I was pretty honest with my cow-orkers. I told them that I just wasn’t interested in that stuff and I really didn’t want to attend parties. I would generally purchase a small item when their kids’ schools were selling stuff, but that’s it.
StG
I got the Amway hard sell a couple of times, and a couple of Mary Kay presentations, and after that…shudder. Then a lady I thought was a good friend got into Mary Kay, and her entire life suddenly revolved around Mary Kay. I made the error of pointing out that the pushiest salespeople I’d ever had the displeasure of dealing with had been Mary Kay sellers, and that thank you, but I wasn’t interested in hearing how if I didn’t start their $150 5-part bedtime face care routine, I’d be old and wrinkled in a few years (which line she actually tried on me). Over the course of a couple of months, her phone calls became less and less friendly and more and more…well, ‘professional’…until eventually she told me she didn’t have time to be my friend anymore. I wonder if I ceased being her friend, in her mind, when I wouldn’t support her (by becoming a client) in her new business that she was so deeply involved in.
I went to one Pampered Chef party. Most of the stuff was useless to me, and I see an awful lot of it show up in the local thrift stores. I just…no. I would feel offended if a friend invited me to her house to make money off me.
I used to do home parties for my candle and soap biz. Not your typical party, perhaps, because I didn’t want to “sponsor” new people, I just wanted to sell stuff. All I did was talk about my products for a few minutes, then let everyone commence to smelling everything. They went great, I sold a ton of product, and no one felt like they had to buy or have a party of their own. I intend to start doing them again in the spring if I can get things together.
As far as attending, I love Pampered Chef and Tupperware. I’ll order a basket if I have the money, because darn the overpriced things, I love 'em anyway. I don’t wear much makeup, but I might if someone invited me to a Mary Kay party. I don’t think I could stomach a sex toys party or a lingerie party, though.
My favorite parties are the ones described upthread, where an artist or crafter has her own stuff on display. I LOVE to buy stuff from other crafters.
At this point, I will go to one of these parties if it’s products that I actually want. Otherwise, I don’t bother.
So, this means that I’ll go to Pampered Chef, for example. Yeah, it’s expensive, but for the products that I’ve bought, I’ve found the quality high as well.
I won’t go to parties that sell cleaning products (yuck, how fun is that?!), although some of my friends are big fans.
Oh, and I’ve never hosted one of these parties because I don’t want my friends to feel obligted to buy.
Okay, well having read that now that it’s been posted, I want to clarify two things:
the little point is that obligated is spelled with an “a”;
I didn’t intend my comment as a criticism of those who sell at parties, or who host them. As some others have suggested, when I accept an invitation to one of these parties,** I** feel obligated to buy something, and I wouldn’t want to create that sense of obligation in any of my friends.
This is one of those huge YMMV kinda things with me. I’m fortunate in that I have a core group of friends with whom I get together regularly anyway - occasionally one of them will host one of these parties and we all go en masse and have fun. Then again, I could have fun with this group if all we had to play with was a single sheet of paper and a crayon. Thursday, in fact, we’re all going to a jewelry party (supposed to be all kinds of silver stuff, and I love silver jewelry.) When it’s for products I don’t use or it’s hosted by someone I don’t know real well, I will usually decline. I generally don’t do crafting paties - I’ve been a professional crafter for years and I find most of the products inferior - and Longaberger baskets, Mary Kay, Candlelight and Tupperware are out because I think their prices are ludicrous.
Sex toy parties are just plain fun.
Sex toy parties are indeed fun.
Mrs. Six and I have been to a couple of other types of parties. Mary Kay was fun when I was first learning how to do makeup, because the other girls got to experiment on me to help me find my “look”, though I typically buy the cheap stuff most of the time.
Crafting and tupperware, not so much.
You lucky bastard! Is there more to this story?
You went to a Tupperware party hosted by Candye Kane? How friggin’ cool are you?!? I am so jealous. I LOVE HER.
I hate them. Granted, I don’t like any of the stuff at most parties, so that may color my view of them. They’re not even much fun when you’re there. You can’t go off into small groups and chat like at a regular party, and there’s usually some over enthusiastic seller extolling how a kitchen stone (or whatever) will suddenly make me enjoy cooking (not gonna happen). And then there’s the pressue to make your hostess look good by buying something.
I don’t mind getting invitations. I never feel pressure to come. I just hate going to them.
I’ve attended a variety over the years and eveyrthing that I have bought ( out of guilt first, then Hey, I could use this I have found elsewhere loads ( and I mean Loads cheaper.)
