My wife got into that lularoe shit. We set a limit, which she promptly blew past. You just had all these people, including the owners, telling you to buy buy buy.

They prey on people's insecurities. They take advantage of them.

Call my wife stupid, I'm sure someone will because this is Lemmy where everyone is self righteous, but I think you don't really understand the power of manipulation these companies wield until you see it firsthand. It's actually really sad and dangerous what they do to people. And my wife has a successful career and makes 6 figures, we don't need the money, but they still had her convinced she had to do this. I thought it would be a side hobby for her, but they were not kind to her. (Well, they were, but only to get money.)

I remember trying to warn her that the company makes money when she buys, not when she sells. I don't think it sunk in, and let's face it, that's how retail works in general. But with regular retail, you control what you get - Lularoe just sent whatever quantity of leggings, blouses, dresses, etc you ordered. You had no control over the patterns. I'm not sure if you even got to pick what sizes you received.

Early on I helped, but I got tired of spending time and energy so she could sell one pair of leggings. She went to a few group sales things and would spend hours sitting there, plus all the prep and tear down time, plus gas, all to sell like three things. She only went to two of those.

A host of other companies jumped in to help, for a price. Website. Square. Stamps.com.

We still have some in the basement. I want to burn it, but we donate some to charities now and then, and occasionally neighbors and friends will come raid it (we give it to them free). We started watching the documentary on Amazon about it, but never finished. My wife was just too angry.

One meeting we went to before she got into it had the head of Lularoe on video conference. She talked about having "600 new arts each week", ie 600 patterns. That comment runs through my head every time I see a particularly ugly lularoe pattern.

Ehhh at least I got a new camera out of it, for taking pictures of the stock.

I joined the antimlm sub on reddit for a while hoping for advice and info, but it was just a very negative sub, mocking people and no helpful advice. I unsubbed after a few weeks. Fortunately my wife eventually figured it out.

You're not going to stop people from doing this by showing them numbers. You have to realize it's an emotional thing. They are preying on emotions. You have to find a way to fight that.

I forgot tupperware was (...or still is??) an MLM scheme. I remember hearing about "tupperware parties" when I was a kid and thinking adults needed better toys, like Legos or something.

Are they different things or is that the joke?