Stories by Agastya Zayant
How an Accidental Meeting at Wegmans Turned into a Farce
Amway — Multi-Level Marketing, a Pyramid Scheme
The Meeting
On a beautiful day, I was shopping at Wegmans alone and I was deciding which bread crumbs to buy (I went with Seasoned Breadcrumbs) and then a guy comes up to me and starts a conversation with me and got me into talking about my studies and tells about himself and took my number and I connected with him on Linkedin as well (being grateful for a fortuitous meeting with a recent graduate and working for a successful company). He called me on Sunday (first warning bell) and asked me if I wanted to catch up for a cup of coffee at Dunkin’ as he wanted to tell about some side project he is working on and I was like “Okay”.
The Beginnings of a Farce
Hey, do you want to hear about a side company that I am building on my own? I have been building it for the past 10 years and I can earn a decent amount of money from it apart from my full-time job. Do you also want the ability to work part-time and become an Independent Business Owner (IBO) and be financially independent? The ability to pay off your student loan debts and buy cars and homes all within your “spare time”?
Those were the words told by a Senior Qualcomm employee who earned his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science with a specialization in Machine Learning on Monday evening at a Dunkin’ coffeehouse in New York. Even though no details were offered about the timings of the job or the company itself, wouldn’t you want to hear about such an opportunity?
Sidenote: I am also pursuing a Masters in Computer Science and at the back of my mind, I thought of using him for referral during the job hunting process. So, I didn’t want to say a NO to his face and lose a valuable referral.
So, on a rainy evening (the next day), he picked me up in his black BMW SUV and I was going to an unknown meeting place where I will be revealed of this secret opportunity to become “rich and successful” (unlike all the 9 to 5 working losers). I sat in the car and the music from “The Greatest Showman” was playing. He talked about the speaker and also about someone high above on the ladder who was from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) like me and that he is very successful.
When we were entering a group of Marriott Hotels, in my brain it was like “Wow”!!, this must be something serious and important. We enter the hotel and go near the meeting room and all the people attending were wearing expensive suits and blazers, were well-groomed and were greeting and talking with each other like they do at a church (I am sorry but I saw this behavior only at Church. We Indians, when we go to Temples, try to avoid as many people as possible). I was told to be dressed a bit seriously than a jogger that I met him in at Dunkin’. So, I dressed a bit casually with a full hands casual shirt and jeans and felt terribly out of place and occasion.
He introduced me to his wife who is also a part of this and according to him is not working anymore as they were able to replace her income with the money from this “side gig” (‘the secret’ hasn’t been revealed to me yet!). I met some other recent graduate (Indian) and spoke highly of the speaker who works at an awesome company and told me to meet up with the speaker later.
I entered the meeting room and I see the Wife sitting behind a money register on a table (huge warning bell). I was told by the Wife to write down my name and the person who invited me here. There were around 20 people in the room sitting in chairs — 12 Indians, 4 Blacks, and 4 Chinese individuals. Initially, they made me sit in the first row but while I was away putting my snow jacket 2 people occupied the seats in the front row and so I sat in the last row (In hindsight, I was very lucky ) in a corner chair.
The Glamorous Show at a Glamorous Hotel Begins
The recent Indian graduate student came up in front of the gathered people and said a few words about how exciting an opportunity this is and introduced the speaker.
The speaker comes up, introduces himself, blah blah, and says how great he and his wife are working in awesome jobs and doing this side gig in “spare time” and vacationing all around the world. He starts by telling how the current youth is not working enough but expecting money, the 9 to 5 losers and about his story while interning at J.P. Morgan & Chase during the recession of 2009. How on a fateful day 6 people lost their jobs (excluding him) and the moment he realized he had to change his life and should have his own business and should be financially safe even if he loses his job like 6 other losers that day.
The slideshow begins, we were introduced to some street words — spare time and spare money — in a fancy way. About entrepreneurship in the 21st century — Product based company in a Platform based era (examples of Uber and Amazon prime delivery were given). How we waste money and time and also how daily household products we buy like milk, toothpaste, handwash, etc., even though inexpensive compound to the cost of a laptop during the laptop’s lifetime. Such products were called, FMCG — Fast Moving Consumer Goods.
He did make some good points about very few people ordering FMCG products online and how one should be mindful while buying expensive laptops and cars which depreciate over time. Some slides about working 9 to 5 hours will never make us rich as we will be spending money on kids and so on which were good but obvious as well.
The next slide was about “Amway” — warning bells were now screaming to Get Out of there immediately as I am already aware of that company from John Oliver’s show — and the greatness of the company. The next few slides and talk was about how we can buy daily products from Amway instead of local grocery stores. Other people in the room were taking notes as if they were preparing for an exam so I too scribbled something (and the Qualcomm guy who brought me there was standing behind me as well).
- My thinking while seeing this slide — no one in their right mind buys these products regularly and the markup will be very high for them to gain profits.
- Brands like ARTISTRY, NUTRILITE are popular Multi-Level Marketing companies(MLM) that resort to predatory recruiting behavior.
Next, we were shown the business model, and some examples were given which give people the illusion of “soooo simple” without even doubting the maths of it. I thought they are never going to mention the word “PYRAMID” as everyone will be shocked and leave. To my surprise, the penultimate slide contained a structure similar to the Pyramid and the speaker also mentioned the word Pyramid. The speaker’s defense was, if it is legal then it is not a pyramid scheme.
- How can it be a pyramid scheme when Amway is a multi-billion dollar company?
- Why is the government not doing anything if it is illegal?
My Suggestion: If you have to justify what you are doing is NOT ILLEGAL then it is most likely Illegal
The Glamorous show chugged on for 50 minutes. The slides ended and the “the recent Indian graduate student” came up and a round of applause was given to the speaker. Then they made people who were in different stages stand up and made everyone applaud. This was creepy and was now turning into a cult meeting. Luckily he declared a 10-minute break so that new people (like Me) can leave and said there would be another session for “paid members”.
The Cult Meeting Ends and The Exit Strategy Begins
People who were members didn’t have any problem with anything they were doing and were speaking and making connections with people. The Qualcomm guy who brought me there introduced me to ‘the speaker’ and I grudgingly told him that it was a good presentation and asked him what next and he explained. I decided to leave as soon as possible and I didn’t want to waste the time of the Qualcomm guy as well. Even though he said that he can drop me at my home, I said ‘thank you, but I will take a cab’ (an expenditure of $13.40). Then he took me into the hall and shared presentation material with me.
He asked if we can meet again the next day, I thought of saying ‘No’ in a face-to-face meeting and said ‘sure’. I thanked him and ran out of there and took a cab back home.
The Ending
I met him again at Dunkin’ the next day and I told him that I knew about these things and that this is an illegal scheme. He got a bit offended and angry. He asked me to show where the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) declared it as illegal. He told me to look up that Warren Buffet owns 3 Multi-Level Marketing companies and he indeed did own 3 of them. I told him that it is very rare for people to make a profit and other logical flaws in their thinking. He said that ‘millions of people are not stupid’ to do this. I said I will get in touch if I change my mind and left.
So next time when someone you meet at a grocery store invites you to a coffee be very skeptical and try to find all the details at the beginning itself. MLMs love to brainwash people into defending the story against naysayers and demand to go on the offensive against people who disagree. These schemes should be made illegal.
Please read why you should avoid such Multi-level marketing schemes in my article — Amway — Multilevel Marketing, Technically Legal But Will Ruin Your Life.
