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Thursday, November 03, 2005

Those Annoying Family Friends Who Sell PartyLite

I have friends that revolve in a whirwind of sales parties: PartyLite, Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Weekenders, Tupperware. They feel this obligation to go if a close friend or family member has invited them. Besides, they just had their own nutritional supplement party and everyone else had to come!

I have a couple close friends and otherwise I'm relatively anti-social. It serves me well. You see, I have very little time, and only wish to spend it with people who are truly extraordinary like Michelle, Ozma, and my assistant: Zen Buddhist. I have other friends who could be closer if we could ever coordinate our schedules! Parties don't usually fit into that scheme though I admit I've made exceptions.

Don't get me wrong! These few friends are more important to me than they probably know. They are alternatively my grounding force, my sanity, my breath of fresh air, my ministering spirits. Even more importantly to me, they are all interesting and intelligent and I don't feel like I'm ever wasting time with them.

But Ozma, being Mexican, has a large extended family and I am part of it. They are immensely sweet people who dote on me, so I am forced to waste more time doing useless socializing than I ever would (I was probably a hermit in a former life).

I was invited to more parties than most people see in a lifetime, and narrowly escaped them all, until Ozma pointed out one day that I was always missing her parties. Busted! I guess she didn't buy the last excuse, when I told her that the house was under siege by velociraptors.

So, I had to attend and buy my way out of the parties. You feel bad for the hostess! She needs those hostess gifts!

I hate those parties. There's always the obligatory party games; you feel like you're at a bridal shower! Then everyone gets serious and the products come out. If you buy something small, you feel stingy. But if you buy something massive that you will probably never use, you have just spent half of your home's mortgage for that month. So, the pressure is always on at the end of the party: are you buying the tealight, or the 75 pound stand-up candle at the bargain price of $362.75?

I had thought I had narrowly escaped the most recent spate of parties, until Ozma's dad called me. "I know you're going in for surgery," he said. "I have found a product I believe in so much that I am now selling it! I just know it will help you! You might not even need surgery! It's called OPC-3, and it's only $60 a bottle!"

Groan. I'm trying to look on the bright side, however. At least he's not throwing a party!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh how I hate those parties! And the GAMES!!!! (she ran screaming from the room)

Anonymous said...

What a bunch of junk, literally. I don't EVER attend the parties, but I must confess that sometimes I feel guilty enough to order from the stupid catalogues. GRRRRR

Eddo said...

Huge Groan! Huge.

BarbaraFromCalifornia said...

I agree with you. I am not a party person of any type.

But I wish I could find some good tupperware!

High Power Rocketry said...

Hey is it hard enough for smart people to sell me solid products. Not semi pyramid scheme average joes trying to sell total crap, they will never work. These sales meetings are scams, and any friend who does it to other friends needs to think about what kind of person they are. Its all about the appeal of money (Which they never make, trust me) even if that means putting pressure on people you know.

A kid about my age wound up selling knives over the phone. He tried to pressure my mom into buying them, and she is too polite to tell this kid to F off. But im not. I told him that this was the last phone call he would make to us about this product. And it was. I mean he chose to call people who knew him trying to guilt them into buying. These people act like drug addicts. They have no shame. They take advantage of you, and they treat you like a sucker (which many people are).

Bathroom Review
Rocketry

Lee Ann said...

I am *groaning* with you! I don't like those parties either, for exactly the same reasons you gave. I just say.."Oh, I can't I am busy" and I just leave it at that.

Jamie Dawn said...

I hate those parties too. It's not that you don't ever get any good items from them, but it's just that you could go and buy something similar on your own time without the party pressure.
I bought some Pampered Chef items a few years back that I really like.

OldHorsetailSnake said...

The Kraut's response: "Oh, I am glad you called. I'm throwing an Auto Parts and Guns Party next week and I know you'll want to come. We have to charge admission because it's so expensive to set up, so does $60 sound right to you? How many tickets will you need?"

dddragon said...

I got sucked into a bunch of Stampin' Up parties for awhile, but have been lucky enough to have real excuses for some time now.

Dave said...

I have to admit I like tupperware products. I renamed my Mr. Refrigerator Mr. Tupperware. One of the best times I ever had was at a candle party. My side's starting to ache just thinking about it. Sales is where the money is unless of course you have your own software company.

Fred said...

I'm throwing a good old fashioned party this weekend with a cake, refreshments, and people. Nothing else. Hopefully, everyone will have a good time. Stay tuned....

(I'll be missing from the story this weekend - I'll miss the fun!)

The Zombieslayer said...

I haven't heard of any of those products except for Mary Kay and Tupperware. At least with Tupperware, I made a quick $200 with their stock. :)

mal said...

I had a roomie that sold tupperware, drove me nuts....die polyethylene! Die, Die!!!!!

Neoma said...

I have a daughter in law who sells partylite, she is always begging people to buy her high prices candles so that she can get a FREE trip to somewhere or other. Like gee, why wouldn't we all want to buy 90. candles so she can get her trip. Get Real! In this economy?