MLM...Tupperware

Tupperware is another MLM business opportunity much like Amway; however, it is more like Mary Kay cosmetics and Avon than Amway in how it is set up.  Unlike Amway, Tupperware, Mary Kay and Avon, are more likely to be sold by women,to women through in-home parties.  Tupperware is unique though because the main product is plstic products for the home. 

Like other home party MLM businesses, special discounts are given to people who sign up to host parties with their friends, then friends are invited to come and purchase products or host parties with their friends.  Also like all other MLM’s they hold within their gatherings, the salepitch that if you buy into the product, you can own your own business, setting your own hours, being your own boss.  Additionally, you might even catching someone along your way who is an outgoing entrepreneur, someone who will sell lots of product, sign up down-line entrepreneurial types, from which you too will reap the benefits of sales.

While some MLM businesses, like Tupperware, Mary Kay and Avon, are not “pyramid schemes,” and do have good business reputations, there are many MLM business opportunities that are and don't.  Just the same, the companies mentioned here, all have one thing in common, and that is that they make it a normal cultural practice for people to make merchandise opportunities of their friends. 

People invite their friends and allow a sales pitch to be delivered, and sometimes these friends buy stuff.  Sometimes they buy stuff they do not really need or want because they do not want to insult their friend... and then they start thinking of people they can sell stuff to and invite their friends.  If people are not careful they can get caught up in these schemes and begin to see friends and people they meet, only as potential customers and dollar signs.  If they are not careful, they may end up building friendships on money and business opportunity, aka exploiting people,  rather than basing relationships on true friendship and love.  The neighborhood which should have been a safe haven gets turned into a marketplace and when that happens, there is a whole new dynamic in it's place.

Besides getting a different set of eyes with which to view the people that you meet and know, MLM  is often based upon discontentment. The MLM programs are often sold with the sublime hook of, "Why work for someone else?... Be your own boss!" or "Add some extra income to your life."
This is a different spirit than the biblical one which admonishes us Christians to "keep ourselves free from the love of money," and  "be content in every circumstance."

Hebrews 13:5 (NIV) Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV) I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

1Timothy 6:6-11 (NIV) Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.