Mary Kay Cosmetics: Destroying half a million women a year
To many, my fight against Mary Kay Cosmetics is puzzling. Why would I want to waste my time with it? After all, they’re only selling lipstick. It’s a harmless company started by a little old lady 45 years ago who wanted to give women an opportunity.
WRONG! Mary Kay Inc. is anything but harmless, and that’s why it’s so important for me to continue to educate people about the company. They are running a scam that brings in $2 billion in sales to headquarters each year.
Where does this money come from? Often from those who can least afford it. The name of the game is recruiting and frontloading. Bring her in and get her to buy an inventory package of $600 to $4800 right away. (If she doesn’t buy within the first couple of weeks, the chances that she will buy anything at all go down exponentially.)
Start with the largest package and work your way down. All the while, tell the new Mary Kay consultant that she can’t be successful without a “full store” of products. Tell her that if she wants to be at “profit level” and really start bringing in money for her family, she needs a lot of products. After all, you can’t sell from an empty wagon!
Mary Kay is a recruiting scheme. The vast majority of the products sold to the consultants is never resold to an actual customer. Is it because the consultants really don’t try to sell? No! It’s because the products are of mediocre quality and are overpriced. Besides that, women have oodles of choices on the internet and in the stores. There’s just no need to go through the hassle of dealing with a Mary Kay lady, especially when you know that she’ll eventually try to recruit you and never let up!
Here are some numbers and facts that I pulled together for Pink Truth, my consumer education site about Mary Kay. Word on the street is that recruiting figures are way down in the past year, but the below numbers are the most recently reported numbers from Mary Kay Inc.
From Pink Truth:
I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some real figures regarding Mary Kay and consultant turnover. We often hear pro-Mary Kay women (and their brainwashed husbands) rave that there are millions of women who have had wonderful experiences as consultants, so the company must be fantastic.
Now here’s my theory. Are women quitting Mary Kay because it was everything they wanted and more, and because they were making money doing it? Or do they quit because they are dissatisfied and are not making money? I submit to you that the reason women quit being independent beauty consultants for Mary Kay Cosmetics is by and large because of failure in the business.
I do understand that some may be perfectly happy in Mary Kay, but quit because of family circumstances or other reasons. I’m just saying that the vast majority likely quit due to a negative experience.
Over time, Mary Kay has been increasing its beauty consultant count. Now it’s important to note that this is the count of consultants at any given time, such as the year end total. The number disclosed by Mary Kay does NOT include all the women who may have come and gone during the year. Mary Kay simply picks a point in time and says “Today we have X consultants.”
In the United States, there were 500,000 consultants in 2001. In 2005, that number was 715,000. Worldwide the numbers have been growing quite a bit faster. (Hence the push to open new markets like India and the Czech Republic.) In 2002, there were 950,000 consultants worldwide. In 2005, that number was 1.6 million.
Here’s where it gets interesting and where we find out the truth about the number of consultants that Mary Kay Cosmetics churns each year. I’m using United States figures below, because of the disclosures that Mary Kay made last year.
In 2006, Mary Kay disclosed that the company had over 700,000 independent beauty consultants in the United States. This was similar to the 2005 reported figure of 715,000 consultants in the United States. This implies that at the current time, the number of consultants is staying relatively stable. (i.e. For every consultant recruited, one drops out.)
Mary Kay stated in its response to the FTC’s proposed Business Opportunity Rule , that there are 2,400,000 “disclosure opportunities” (meaning interviews) per year. That’s 200,000 women interviewed per month. Mary Kay Cosmetics further stated that there are 40,000 new recruits per month. (Thank God those other 160,000 per month said no… a total of two million women per year who turn Mary Kay down.)
At 40,000 new recruits per month…
That means that during 2006, Mary Kay Inc. recruited 480,000 women in the United States, and 480,000 women in the United States quit. Add the 480,000 quitters to the 700,000 (or so) U.S. consultants on the books at the end of the year, and we’ve got a total of 1,180,000 (yes that’s over 1 million) women in the United States who were “in” Mary Kay at some point during 2006.
