Is Amway The Least Efficient Means Of Moving Product?

I recently published some pro-Amway comments about how there's nobody between Amway and its IBOs. When I heard the pitch, pretty much the same thing was said. That Amway could pay IBO's bonuses because they "eliminated the middleman". On the surface, this might sound correct, but not when you take a closer look at it. Sure, you may not have a traditional middleman, but you have layers and layers of upline and downline, all of you get a cut from the sale of product, provided they qualify for the bonus.   It's very possible that the Amway system adds middlemen to the process.  

Many big companies advertise their products such as Coca Cola or Budweiser. These products become household names and practically everyone in the US knows of these brands. Not so for Amway. In fact, the name Amway is often associated with pyramid or scam because of bad or unethical behavior on the part of IBOs. Amway pays for some advertising these days, but I wonder what they return on investment is for their advertising dollars?   Or do they advertise just for the sake of advertising?  WalMart's slogan is "live better, save money".  Amway's is "now you know".  Now you know what?

Amway recently reported a sales increase, but I wonder if that was because of actual growth or maybe it was because they simply had a price increase? I wish Amway was more open about some of the numbers they release but that is another issue. The increased sales by Amway however, means nothing to individual IBOs. Amway's growth is not related to individual IBO's profitability. It makes me wonder why so many IBOs brag about the Amway sales when their individual sales might be zero and they might be suffering business losses despite Amway's success?

So IBOs are basically left going person to person, word of mouth to inform people about their products. In my opinion, the least efficient means of moving product from Amway to the customer. Because so many past IBOs were desperate to sponsor downline in order to achieve a level or to leverage their sales, less than ethical practices were often employed. People tricked into attending meetings, people lied to or deceived about the opportunity. The damage in reputation is enormous. For these reasons, Amway is a tough sell in North America. I believe this would explain why there seems to be more growth in Amway sales in foreign countries. I believe this is because people in foreign countries are not yet familiar with being tricked into attending a meeting, or lied to as past practice in North America. 

Do you want to sell products in the least efficient manner? If so, consider joining Amway?