My wife got into that lularoe shit. We set a limit, which she promptly blew past. You just had all these people, including the owners, telling you to buy buy buy.
They prey on people’s insecurities. They take advantage of them.
Call my wife stupid, I’m sure someone will because this is Lemmy where everyone is self righteous, but I think you don’t really understand the power of manipulation these companies wield until you see it firsthand. It’s actually really sad and dangerous what they do to people. And my wife has a successful career and makes 6 figures, we don’t need the money, but they still had her convinced she had to do this. I thought it would be a side hobby for her, but they were not kind to her. (Well, they were, but only to get money.)
I remember trying to warn her that the company makes money when she buys, not when she sells. I don’t think it sunk in, and let’s face it, that’s how retail works in general. But with regular retail, you control what you get - Lularoe just sent whatever quantity of leggings, blouses, dresses, etc you ordered. You had no control over the patterns. I’m not sure if you even got to pick what sizes you received.
Early on I helped, but I got tired of spending time and energy so she could sell one pair of leggings. She went to a few group sales things and would spend hours sitting there, plus all the prep and tear down time, plus gas, all to sell like three things. She only went to two of those.
A host of other companies jumped in to help, for a price. Website. Square. Stamps.com.
We still have some in the basement. I want to burn it, but we donate some to charities now and then, and occasionally neighbors and friends will come raid it (we give it to them free). We started watching the documentary on Amazon about it, but never finished. My wife was just too angry.
One meeting we went to before she got into it had the head of Lularoe on video conference. She talked about having “600 new arts each week”, ie 600 patterns. That comment runs through my head every time I see a particularly ugly lularoe pattern.
Ehhh at least I got a new camera out of it, for taking pictures of the stock.
I joined the antimlm sub on reddit for a while hoping for advice and info, but it was just a very negative sub, mocking people and no helpful advice. I unsubbed after a few weeks. Fortunately my wife eventually figured it out.
You’re not going to stop people from doing this by showing them numbers. You have to realize it’s an emotional thing. They are preying on emotions. You have to find a way to fight that.
I’ve been fussed at by my ex and a few of her friends for NOT supporting the “insert product” sold by friend x. Last one was Wine. This nasty ass shit gave me a headache from the taster, and you want me to spend $25 a bottle because, and i quote, “love red wine and it all tastes the same anyway”. Its a horrid spiral of preying on emotions and hopes and dreams, worsened by that one friend who happens to be up high enough in the mlm foodchain to make a ton of money “first” on all current and new mlm ventures.
I don’t have the wife anymore (unrelated) and I’ve dropped the friends that force mlm. I don’t miss them.
Most people are susceptible to scams like MLMs otherwise they wouldn’t keep running the same scam. It doesn’t mean you’re smart or dumb, you just may not be aware of the social engineering and manipulation tactics they use or lack an effective skeptical epistemology to avoid accepting claims without good justification. Most people who are in a cult don’t realize the organization they are in is a cult. I have an otherwise very intelligent sibling who fell for the essential oils MLM scam. They often use tactics and language similar to cults: in group/out group tribalism, indoctrination, isolation, love bombing, fear and hate mongering, etc.
It really is hard. A guy I used to work with is in one DEEP. He hits up former coworkers and even their friends on Facebook trying to lure them in. I had a few conversations and genuinely tried to reach him but it’s just impossible. It eventually came to the point that, when he was talking about all the money he made (2k in a few hours work (this one time)), I told him to send his 1099 and if it beat my W-2 I would join him.
Spoiler alert: he never sent it.
This was early on in our convos. I could’ve opened a little softer but I took a more probing stance after.
Are they different things or is that the joke?
Yes. Basically, both work similar but an MLM is an actual business while a pyramid scheme just fakes to be one.
Take Tupperware for instance. Independent of its structure as a customer you get a real product / service. There is an actual transaction between a customer and a company (reseller). A customer does not need to be part of the MLM.
In a pyramid scheme the money comes directly and only from its participants. It just redistributes it. As long as the scheme grows this works until it eventually collapses.
I think it’s analogous to the joke where you say: “I’d call you a monkey but that’d be an insult to monkeys”
MLMs are legal and pyramid schemes are not. I don’t know the legal details but I imagine it’s because of the tricky pay scheme and that people are losing money and that the fact that MLMs can’t be called pyramid schemes due to some weird rule is laughable because they seem worse.
I forgot tupperware was (…or still is??) an MLM scheme. I remember hearing about “tupperware parties” when I was a kid and thinking adults needed better toys, like Legos or something.
Lot more bloat with MLMs, shitty supplements and all.