What a staggering churn rate, though, isn’t it? Depending upon how you look at it… 41% of the 1,180,000 involved during the year quit. Or of those 700,000 on the books at the end of the year, 69% of them will quit in the following year. 480,000 women churned and burned in 2006.
During 2007, Mary Kay will burn through another 500,000 American women. And in 2008, they’ll burn through another 500,000. And so on every year….
Mary Kay, destroying half a million women’s lives every year.
Quoting Barbara’s comments from February 5, 2010: “I make enough to cover the costs of the make-up and shipping – that’s it. ”
Not quite what I would consider a glowing endorsement of a Mary Kay enterprise…more like a hobby than a business, hmm?
Sorry if this is out of place, but I got to this site while looking for a list of top salespeople/”queens of sales?” for MKC. Is it available anywhere? I would think that promoting/honoring such individuals (on an annual basis) would make for good publicity, but I couldn’t find it on MKC’s website. Thanks for a point in the right direction.
saddened by this post. mk enriches womens lives!
Are you ashamed to be associated with MK, and saddened to learn the truth? MK enriches the pocket books of the 1% TOPP’s (top of the pyramid people) specifically by depleting the pocket books of the other 99%. As to women’s “lives”, MK destroys relationships and the emotional well being of women who are deceived into joining and incurring thousands of dollars of debt.
As with all legal pyramid schemes (aka MLMs), the very structure of the” business model” is morally and ethically reprehensible.
I am sorry but you people are ignorant. Have you spoken with an actual Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant? Have you heard what they have to say? Mary Kay changed my life!
I am 22 and I am a MK Independent Beauty Consultant. Everything Mary Kay Inc. does is legit and legal and definitely is not fraud. Mary Kay in fact is not even a pyramid!!! Yes, we recruit, but we don’t have to in order to make money. The philosophy of Mary Kay is follow the Golden Rule, the “GoGive” Spirit! We simply help women and teach about skin care and if they don’t want it, it’s okay. We just move on. We also do not recruit in a pyramid-like matter. We give women the opportunity to take control of their lives and become their own boss and own their own business!
As for the one, Lu, that was doing research to look for the top sales people/”Queens of Sales” look harder, the evidence is there!
If you want to investigate a recruiting scheme or a pyramid company, investigate NuSkin! See what they tell you about recruiting people. They will tell you to recruit five people within the first three weeks you join them. They don’t even give you an opportunity to be a customer because the push to recruit you right away!
After you learn about NuSkin, then come back and tell me what you think of Mary Kay!
You sound like a bitter woman. Mary Kay is the ONLY product that has ever done wonders for my skin!
Sara, check back in when Mom & Dad terminate your scholarship. I want to see how fired up you are then.
It is sad that when someone isn’t successful because of their lack of trying, people blame someone else. Bitter people blame others. It is sad there is such a victim mentality out there!
The MK company does repurchase products purchased within a year at 90%. In a years time, you should be able to make a decision if the opportunity is right for you.
I think that says volume to the fact that Mary Kay is NOT a scam, but has an opportunity for the few that choose to give it a try.
Look at the numbers of how many go to college and quit. Does that mean no one should make any attempt to go to college? Think about that!
Success in Selling Mary Kay does NOT come down to trying. It comes down to wanting to bother people. If you are comfortable asking people to buy things they clearly don’t want or need than you will be a great Mary Kay consultant. You’ll be even more successful if you can convince someone ELSE to bother everyone they know pushing things they don’t want or need. Mary Kay’s required purchases are too high in this economy. Buy on Mary Kay on a web auction site…help the thousands of former ( and current) Mary Kay consultants that have overstocked.
IS SOOORRY!!! to hear a person talking that way about MARY KAY COSMETIC it has work for me wonders on my skin i am a independent beauty consultant for MARY KAY COSM. this products are high quality not just some sheap cosmetics like someome express if u dont use them every day do not bother by saying is a scam because is going to work for you as u use them and on the bussiness side is really up to u how good u are on bugetting your expenses because this is a bussiness that u are oppenning as with any other bussiness u need to have a store with products or u are not selling anything if u have one product or two do u think u will be making a profit ? or sale big of course not! so if u are not good on selling or talking to people , please look for something that u are good on!!! and stop wasting your time or MARY KAY would close a long time ago and is getting bigger every day sorry u feel this way about such a wonderful company who is just helping women grow their self steem
I’m DYING over here at “Mary’s” “sheap cosmetics” and “self steem” not to mention the terrible abuse of the letter “u.”