[rant]
What frightens me more than anything is the cult that Partylight and Longeberger have. I have no fooking idea what hole these women are filling inside themselves by waxing on and on an on about how versatile a fucking (hee) basket is. It is overpriced, you twat. And really, when was the last time you actually carried a basket anywhere? Oh, that pie you made and carried to Grannies house. Last Easter. A box wouldn’t do? But a $75 basket would? And yes, it will last forever because all it does is sit on a fucking shelf and collect dust. You are a moron!
Partylight, god. That cult scares me immensely. Women going on and on about how much they love their candles and what their favorite candle is, how they don’t burn carcinogen’s and how Partylight candles last longer ( yeah, they just might) but LOOK HERE Lady, unless you are shoving that candle up your whoo-ha for some O it is just a candle not The End All Be All Answer To Everything. It’s an overpriced guilt-ridden candle.
[/rant]
One party light guilt fest I attended (my neighbor) it was such a marketing ploy for tools in action that I sat there dumbfounded, I mean, totally speechless.
We had to introduce ourselves, say how we knew our hostess ( my neighbor) and ask one question we have about Partylight. Naturally, being sarcastic, I had about 25 totally inappropriate questions. But I didn’t want to hurt my neighbors feelings, so I “passed” on the question part, much to the disappointment to my other neighbors.
One of my other neighbors, who was working on her Masters degree and works out in the cold cruel world, asked something like, " so, what kind of money to you rake in on an average party." Inspired by her sheer balls, I raised my hand after she finished, ( My other neighbors were biting their tongues in anticipation. They knew…) " So, when you were a little girl, did you dream of selling candles when you grew up or is this more out of a desperate measure to pay off your bills because of financial incompetance?" ( or something very similar.)
My neighbor(s) almost died from containing their laughter. so did the neighbor hosting it. The rest of the women were shocked. Shocked at my behavior. So was I, but the woman was just one of the most rude, persistantly irritating salespersons I’ve ever encountered. she also looked like she stepped out of some Way-Back machine from 1979 in a once peice jumpsuit, huge oversized glasses and feathered hair. She was my age or a little older ( 33). It hurt to look at her. My actions were inexcusable, and cruel but damn…I don’t care. My momma didn’t raise me to be stupid.
And the fun went on… when this person was collecting the order forms, she noticed that she only had 15…and there were 16 of us. Instead of lettting her fret and recount and take 15 minutes to sort it all out, I said calmly. " It’s me. Mine is missing. I am not ordering anything."
You could have heard a pin drop. This had probably never been done before.
"are you sure? We have some lovely products that reasonably priced…"blah blah blah. I admired her ability to seemingly forget the jab I gave her earlier, but that is a commisioned sales person for you.
“First, your sales technic is rather pushy. I am in sales, I sell over a million dollars a year and I never drive it down peoples throats the way you do. Secondly, that phone call from the Head Quarters in the middle of this clambake telling you that this hostess was the winner of $500 worth of candles because of a special promotion this month was a load of shit used to sell another party to the other women here. If she actually gets those candles, I’m Princess Diana. Thirdly, most importantly, I can buy candles guilt free elsewhere at a cheaper rate.” Ok, I only said the last line, but the rest I sent to her brain by telepathy.)
yeah.
I got in my neighbors golf cart, who was grinning from ear to ear ( and she sell’s pampered chef) and she said, " That was fun. Let’s go to a Mary Kay party next!"
Oh, and my neighbor never.got.the. $500 freebie candles.
Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo for being jaded!
I used to frequently be the only man at Pampered Chef parties back when I had a few friends who threw them. Since I’ve moved I’ve not gone to one. I didn’t feel obligated to buy; but I like some of their stoneware. I’m puzzled by those who have had their stoneware crack, especially more than one piece. I’ve had my pizza stone for almost 10 years. If you’ve cracked two of them, you might be doing something wrong.
Ooooooooh. I have been wanting one of those pizza stones for years…I might actually have room for it in my pan drawer now that I did some cleaning.
Oh, it’s even better. Candye and her band performed at our wedding. It was a fluke that it all came together as she managed to book a gig at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix that evening and she informed us we were the last people ever getting the “friend price.” She didn’t expose her rather voluminous golden bozos but considering that the pastor and his wife were sitting across from the band it’s just as well.
My brother told me that all my cousins at the kids table (they’re all pushing forty) were gossipping about how I got Candye and her band. Several of them were familiar with Candye’s work before she had a band. One of them asked my mom how I knew Candye and she said, “Oh, they’ve been friends for years.” Lol, my mom is so full of shit, I love her. My brother said my stock in the family shot way up after that remark.
She sang Etta James’ At Last for our first dance so that song will alway have a special place in our heart. We saw her at the RR about the time of our first anniversary and she spotted us in the audience as we came up to dance. She played At Last in our honor. That is cool.
