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May 27, 2004
Southern Living at MY home
By QBlog in
I don't know much about Southern Living At HOME but I believe it's a sort of MLM-type business. One of my wife's friends is a "consultant" and we had a "party" at our house last Sunday night. I was gone during the party so I don't really know what happened but there was a bunch of awesome finger food in the fridge when I got home later that night.
After browsing through the Web site it looks like it's a kind of Pottery Barn MLM business or something. Anyway, my wife is not joining up or anything but she is trying to help out her friend. And this got me thinking (uh oh) about MLM businesses in general.
I really don't object to much about these "party" type businesses. From what I gather, it's a bunch of women who get together to eat and chat and then buy expensive crap that they probably won't use. What's the harm in that? Not much from what I can tell.
And the woman running the parties, well, she gets a commission from the sale of the products. She's not selling tapes or tickets to candle-lit rallies, she's just selling lipstick or food containers or placemats.
I don't know, I guess there may be a bit of a Motivational component that I don't know about but the whole idea seems somehow less annoying than Quixtar seemed to me when my wife first got involved. And after a quick Google search for Southern Living I didn't find any sites exposing the evils of Southern Living parties. Of course, that doesn't mean they aren't evil but it's something I guess. Or maybe not? Who knows.
One thing I know, I can't seem to escape MLM. It's everywhere. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em? Maybe, but not today.
Comments
My wife went to one of those parties, and I got away fairly unscathed (she spent $40). A friend of a friend sells it, and they seem pretty harmless and the quality of the merchandise is decent.
BTW you never mention my favorite MLM (Fun). My wife also attended one of those parties. It is a very interesting MLM, and I am still benefitting from that ;).
I'm sure there will be evil-MLM sites up for this one soon enough.
The stuff that my wife buys at those Southern Living parties is the same stuff they sell at Wal-Mart for a fraction of the price. The shipping costs (via UPS) for that stuff alone ensures that only the well-to-do will be customers, which is not the most viable business model that I have ever seen. She does have a good time at those parties, but only buys token items and gets away relatively cheap, sometimes eating and drinking more than she pays for.
Geeez "Q"..I think you are starting to go a little soft there..;o)
Posted by: jbnet | May 27, 2004 1:19 PM