Mary Kay cosmetics is nothing other than a gigantic pyramid scam ruining the lives of women left and right. With it’s weekly pep-rallies and frequent “career” conferences in addition to the annual “Dallas” convention, and the virtually daily co-dependent pep talks from a local director, ignorant women become self-absorbed through brainwashing into a delusional state. Yes, many have the American Dream, but there’s nothing worse than deceiving people and not providing them with the facts and the reality of a business and how it’s done. In the process most MK “consultants” become enstranged to their husbands and kids as the “future director” will have to work many, many hours on the phone, attend meetings, do “free” facials, and cold chatting (talking to strangers on the street) to somehow sell her products. Often these products are sold a steep discount so that the purchased inventory is sold off somehow. There’s no time left for the MK consultant’s husband and kids anymore, because the MK activities go on and on late in the evenings and on weekends and so forth. Everything takes second place to the Mary Kay “career” while the “future director” is spending the family fortune on ever increasing inventory just to establish a fake track record and to keep on getting her own discount.
Most of the sales reports by the so-called “star directors” etc. are false and a hoax. Mary Kay is solely build on recruiting new “consultants” as this is the only way someone can “earn” their “free” car and to climb the ladder of “MK success.” The problem is that the success rate is so small that most MK consultant will never have a shot to even have a decend normal income. As we know the MK system very well and have/had family members involved in this scam, we know the pain, the hurt and the heartache that comes with the Mary Kay “business.” The best advice is to every woman is to not even discuss the MK “opportunity” with a “MK consultant’ and to not even get the “free” facial, because it’s a dangerous door to open and it will also hurt the “MK consultant” and their family.
It’s a free country, but we just wonder why the FTC doesn’t shut down the Mary Kay operation? It’s just a MLM scam and literally, women’s lives are being ruined as also their marriages and families are being destroyed in the process.
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Cheri -> “Mary Kay is NOT a scam, but has an opportunity for the few that choose to give it a try.
Look at the numbers of how many go to college and quit. Does that mean no one should make any attempt to go to college? Think about that!”
Would you enroll in a college that only passed the top 5% of the performers? That’s the appropriate comparison.
Think about that!
Well said Dietmar.
There are those out there who would suggest (and did so on another web site, purported to be unbiased), that dropping out of MK stems from a personal shortcoming, such as (by analogy) an inability to sing would eliminate one from American Idol. Oh PLEASE!!!!
People leave the MK MLM largely because they are the product of a very predictable process which churns women in droves, by design. The product sold during propagation of this social virus is not creams, lipstick or any other tangible item; the product sold by the MK MLM is fantasy, extremely expensive fantasy. My message to the shameless shills who promote this dreg on the web is this: When you come to your senses, don’t beat yourself up too much. There are many who were bilked by the MK MLM con who offer support to those stepping into reality and away from facilitation of further victimization of women and their families. Join the ever growing ranks of Mary Kay Cosmetics survivors.
The MK MLM is very simply a well designed scam which exploits women. Who really wants to be a part of this? Who really wants to continue as a shill for this cult-like entity? Look in the mirror… Are you really the type who wants to publicly compare victims of the MK MLM to folks who just can’t sing?
Blessed
well about all of this, No one should be selling Mk they have there web site plus it’s hard to even try to sell out there, so many makeup line out there how can you sell this stuff and make money, back then when she now started her line off course you could of make the money, but not now, MK should cut out the middle man now, should not make people think that the can make a lot off money being a consultant, it like asking to sell insurance(,lol ) I do love her makeup it is the best, compere to other high end brand her stuff looks good. MK know that people don’t need any body coming to there door to try and sell her stuff, women should know these thing come on people, there are web site you can check everything, MK sellers cheap on alot of on line store’s lol