I'm looking for a new job. I applied on Career Builder for an "Event Coordinator" position through the above companies (they work together). I thought, why don't I just go in to in a different "creative" direction this time. So I applied to this very skimpy, add they had placed. I got an email and a call for an interview. I went to the interview and there were 8 other people in the office doing the same thing (Red Flag #1 along with a weird gut feeling). I disregarded it.
I got into the interview with a very nice lady who made the job sound very exciting, and told me I would get to help a worthwhile cause, helping children. I mean who wouldn't want to be an event coordinator right? It sounds fun! I love to plan things! The interview was about 8 minutes long (Flag 2). I left still cloudy about what exactly they do, but my curiosity was peaked, so I waited for the phone call for the 2nd round interview, which will be the whole next day from 930am to 6pm so you can observe an "event" (Flag 3). Why would they want me to be there the whole day? (My current boss even said it sounded sleazy). Yet again I disregarded the feeling that this wasn't right.
SO I got all excited to go to an "event" and watch them, hoping the job is as fun as the manager assured me it was. I took the whole day off from my current job to go, which means I'm wasn't getting paid. I got to the office and again there was 8 other people waiting to do the same thing (Flag 4). I wanted to leave then, but I figured I might as well give it a chance. I was introduced to the person I was going to be at the event with.
At that point I still had no clue where we were going or what we were going to be doing. I got in the car with this lady and we drove to the location as she's telling me to take notes while she's explaining everything because I will be quizzed on it later. (Flag 5) F#@% I'm already in the car now!!! She begins to tell me the events are not huge, they are in fact very small, but they generate all this money for the non-for-profit CPEA which finds missing children. The charity gets 20% of the sales (which I guess other charities only get 5%). I got the feeling by this time I was not going to the job I thought I applied for.
She explained the 5 steps to starting a conversation... Blah, blah... Only 10% will buy - numbers game... Blah, blah... Systems that have been working for 26 years... Blah, blah... So I'm going to be a sales person... Great. 15 minutes before we reach the destination (eh, hem CHANDLER!) she finally tells me that we are going to be in a Wal-mart!
When we got there I was already angry. She told me she wanted me to ask her lots of questions to make sure I had a "student mentality" I was thinking alright, I'll ask you some questions, because I didn't want the job by then. So we meet another person there, grab the little folding table and all the products we're selling and head into wall mart to set up our "EVENT"... Please... I stood in Wal-mart for 6 hours and watched the "EVENT" as these two ladies tried to make customers make a "contribution" for a "gift" (mind you folks this is all syntax)
They were SELLING STUFF and giving 20% to charity. WHERE does the other 80% go you ask? Oh boys and girls they would tell you it goes to the "manufacturer" Innovage who makes all the products solely for this company. All the while behind the scenes they lady is telling me what a HUGE profit margin she gets from these products. She also said the UPC is retail value of the product but they sell it to the customer at wholesale. They can take a product that is a $60 retail value and sell it for "as low as" $30.00 (but they "pitch" the product as high as they can get it).
So let's back up a second a $60 (retail) product gets sold for say $30 so 20% is $6 to the charity. The other $24 is split between the manufacturer and the company I applied for. I looked at the products; they are made in China.
Here's where the fact that I work for a wholesale company helps me out. I know how cheap it is to make things in China. My guess is if the wholesale is $30 then it costs the wholesale company (which is probably Innovage I don't think they're the manufacturer) probably about 1/3 of that to buy from the manufacturer. So the $30 break down is: $6 to charity / $10 to the manufacturer-wholesaler / and $14 to the company that is supposed to be supporting children.
This woman was going on and on about how much money you could make, and how you only have to sell things for 6-9 months because they need managers so you'll moved up quick, all the while pretending to consumers that she works directly for the CPEA and the money goes ONLY to charity and manufacturing costs. (I watched her tell that to an elderly lady) Does that disgust anyone else yet!?? THAT MAKES ME SICK!!! How can anyone take home that much MORE money than the charity they're supporting, flat-out lie, manipulate people, toy with their emotions, undermine their intelligence, and sleep at night?
