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May 28, 2003
This is pretty damn funny
By QBlog in
Iraqi Information Minister Lands Job with Amway is a parody of the infamous Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf and Quixtar/Amway. Gotta love it.
- "My feelings - as usual - anyone who does this business can retire in 2 to 5 years"
- "God will roast P&G in hell at the hands of IBOs."
- "Anyone not smart enough to see the potential in this business is a broke loser - go ahead stay broke and ride an old camel."
May 27, 2003
It's all about the Archives Baby
By QBlog in
Hey, if you didn't know there are archives on this site. That's right. For all you Web neophytes out there just look to the left and see the word ARCHIVES right there under the Related Links. Now, take a guess about what those dates are under the word Archives. That's right! You're so smart. Now read them and then come back here to take the Quixtar Blog Quiz. You're dismissed.
Amway Classifieds?
By QBlog in
Found this classified ad for Amway Products. I don't think you're supposed to sell Amway via classified ads but what do I know?
AMWAY®PRODUCTS: Satisfaction guaranteed. Certified color consultant. Skin care and analysis. Seasonal color analysis/draping. Complete makeovers. Ann Spangler: 218-365-3279. EE 1/21/02 RTC
May 24, 2003
Quixtar Auctions
By QBlog in
This Quixtar Auctions thing is pretty cool. Never knew about this before. Wonder when they started this up? Not sure how it stacks up to eBay but it looks kinda neat.
May 23, 2003
XS drinks are "yummy"
By QBlog in
Quixtar is selling XS drinks and I can honestly say that I've not tried a single one. I can't stand any energy drinks other than coffee. Is coffee and energy drink?
Anyway, my wife LOVED the XS drinks and was drinking them like... uh... water but now she's stopped. Haven't even asked why but she stopped drinking them and you want to know a little secret? Her energy has never been higher. She's exhibited more energy now than during the entire time she was drinking those little cans. I know that this proves nothing but it's my experience with XS. Yummy.
May 22, 2003
Welcome Neighbor
By QBlog in
Found a new blog today that is focused on Quixtar, Bo Short and Passport. It's brand new so let's see what happens. I welcome all bloggers.
May 21, 2003
Quixtar and Panhandling
By QBlog in
I have an extremely odd history with panhandlers. I won't go into detail but my experience with local panhandlers has ranged from buying them groceries to threatening physical harm to questioning them for 20 minutes about the validity of their "sob story." Emotionally I'm a mess when it comes to people asking me for money. I have made a decision to just explain that I'm unable to help them and walk away. This is best for all. I can't really understand why my behavior towards panhandlers is so unpredictable but it is and I'm learning to deal with that.
Emotionally, my reaction to Quixtar is very similar to panhandlers. That is not good. Intellectually I can understand all that is the "business" but on some emotional level I'm just a mess. I'm not the only one like this but people in Quixtar would have me believe that I'm a loser because I don't want to participate in their dream. Whatever. Look, I don't measure success by how much money you make but by what you do with what you got. It's that simple.
Anyway, I may be some messed up nut but I at least know that when someone says Quixtar it's just best if I walk away.
May 18, 2003
Becoming a Millionaire
By QBlog in
Here's a story about Randy Gage, a guy who made it big in Amway.
Gage got into network, or multi-level, marketing - Amway was his first venture in that area - and eventually started a training program for his people on how to become supervisor. When others started asking to undergo the training, Gage started charging for the program.
He's now a professional motivational speaker and author. What is interesting to me is that the article never mentions when he made his money but it seems to indicate that it was after Amway. In other words, it was the motivational speaking that made him rich, not the networked MLM systems that he now talks about. Is this a good example of how BSMs are the real money makers?
May 13, 2003
Doctors 'selling Amway'
By QBlog in
Doctors 'selling Amway' is a story from Australia. Amway to the rescue.
Quixtar Indians
By QBlog in
This site has been getting a lot of visits from people doing a Google Search for "quixtar indians" and I'd like to know why. So, if you are here because of searching for "Quixtar Indians" can you please leave a comment saying exactly what you are looking for? Is Quixtar the name of some obscure Native American tribe or something? Apache, Seminoles and Quixtar.
