Co-op? Is it mlm?

[COlady]

My cousin sent me this message on Facebook. Are co-ops code word for mlm? A Google search didn't yield great results. I'm planning on being busy.

Hello! How are you?? I love seeing pics of those adorable boys. I bet your life is really boring! hahaha.. So, I have something for you. I do this little online co-op. Its kinda like whole foods but at target prices. Its honesty amazing and I have so many people REALLY enjoying. Tonight we are doing a couple short and easy to watch webcasts that are really very interesting just from a consumer stand point and Id love you you to watch. There is one at 6:30 and at 8 and really you at minimum enjoy the info. Are you going to be around??

[AZDude]

Sure sounds like the new AmWay to me...

[dandarc]

Sure reads like an MLM pitch.  Name of the company?

[BFGirl]

Sometimes I've seen co-op formed as ways for people to combine and buy larger amounts of things so that they can get a discount.

[ShoulderThingThatGoesUp]

In this case it sure sounds like one. The co-ops I'm aware of don't have webcasts that are "really interesting from a consumer point of view".

Also, Target's prices on groceries are not very good.

[Kaydedid]

I've been part of some co-op buys, but it's all been "hey, we're putting together an order for xxxxx to get a discount, are you interested, if so here's a link to the website, orders are due xx/xx."  The webcasts sound really fishy - voting for some sort of scam.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[bobechs]

Co-ops are a real thing. 

REI, for example is a retail goods consumer co-op.  Wheatsville in Austin is a grocery co-op. There are also producer co-ops all over the place. Credit unions are banking services co-ops.

As to the completely unidentified organization you are inquired about, it is hard to have an informed opinion because there is no... information.

Not that that will necessarily hold those with a large surplus of personal opinion back.

[COlady]

I realize that some co-ops are legit (like REI). This just has an mlm feel to it (lack of information and a webinar). Just wondering if this is a new mlm marketing plan that I haven't come across yet (and since becoming a mom I thought I've come across them alllll). Maybe I'll ask her the name of it....but then I'll sound too interested.

[Mr. Green]

I realize that some co-ops are legit (like REI). This just has an mlm feel to it (lack of information and a webinar). Just wondering if this is a new mlm marketing plan that I haven't come across yet (and since becoming a mom I thought I've come across them alllll). Maybe I'll ask her the name of it....but then I'll sound too interested.

You'd refuse to ask what it's about, even if it was something that could legit save you money, because you think it sounds like an MLM? That's unfortunate. Questions are free, and so is saying "no."

[serpentstooth]

My cousin sent me this message on Facebook. Are co-ops code word for mlm? A Google search didn't yield great results. I'm planning on being busy.

Hello! How are you?? I love seeing pics of those adorable boys. I bet your life is really boring! hahaha.. So, I have something for you. I do this little online co-op. Its kinda like whole foods but at target prices. Its honesty amazing and I have so many people REALLY enjoying. Tonight we are doing a couple short and easy to watch webcasts that are really very interesting just from a consumer stand point and Id love you you to watch. There is one at 6:30 and at 8 and really you at minimum enjoy the info. Are you going to be around??

Coops vary. This sounds like an MLM, but I've also done coops where a bunch of people go in together to meet a manufacturer's wholesale minimum in a single order. They get the products at a hefty discount in exchange for some organization on the back end. There are also companies that are legit and work on something similar to this model, like Zaycon Fresh and Azure Standard. A community makes a big bulk grocery order, and a truck comes to a parking lot, drops everything off, and people divvy it up.

Coops are also a type of housing where I live, so this threw me for a loop.

[cchrissyy]

if you have to watch an infomercial, it's either a scam, a sales pitch, or at the least, a waste of time

usually an "online co-op" is a wholesale group buy - like, brand XYZ will sell us, a group of people not an authorized retailer, a case of widgets at wholesale cost but we have to get together and make one order, so everyone send me your money for wholesale cost plus a small markup for my trouble, I'll buy the case and ship the individual widgets to everyone, what a deal!

[historienne]

There's a woman in my area who runs one of these, basically as a business for herself.  It's not MLM, but she finds good bulk buys, takes on the work of coordinating the order, and charges a handling fee.  Generally the stuff still ends up being significantly cheaper than retail, but she's up front about it being a business on her end.

No infomercials, though - makes me wonder if someone's taken that kind of model and given in the MLM treatment.

[COlady]

There's a woman in my area who runs one of these, basically as a business for herself.  It's not MLM, but she finds good bulk buys, takes on the work of coordinating the order, and charges a handling fee.  Generally the stuff still ends up being significantly cheaper than retail, but she's up front about it being a business on her end.

No infomercials, though - makes me wonder if someone's taken that kind of model and given in the MLM treatment.

I figured out what it is - Melaleuca. I Googled "whole foods at target prices" and that was the winner. I wrote my cousin back and told her thanks for thinking of me but I'm not interested. Every time someone tries to sell me on their mlm scam I lose respect for them. I feel bad for my cousin that they're having a rough time, I know her husband's hourly rate was cute by $5 an hour....but I'm not going to buy this stuff. I am surrounded by people who are selling all sorts of overpriced mlm products. Even if I like I product I refuse to buy it if it is the product of an mlm based company, I simply don't want support such terrible business practices.