The Tupperware party was a hoot. She sang an a capella song for us and I have a DV tape of it somewher. She’s got an amazingly powerful voice and range. She takes the Tupperware seriously but has some innovative uses such as showing us which were best for storing condoms or keeping your dildos from getting lint all over them. TheLadyLion made a cake in her honor using a two part mold to make a bowling ball cake. Candye was so impressed that she had to compare her cupcakes to the one TLL made. I ducmented the occasion but with the understanding that those photos don’t get published 
I really like the way Longaberger baskets look – such clean lines, none of that ugly wicker shit. I actually own a few (purchased at, you guessed it, Longaberger parties). I found that A. J. Wright (a craft store) makes a superb knock-off for about five dollars a basket. Since the baskets are only sitting in my bathroom, bookshelves and dressers, I couldn’t care any less that they’re not Longaberger.
I remember telling a woman, whom I later learned sells Longaberger baskets, about my find at the craft store. She cautioned me, I swear, with, “Well, you get what you pay for!”
One more vote for hate those damn parties. If you invite your co-workers, you should be as low-key as possible, IMHO.
PartyLight is definitely the worst. I was invited to a friend’s party only to find out that it’s one of those damned things. The saleswoman was a pushy midwesterner who called everybody by their first name without being invited to do so (that’s an etiquette breach in this part of the south- I am “Mr. Surname” until I tell you to call me Jon) and who literally went on and on and on and on about not so much the quality of these candles but how much money you can earn selling them, how the woman who started the company earns millions of dollars per year, how the hostess receives more than $150 in free merchandise, yadda yadda.
Afterwards there was an awkward silence as the ladies who were attending sifted through catalogs and wrote down their orders, all clearly doing this 100% as a favor to their hostess. (When’s the last time that you said to yourself “I want to buy some candles, but I really want to spend an afternoon listening to a salespitch then looking through a catalog and trusting it will smell like what it says it will when it arrives weeks later because going to a retail store and looking through what they have on the shelf is such a hassle”?). I didn’t buy jack and it was strictly because I was pissed at being invited under false pretenses, but my then boyfriend bought a candle for his mother’s birthday (which was the next month) and just to be nice to our friend (who I was seething at).
The candle he bought was in a pewter looking holder and was about $25. It actually arrived about a day or two before his mother’s birthday but because of the nature of these damned parties he wasn’t able to get it until after her birthday because he had to pick it up at the hostess’s house (and he worked nights and she worked days). When he did pick it up the holder wasn’t pewter but a little tinny-aluminumy piece of crap with a vaguely pewter finish and it was tiny. This was when he became the pissed one. Literally had he gone to Pier One or some similar place he not only would have paid between five and ten dollars for the same candle (no exaggeration- they are that overpriced) but he would have walked out with it the day he ordered it.
We both politely but very firmly informed our friend that we did not want to be invited to any future parties that had paid co-hosts. We’re both still friends with the hostess but to date she hasn’t invited us to any more sales parties (and she’s had several, all to collect the hostess gifts).
And make sacrifices to all the gods at once if any of your friends, co-workers or former classmates you haven’t seen since 9th grade but who got your number from your mother ever start to sell AmWay.
Well if there’s one thing to be learned here, it’s that each of these companies is successful because someone likes the stuff. I like colonial cape cod candles, the stuff Partylite sells, I really think they burn cleaner and smell great. Of course, I like it best when I get it cheaper from the my local department store and don’t pay S&H, but I’ll always place an order if someone’s having one of their parties.
Other’s like MaryKay or Pampered Chef or the baskets…to each their own, eh? So maybe a few of your coworkers would be interested, as long as you don’t hard sell them, I don’t see the harm in taking in a few catalogues for your wife’s party and putting them in a common area. If they ask, you can then invite them to the demonstration, if no one shows any interest, no harm done.
If your company has a no solicitation policy, you may not want to violate it for this. Not much in it for you. But other than that I sort of agree with last poster, if it’s not hard sell it probably won’t offend.
One thing that was extremely insulting was once my husband and I invited a couple we knew from church over for dinner. My husband had been in some classes and activities with the wife and we thought maybe they’d be fun to socialize with. We invited them over and cooked them a nice dinner. Not only did they not reciprocate, a couple weeks later the husband said to me “Thanks for the dinner. When you invited us we thought it was going to be one of those deals where you try to sell us stuff.” Sheesh!
I’ve said this before…the practice baffles me.
It’s a zero sum enterprise…if you buy MY candles, then I’m “obligated” to buy YOUR scrapbook stuff etc…
I’ve asked female coworkers about it, and they always give the same rationale that Queen Tonya did…that its really about socializing.
Huh? You don’t have a scrabble game or DVD player or kitchen to make food…you need some manufactured reason to socialize?