It gets worse. She told me she can sell the stuff for whatever she wants as long as it's above a certain amount "but you want to pitch it high" and "keep these $5 (rubber) bracelets toward the back of the table or people will only want to buy that, we want the them to buy the higher priced items" So she preceded to sell one person an item for $15 and the next person a few minutes later the same item for $25 dollars, but then threw in a bracelet as an extra "gift, with the conversation starter mostly being "You're invited, come on over, help the little ones!" So this was nothing more than a manipulative sales game.
The "events" were two people selling things in different stores across the valley by tugging at the heartstrings of unsuspecting consumers, all the while pocketing most of the money. Most people didn't want to talk to them. What do you do when you walk in a store... You head straight for what you want or need, you don't want annoying people trying to sell you something, you want them to leave you alone and let you shop right? People can smell b@#%shit too. But according to the #'s "game", 10% percent will get hosed, er I mean buy something BECAUSE they feel guilty.
This company plays off of the emotions of people. THEY DID IT TO ME by making the job sound like something it wasn't. I had to watch person after person after person get manipulated and get told to buy the $30 safety system for their children in order to keep information about them if they go missing.
They also tell people that the safety system that they got from the school isn't good enough because, unlike their system, the child is labeled alpha-numerically and put in a database so if a predator wanted to, they could hack the database and get all the info on your child... Come on people have we ever heard of that happening? Do you REALLY think a predator would go THAT far... Though it could be possible... So the company taps into your guilt AND, say it with me: your FEAR.
They also think people are STUPID. They try to get people to buy MORE after they already bought the safety kit by saying "because you bought this, you 'qualify' to get this other item at a 'special' price. Are you sure you don't want to get in on this?" She said that to someone and when questioned about it, she denied saying it.
I watched people get guilt tripped into this and the lady keeps saying to me "I'm indifferent, if this one doesn't buy the next one will." Indifferent you're helping a charity or God's sakes!
She also said some people don't even want to talk to us, they just throw money on the table and say here's a donation." OK cool a donation right? WRONG upon asking her if that really went to the company she said, NO I use it to make up for the taxes that some people refuse to pay OR I give the next person a "free" gift. So really according to her books, she has certain items to sell (usually a $ amount goal in order to get entered in that drawing to go to Florida) and a certain amount of money that should accompany it. So she gives a person a free item and over-charges the next person so that the numbers match. Or in this case, takes the donation and gives someone else a "free" gift with it. So that "free" gift is actually recorded as a sale, which the company makes almost a 50% commission on.
I'm an honest person. This was hell for me. I wanted to scream to all the people that they were getting manipulated their money was not going where they thought it was.
Another pitch they had was that when people go to www.find-missing-children.org 1 in 6 children is found, so when you buy the T-shirt you are a "walking-talking" advertisement. Remember that 90/10 rule? Only the people that buy stuff have the knowledge to go to that website. They don't have pamphlets or cards with the web address on them to give to the other 90% that didn't buy anything. So it's like screw the other 90%.
Some people where interested in the cause, but didn't want to buy anything but neither of the girls wrote down the web address for any of them... (???) Supposedly they have stickers, but they were out of them.
So 1 in 6 children is found when those 10% log on to that site, how many would be found if 100% of the people are given a reference to that site? Actually when you go to the site it's just about the foundation more than the missing children themselves anyway. THIS COMPANY IS SOLEY ABOUT BENEFITING THEMSELVES; THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT MISSING CHILDREN!!!
I asked her all the questions that I have brought up in this rant and more. Like I said, I didn't want the job from the moment I got to Wal-mart so I asked her every uneasy question I could and delivered every point of mine without making the ride home uncomfortable. I told her that if they had told me from the beginning that I would be standing in Wal-mart I wouldn't have gone to the 2nd interview and I turned down the job. You can have your money, I'll follow my instincts, be honest and make crap, but I'll be able to sleep at night.
So people DO NOT apply for a job and DO NOT buy their products when they try to get you at Wal-mart, K-mart, gas stations (selling FAST WAX), and other places they may be!
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