Quixtar and Amway
By QBlog in
I actually met a guy in Quixtar last night who tried to show me the plan. He didn't but he was ready to go through the whole presentation. We had a pleasant conversation about Quixtar and BSM groups and I was really impressed by his honesty and openness. His organization (I forget the name but I think it's Ibocs or something) seems much more Web savvy than others I've seen and that's a good thing.
In our discussions he mentioned the enormous growth of MLMs (specifically Amway - Quixtar's sister company) in Asia. He also said that he didn't think Quixtar was in Europe. To my knowledge, Quixtar only exists in North America. So, in North America (Canada and U.S.) there is Quixtar.com, the "e-commerce" site and in the rest of the world there is only Amway, an antiquated system of ordering and distributing products.
This got me thinking. Why isn't Quixtar in many, many more places. Places that would embrace a Web business like Japan, Korea, Sweden, UK, Finland and many more. Surely it can't be a legal reason because Amway is in those places and the Web is also really in those spots. I'm anticipating that the reason given is some problem with governments or setting it up on their servers or whatever but they've had at least 3 years to get this rolling and the old "we are planning on it" line just doesn't seem to be sufficient in this case. A common phrase used while showing the plan is that Internet sales will be some outrageous number in 5 or 10 years and Quixtar will be able to capitalize on that money. Well, only in North America. The rest of the WORLD is left with just Amway. Why? Why? Why?
Speculation
A thought occurred to me that maybe the reason Amway still exists everywhere but here (in U.S.) is that Amway makes more money for Alticor than Quixtar. I'm not all that educated about how Amway works but I've heard stories of people accidentally buying too much inventory and trying to sell it. Also, with Amway you are logistically limited with the types of products you purchase because you don't have instant access to all the partner stores that you do on Quixtar. Maybe Quixtar people aren't buying as many Alticor made products as Amway people. Finally, the Amway name is a liability in North America. Shout Amway in a crowded room and people will freak. Shout Quixtar and maybe 1/3 will freak while the others will say "Huh?"
Maybe I'm way off base on this. I dunno. I just know it's really curious that Quixtar does not exist anywhere but North America. Someone give me one good reason why it doesn't exist elsewhere?
May 12, 2003
Repeat ordering. Repeat ordering.
By QBlog in
E-tailers Lock In Repeat Orders is an article by the New York Times about repeat ordering systems such as Ditto delivery. It talks about Quixtar for a couple of paragraphs:
According to John Parker, Quixtar's vice president for sales and marketing, the company introduced its automated program, Ditto, shortly after the Quixtar site went into operation in late 1999.For the first two years the service logged fairly good growth, Mr. Parker said, but some customers complained that they had no way to modify or cancel their orders before they arrived. Roughly a year ago, Quixtar, which is privately held, began sending customers e-mail messages before each shipment, giving customers a chance to change their orders or buy different items.
Customer satisfaction has grown, along with sales. Spending by Ditto buyers now accounts for 20 to 30 percent of the site's sales, which reached $900 million in the company's last fiscal year.
Gotta give Quixtar credit for getting the repeat delivery thing working. It's not a new idea but they are making it work really well.
May 2, 2003
Isn't it ironic?
By QBlog in
This is a strange turn of events.
In the real world (away from this blog) I do many things and one of those things is Web development. I'm currently working with a guy to create an e-commerce site. It's a small operation but I have a significant investment in the business so I obviously want it to succeed. Well the guy who is handling all the business end of the deal (I do the Web stuff) met with someone (one of his family friends) last night and guess what happened. The guy showed him the plan!
But wait, that's not the ironic part. My business partner knows about Quixtar (my wife tried to get him involved) and he really isn't interested in becoming an IBO. However, he is interested in becoming a partner store. And I am too!
There is a very real (however small) possibility that this e-commerce site we are developing might one day become a Quixtar partner store (Store For More). Isn't that ironic? I could end up being "in business" with Quixtar after all. What's really cool about this is I think it can really work out. We'd become a partner store and sell products through Quixtar. With millions of loyal customers.
I still have absolutely no interest in being an active IBO but I would love to be running a store that is benefitting from Quixtar. Is this a great country or what. I'll post how this whole thing turns out. Keep fingers crossed.