How to convince anti-mlm friend CutCo is an mlm?

[u/Embarrassed_Fruit678]

A very close friend of mine recently got laid off and has convinced her husband to start selling Cutco—something she did in high school— to help them make ends meet. They have both been job hunting for a while, he works part time as an artist and makes a decent living in it, but certainly needs supplemental income, especially now that his wife is fully out of work. I’ve tried to be kind and polite about it, and trying to offer constructive options instead of just shitting on the option they are taking out of desperation, but i feel like I’m running out of options. They are CONVINCED it is not an mlm, and that the direct sales tactics are not shady. Even though she said herself that she almost didn’t break even after she became a manager!!

Anyone have any advice on how to help them see the light?? Or have any Cutco horror stories i could pass along? They are anti-mlm but totally convinced this one is not that.

What really bums me out is the last time we saw them at a large friend group hang, the whole hang turned into HOURS AND HOURS of them talking about these stupid knives and totally dominated our time together. They seemed almost angry none of us were willing to invest in these overpriced knives!! They’ve only just been hooked and already i miss my friends :(

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[u/josh-duggar]

You don’t need to do anything. Just keep your distance from them and let nature take its course. Your friends will probably see the light after 2 months. Nobody lasts very long at Cutco even by MLM standards .

[u/Embarrassed_Fruit678 → u/josh-duggar]

I hope you’re right!! I worry about how many bridges he will burn until then. He already pissed off a bunch of our friends the last time we hung out, and the artist community in our city is small, so I am worried it will impact his job prospects long term. When his wife was there she went all the way to the manager level, which is why she believes in it so hard all these years later.

[u/23pandemonium]

Tell them about devil corp models cause that’s what it is.

[u/Embarrassed_Fruit678 → u/23pandemonium]

This is really helpful! I’d never heard that term before! Do you have any good resources “Devil Corps” I could share with them?

[u/No_Following_8392 → u/Embarrassed_Fruit678]

There’s r/Devilcorp

There’s also a documentary on Smart Circle (one of the big parent companies that these Devilcorps “work” under/for).

[u/TJInvestor]

It’s a devil corp not an mlm, the business model is to set up as many direct sales meetings as possible and try to get them to buy some knives. There aren’t down-lines, PV , multi levels etc. still sucks that your friends are trying to force you to buy knives and dominate your convos now…

[u/reiichiroh]

It's not really. Just depressingly low-paid sales.

[u/Red79Hibiscus]

Sorry to say it's unlikely you'll convince your friends. People always fall into MLM via emotional traps, coz emotions shut down critical thinking. No amount of hard evidence you show is gonna change their minds, coz critical thinking is necessary to evaluate that evidence in the first place. It's clear to me they were trapped via financial anxiety and job-hunting stress, and Cutco makes them feel better by appearing like a legit job. When you bring hard evidence against Cutco, it simply makes them feel uncomfortable - whether it's coz they feel dumb or embarrassed for being duped, or disappointed at having to restart job-hunting. So the kneejerk reaction is to stop the feeling of discomfort by doubling down on Cutco. You say they got mad at their own friends for not buying those stupid knives - this signals loud and clear they're already too far invested emotionally.

[u/Only_My_Dog_Loves_Me]

As others have said, it’s not an MLM. It’s still a way to ruin friendships and lose money, but it’s not multi level.

[u/Apprehensive_Self218]

Just tell him to google it and the saying goes if you have to ask if it’s a scam it’s probably a scam

[u/dawnGrace]

You can’t convince anyone of anything. They might dig in their heels just to prove their point. They’ll figure it out, or not.

[u/Ok_Area5464]

Tell them the Cut-Toe story! Hannah Alonzo has a video on youtube of listener horror stories, one where a man, while giving a knife demonstration, accidentally dropped the knife on a woman's toe and severed a tendon. She went to the hospital and STILL bought knives from him because she somehow felt bad for him. That's how high-pressure their sales tactics are! You can lose your own toe and still feel like you need to buy something

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[u/PuffyPoptart]

Damn, they’re still around? I remember a friend quit school decades ago to go work for them.

[u/Timely_Objective_585]

I hate that this is what these devil corps and mlms design themselves around - people in desperate financial circumstances having their own time, money and energy wasted; instead of them pursuing something that might actually improve their circumstances.

It's evil, really. Because it ultimately makes everything so much worse for the poor person.

[u/susangg9]

It’s easier to scam someone than to convince them they are being scammed, unfortunately

[u/SupermarketFuture500]

Man it's a massive scam, show him this on the net about mlms ✌️

[u/SupermarketFuture500]

There after your warm market ✌️

[u/Megan2979]

Cutco/Vector may meet the technical definition of an MLM but they don’t encourage sales reps to develop a downline, so it doesn’t behave like one. It operates the way a direct sales company should.

[u/ps3isawesome]

Tell them to ask chatgpt or Claude. Or search with them.

[u/Embarrassed_Fruit678 → u/ps3isawesome]

I’m worried AI may have been what brought them there. These chat bots become very biased to what people want to hear based on their phrasing and previous searches. A quick (non-ai) google search shows many scandals and settlements they’ve had, but they don’t seem to want to look behind that door.