I gave Amway Scandinavia a bit of a slam the other day for some of their partner store pricing and it provoked some interesting comments. What seems clear is some markets seem to do a good job of setting up good deals for ABOs, others are not so good at it. I’m curious as to how these deals are setup and who is consulted. My feeling is if it’s not obviously a good deal when a new ABO or prospect looks at it, then the deal shouldn’t be done at all. It matters – I’m sure I’m not alone amongst ABOs in having had prospects return waving printouts of supposed “price comparisons” done by anti-Amway zealots and claiming the whole thing was a rip-off. I’m fundamentally lazy – why make Amway harder than it has to be?

So, in the interests of making it easier, and a more positive note for Amway Europe, here’s a price comparison I did recently (2009-08-20) of a range of Amway products in the UK. I did the comparison after a critic I was engaged in debate with claimed that with outlets like Tesco and ADSA -

“(the price of) Amway products (in the UK) are so out of kilter as to be ludicrous.”

I had no idea if he was right or wrong, so I thought I’d go and look. Here is what I found, and my response ….Any examples? I’ve just picked the Beauty & Grooming catalogue since we know from indpendent sources exactly who the competitors of Artistry are (eg Estee Lauder, Lancome, Clarins), and at more than a billion in sales it makes up a significant chunk of Amway’s business. Let’s try the basic “essentials”, the most popular and on the first page of the Amway catalogue -

ARTISTRY essentials Hydrating Cleanser £11.30/135ml = £8.37/100ml
Estee Launder Splash Away Foaming Cleanser £17.50/125ml = £14.00/100ml
Amway Artistry 40% cheaper

ARTISTRY essentials Hydrating Lotion SPF 15 £15.37/50ml = £30.74/100ml
Estee Launder Day Wear Plus £29.00/50ml = £58.00/100ml
Amway Artistry 47% cheaper

ARTISTRY essentials Hydrating Toner £11.30/200ml = £5.65/100ml
Estee Lauder Fresh Balancing Lotion £17.50/200ml = £8.75/100ml
Amway Artistry 35% cheaper

On just the first page, Amway wins easily.

Let’s try something else. Tesco wouldn’t let me look at prices, but I could get on to http://www.adsa.co.uk.

How about Amway’s oldest and most popular product, good old LOC all purpose cleaner? From the home living catalogue -

L.O.C. Multi-Purpose Cleaner £4.11/1 litre makes 20 litres = £0.26/litre
Dettol All Purpose Cleaner £2.20/litre (on special)
Amway 88% cheaper

I’m just picking some products we use, that are straightforward and easy to compare (unlike Nutrilite), and that are some of Amway’s biggest selling. I haven’t checked anything and found it expensive and not included it.

L.O.C. Plus Bathroom Cleaner £3.47/500ml makes min 2 litres = £0.86/500ml
Flash Bathroom Spray £1.60/500ml
Amway 46% cheaper

L.O.C. Plus Bathroom Cleaner £3.47/500ml makes min 2 litres = £0.86/500ml
Mr Muscle Window & Glass Cleaner £1.45/500ml
Amway 41% cheaper

6 out of 6 to Amway so far.

Let’s try one that Amway nearly always “loses” in a straightforward comparison.

SA8 Bioquest Washing Powder £9.70/2.25kg – 54 washes £0.18/wash
Persil Washing Powder – bio £8.50/4.25kg – 50 washes £0,17/wash

Amway 5% more expensive!:eek:

Oh yeah, so out of kilter as to be ludicrous

But … every time I’ve ever checked, the “number of washes” on the front of boxes like Persil refers to usage with soft water, low dirt clothes or similar – not “average” type washes. Go check it yourself. Amway’s number refers to average ph water, average dirt. When you adjust, Amway wins easily. Again.

And this is all at full retail price. Active IBOs get the products 25%-55% cheaper.