Body shop at home- MLM?

[Feckinlego]

A friend added me to a sellers group on fb, selling body shop products. Friend wasn't selling, an acquaintance of hers was. I bought a few bits, they were fine, but wasn't bothered buying again. Had to leave the group as it was so busy.

Now, said friend has just added me to her own group! She's nervous but excited to start on her 'journey' etc. I was aware from reading on here that it's an MLM but the other group genuinely seemed to have a lot of business? Is it in any way different to say forever living? I'm a bit worried for my friend and would like to warn her but I'm not well read on the subject. If anyone could give me an idea what she's letting herself in for I'd be grateful.

Yes. The Body Shop is an MLM

www.reddit.com/r/antiMLM/comments/7tjnq6/the_body_shop_at_home_100_an_mlm/

They are owned by Natura & Co which also owns Aesop, Avon and Natura Cosméticos.

Even though they do have some branches and you can buy direct from websites, their most lucrative source of income is 'reselling' or multi level marketing.

I won't touch their skanky products because of this.

My sister did it and was successful but after 6 months gave it up as it was constant and you have to bombard people all the time. I also found it was the exact same price buying online from them but you made points on your purchases.

Lots of people are doing body shop so it's becoming harder in my opinion. But there is no real saving than buying it online yourself. I have known around 10 people do it. Only one is still going but complains it's really hard

One of my friends does it, and it doesn’t seem as pushy as other MLMs - she set up a separate FB for Body Shop stuff, so doesn’t spam FB friends, regularly checks we all still want to be in the FB group, and doesn’t post anything about how great her life is or how much she is earning, just whatever the latest products are and some games/ raffles. Never emails or PMs about it.
Not saying everyone is like that though!

deff an MLM, have a friend who does this and seems to recruit new people like every week. I don't understand when they all have the same group of friends how encouraging your friend to sell to the same group of people is a good investment?

I allowed myself to be sucked into this one. My 'journey' didn't last long. You only really got support if you were doing well. Pressured if you hadn't sold in a while. Products + postage make it no different from going into the store or buying online. Items were constantly out of stock.
I was silly and spent so much of my own money to hit the targets to earn freebies, it was only when I took a step back that I realised I'd spent lots more than I had earnt.
If you're not doing well it's because you aren't working hard enough and you're being negative, despite putting in countless hours.

Lots of work for little gain and quite damaging I think.

Thanks for your replies. She said its a trial only so hopefully she doesn't get too trapped down the rabbit hole!

Sorry to resurrect and older threat but just incase you’re still concerned for your friend.

My sister got sucked in to this at the beginning of the year. She works part time and cares for my 92 year old grandmother. She’s also desperately lonely and lacks confidence. That’s important.

She got talking with someone, and thought she’d made a great friend, then got talked in to signing up with the promises of being able to work from home, earn 6 figures etc.

As soon as it began she set up her groups and started to bombard the family with all of the amazing deals and telling us about all of her freebies etc. In attempting to sound interested and supportive I mentioned that my husband was very in to skincare, huge mistake! The communication from that point on was relentless trying to get us to buy things and then to sign up.

I did. Not because I wanted to sell, but because I was fully aware by this point that it was a MLM and I wanted to see how much pressure they would apply.

I brought the starter kit, and placed sn initial order (all for my husband/his family so it wasn’t wasted) and immediately got bombarded with messages that I needed to set up a group HAD to go on Facebook love several times a week HAD to post X amount of times per day.

I didn’t do any of it. I let my account lapse after a month and blocked any method of communication the company had with me.

My sister continued, and amazingly seemed to hit her targets every month.

Until now, 8 months on. First time she hadn’t put through an order and she was basically told she was worthless and wasn’t trying hard enough. It transpires that most of the orders she’s places have been her trying to hit her target and she’s not got a crap load of stuff to get rid of.

They made her feel special and loved and supported, prayed on her isolation and insecurity and then disappeared when she wasn’t making enough

The trouble is, I did try to warn her, but it’s all so plausible and they’re all so supportive.

In the brief time I was signed up I was told anyone who didn’t purchase from me wasn’t supporting me and should be cut out of my life. I was told that several lf the products advertised as vegan, aren’t
And that these people who didn’t know me were better friends than my actual friends. I was also asked to purchase from other sellers and to ‘treat’ my managers to gifts from other stores to show support for them

If you can disease your friend at all, please do so.