re: Lets talk about Amway

I was approached by someone trying to get me to sell that shite over 30 years ago. The guy went on and on about how much money I'd save on both name brands as well as the amway brand of household cleaners. I ended the conversation with "if it's so cheap, let me shop (be a customer) and find out for myself."

Never heard from the guy again.

I always wondered why they had to use deception to get people signed up.

Not a good sign.

Can you draw the pyramid sign on it ?

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They had a huge convention here at The Pyramid.

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Seems a little on the nose...

frick Scamway!

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Amway destroyed my family. Not even joking. My parents got too deep into it and it ruined us financially. Mid to late 90s.

May Dexter Yager and Bill Britt rot in hell.

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Interesting…..they just bought a bunch of inventory, or what?

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My parents and my dad's side of the family all got pretty heavily involved in Amway in the 90s and were a part of Dexter Yager's group.

My parents were always gone away to functions and weekend Amway meetings so I and my cousins spent a lot of time with babysitters.

My parents didn't really open up about Amway until just a few years ago. Amway does a good job at brainwashing their members. It's a cult. And for the longest time my parents did not speak ill of Amway and defended them. But finally they began to speak out.

My dad was very successful when I was a kid. He was clearing over 200k a year at his job with the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars. My mom was a stay at home mom. We were the ideal suburban Fort Worth Texas family. But Amway is what ruined this.

My dad was focusing too much on Amway instead of the job that paid him very well for the 90s. I think that is the issue with Amway is that it becomes too competitive. You go to all these functions and events where people get on stage and talk about having 10 houses and 20 cars and owning their own private island in the South Pacific... and it fuels a cycle of desiring that lifestyle. To where making $200k+ a year wasn't enough. And when you aren't at these functions you were listening to tapes that were called "tools" which were basically just motivational speeches from the same hacks on stage at these functions talking about how they went from rags to riches thanks to Amway.

Anyway my dad tried to bring Amway to his office and it ended up costing him his job. And my dad was never the same after that. My mom asked my dad what he was going to do because we had just put a down payment on a new house.
However instead of getting a new job and saying to hell with Amway, he instead decided to double down on Amway and said "I am going to build our Amway business". So my dad, instead of getting another actual job, decided to go all in on Amway.

The thing with Amway is that its a cult. The uplines tell you to act successful, even if you aren't yet in Amway. So they told my dad to buy a nice car with his severance package after losing his job and he spent a significant chunk of that severance on a Cadillac to drive around "showing the plan". That way people would think he was able to buy that Cadillac from Amway money.

Another thing is that the uplines basically force you to attend all the functions, seminars, and buy the "tools" which are just audio tapes and books featuring motivational speakers. This cost thousands of dollars and it was non negotiable. They said these events would be life changing and you would learn the secrets to ascending to Diamond status. And if you didn't go you would be shunned and reprimanded by your uplines and organization. So even though my family couldn't afford it they would still go all over the country to these events financed by Visa and Mastercard.

Finally my family hit rock bottom financially and quit around the year 2000. I remember my parents couldn't even come up with $10 for me to go play paintball with my church. It was shite like that which was the last straw. All of my parents Amway "friends" disassociated with my family but it was for the best. My mom started working full time after having been a stay at home mom since I was born. My dad returned to work but wasn't the same - he had a hard time holding down jobs and was only making a fraction of what he used to make with the Rangers/Stars. But they still defended Amway for years after this and never really told us why they stopped.

What pissed me off the most is how the "tools" and functions/seminars were a giant scam. The uplines made a personal cut from the profits of these tools and events. They would get kickbacks from the hotels and arenas booked for these functions and get a cut of the profits from the audio tapes and books. This is why they pressured their downlines so much to buy these things and attend the functions at all costs no matter what. This is where the REAL money was made in Amway. The Diamonds made their money on the tool scam, not the sales of Amway products.

I finally got my mom to open up in 2015 about all of this when she helped me move to Seattle from Iowa and we spent 3 days driving in a moving van. She told me some pretty incredible stories from Amway about how it was a cult. And how one time my parents upline would not let my parents leave a function to go home after my sister knocked her two front teeth out after wrecking on her bike. And how Dexter Yager would wait until 2 in the morning to come out and speak after everyone had been there all day listening to speakers. And he would come out and speak total nonsense. This is a classic cult technique to brainwash people by speaking to them when they are sleepy.

I finally got my dad to open up about all if it in 2019 when he was helping me move from Kentucky to San Diego. The hardest story he told me was how his upline was pressuring him to attend a function in 1999 that my family just couldn't afford. And the upline basically had my dad go door to door selling Amway vacuums to scrounge up enough money to go. No was not an option. And my dad did it anyway.

frick Amway.

You and I could probably swap stories as kids of Amway parents. Long weekends in hotels. Late nights waiting on your parents to come home. Boxes of shite all over the house. Listening to the tapes in the car instead of music on the radio. I've never gotten my parents to open up about it, but it dominated our life for several years. That period is like a black hole in our family history timeline. Not much is talked about it. Occasionally I'll hear my mom or dad mention someone who was "in the business" with them. "Amway" is never mentioned, just "the business". My sister and I both hate Amway for taking our parents away for a few years.

I think my dad was bored running the family business and didn't see a way out, so he latched on to Amway as a way to break free. When he got done with Amway and started applying the same energy to the family business, the business grew 5x. In a weird way Amway actually helped him grow the family business. Not in any technical business ways, but rather by having him focus on "the dream," as Amway put it.

I still have an Amway cookware set left over from when my parents bought a bunch of "inventory" to pump up their numbers. It's actually pretty decent cookware

That so 1970’s and 1980’s.

Are they still around?

Most good companies would tell you how to setup product demonstrations in front of paying customer who buy the products during off days or least productive days during the week.

Amway is a consumer line of products.. Why be at a show on weekends when you should be infront of paying consumers?

My first year in business which I sold mowers.
Nothing fancy and I was scared. How I did it was put an ad in the local nickle ad newspaper. Had a weekend sales event sharpening blades for $7 most new blades $15. I sold every mower, lawn tractor, and blades I had which gave me confidence to grow my business into a full time gig.

I guess Amway would not have been for me as I don’t buy for me I buy to resale for a profit.