I will get to the juice in a minute. But first let me reminisce: I remember the first network marketing company my wife and I joined a number of years ago. The business presentation left such an impression on me that after twenty years, I can still visualize the plan being drawn on a white board showing us how we would make money and also save money on their varied products. Yes, we would save money because all of the middle men were cut out: no distributors, no wholesalers, no retailers. The products would flow directly to us along with all of the savings.
That night we asked to see a price list YETI ONE GALLON for their products and were coyly told that it would be given to us after we signed-up. We were again assured that everything was below supermarket prices and we would pocket the savings.
Savings. Yeah, right.
Not only did we pay more for the products (and got much less in terms of quantity) but in some cases the quality was worse than a typical store brand.
When I pointed this out to our sponsor, he appeased me by stating that within a month or two it would not make a difference as the commissions flowing up from our downline would more than pay for our orders. Needless to say, that did not happen.
Over the years I have managed to steer clear of product based networking businesses fearing way over the top pricing in spite of value claims. I did quite well at avoiding them until this past November. That is when I must have had an attack of stupidity and joined a juice network marketing company.
The monthly autoship came out to $250 for 8 bottles of this juice. To illustrate how irrational that juice purchase decision was on my part I would like you to visualize yourself at your local supermarket. Now, let’s add a few shopping carts…say 10 or so. Each one filed with 10 one gallon jugs of juice. Get the picture. And, to make matters worse, imagine yourself doing this month after month after month.
Okay, my “genius” decision was purchasing juice. What’s yours? Cosmetics? Cleaning supplies? Overpriced services you would never consider had they not been packaged in a network marketing program?