Friday, October 10, 2014

WalMart versus Amway?

I recently saw an Amway supporter talk about how Walmart is so bad and Amway is good. But let's just look at the details. Walmart and Amway are both billion dollar companies, although Walmart makes Amway look like a midget. Walmart has over 400 billion in sales while Amway last reported about 11-12 billion.
I might add that Walmart has millions and millions of customers. I'm not sure if that's the case with Amway as it seems that most of their customers are the IBOs themselves. What company can make a living selling products primarily to their sales force? But based on my experience, I would say that the vast majority of Amway products are consumed by the IBOs.

Walmart eliminates the middleman and sells all kinds of products to consumers at rock bottom prices. Amway adds middlemen (upline and downline) and to the process, thus making distribution inefficient and the result is $50 cases of water or $80 for a month's supply of double x vitamins. While Amway apologists will make quality and concentration claims, there's no unbiased evidence that organic vitamins have any special advantage over the much cheaper vitamins you can get at Walmart. Even if products may be concentrated, it doesn't necessarily mean they are better or cheaper than Walmart. Walmart will match any advertised price for an exact same product. Thus if Walgreen's has an ad for something cheaper than Walmart, take the ad to Walmart and you get that price. Walmart's slogan is live better, save money. Amway's slogan is "now you know". LOL That is not to say you cannot find any goo deals from Amway, but overall, you will save much more by shopping elsewhere.

Additionally, Walmart's employees all get paid and have a net paycheck at the end of the month. Amway's salesforce of comissioned sales people often make nothing or lose money if the IBO is caught up in the training program (cds and functions) Walmart adds to the local economy by providing jobs and good prices whereas Amway might be a drain on local economies as the profits go to Michigan and/or the tools companies. Also, the IBOs bear the risk for Amway as they spend their time and money to move products and to advertise person to person for Amway.

Yes, you can google and find all kinds of negatives about Walmart. Walmart sometimes ends up shutting down mom and pop stores, they may have customers slip on their floors. But unlike Amway, Walmart doesn't have the terms "scam" or "pyramid scheme" attached to them when you google their names. Amway does and because of unethical IBOs and tool companies, it would seem that the (bad) reputation is well earned over the years. The diamonds who lied and deceived people over the tools don't help the cause either.

In the end, Amway is no competition to Walmart, where you live better and save money.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't live close to a Walmart. So usually I pay a few dollars more for some products. But nothing Amway has. Which I feel a urge to wait for delivery,pay crazy prices,or have a ibo drop it off. Amway even rips people off with shipping the double X at 12.00(should be free since their pricing is insane). As for Amway quality its very debatable. I remember their shampoo giving me itchy sculp and cream drying my skin. Their double X made me feel worse afterwards.

Anonymous said...

I'm a 3rd year university student and there are 71 dollars in my bank account as of today. I've lost over 600$ in Amway. I was so naiive a few months ago that it really makes me angry. I wish I had found this blog sooner but thank you for keeping it updated and very realistic. I've experienced enough crap with this company and never want to be associated ever again. I'm almost broke and I still can't really believe it. They charge you for meetings, rallies, functions, starter kits, everything man... Never again!

Joecool said...

I don't believe Amway products are special or of higher quality than most products you can get elsewhere. The only thing special about Amway stuff is the super high prices. But that's expected because all those diamond bonuses have to be paid.

Joecool said...

You should be able to get some refunds if you signed up less than 6 months ago and you might be able to get a refund on the products if you don't want them anymore. If your sponsor refuses, file a formal complaint with the better business bureau.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, consider yourself lucky to only been in a few month. Heard of people losing years and some never quit. Look at joes upline who's still in after 15+ yrs.

Joecool said...

My upline wasted his money and basically his life chasing the Amway dream that will never come true.

Unknown said...

Anonymous try selling Avon.😉