and that if any so-called 'negative products' were discovered, they had to be thrown in the trash. The feelings described by these witnesses on such occasions were of overwhelming guilt and shame. One woman told me that it was like having your parents search your bedroom for drugs.
David Brear
I have a new post up on Amway Global Cult Intervention that touches on similar topics as this post. Click here.
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