Google search:
mary kay party scam
Answer:
Yes, indeed! Beware the Mary Kay lady!
Mary Kay is a product based pyramid scheme, which means they use the product to lure you in, trumpet the potential of product sales, and then recruit you to be a consultant. Recruiting is the ultimate goal, and very little actual retailing of products goes on.
Mary Kay Inc. sells $2 billion (wholesale) to its consultants each year, and the bulk of that collects dust in basements and garages because there is not much of a market for the products. Read more about Mary Kay on this blog and on my consumer awareness site Pink Truth.
30 Oct 07 at 7:55 pm
Tracy, do we really know how much retailing actually goes on? At least with some companies, Avon, Tupperware, the SEC filings give us some clue as to how many people are selling and how much. But what can be done with private companies such as Mary Kay or Pampered Chef by way of analysis?
30 Oct 07 at 8:06 pm
You’re right… MK’s status as a private company means it doesn’t have to release numbers. But MK Inc. DOES know how much is (not) being sold. They track plenty of statistics, including doing an annual study which details appointments held and products sold. Why do you think they don’t voluntarily release the results of that annual study? They’ll hide behind the fact that it’s competitive data. I think it’s more because they know how little is being sold.
The unscientific evidence I’ve seen over the last 8 years strongly indicates that well under 50% of products purchased by consultants is actually sold. WELL UNDER. My best estimate is that somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% to 15% of product is actually sold to a bona fide retail customer.
Oh, how I’d love to get my hands on the documents that prove it.
30 Oct 07 at 8:07 pm
One more note, those SEC filings generally don’t give figures for actual retail sales. We’re still left to do a lot of guess-work with public companies too.
09 Nov 07 at 3:17 pm
I have never sold Mary Kay in my entire life.
But whoever wrote this blog, Is very unintelligent, and no wonder thier product is collecting dust…..as it would appear so is thier brain.
Only someone unintelligent would refer to a pyrimid scheme as being “Product Based” No such thing!!!
09 Nov 07 at 3:23 pm
Vicki,
I agree with you. What moran bases a pyramid scheme on product sales? Isn’t a pyramid scheme based on someone getting you money without exchange of a product or service? If not, then what is corporate america?
09 Nov 07 at 3:42 pm
Nice try Vicki/Laura… except Vicki’s comment was only visible to me and to her when Laura posted her reply. Hence Vicki and Laura are one in the same.
Now onto the issues…
Normally I don’t allow insults against me to be posted, but since you’ve shown your level of intelligence by your inability to even spell… well that speaks for itself.
And who would call a pyramid scheme “product based”? Many, many experts who apparently have far more knowledge of MLMs and pyramid schemes than you do.
Thanks, though, for entertaining us.