Please explain this business model / scam to me

JamesMcD said:

WilD said:

Robbie said:

JamesMcD said:

EDT said:

Robbie said:

I don't know why but I'm having serious dejavu at the first post.

 

Ditto, this has come up before

 

I hope I didn't start this thread last year. 

Nope, 2 years ago! (I wasnt searching for this, I was searching for something else but found this)

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/latvian-teens-sell-textbooks-door-to-door-in-small/118856/page1/

 

OH my good, too perfect!  Is it Deja Vu if it really did happen before?

Well, that's embarrassing. I probably annoy everyone around me by telling the same stupid stories over and over. 

I look forward to this thread again in 2020.

This 'PLAN' is evil in every way...........

stuart in mn said:

maschinenbau said:

Exactly THIS. Same with the magazine sales scam. It's those kids that are being scammed and taken advantage of. If you see some "underpriledged youth" selling magazines door to door as part of an "entrepreneur mentorship program" or whatever, and they keep going on about how rough their upbringing was and how this is their ticket to business school, STOP, ask them where their adult is, and call the police. It's quite sad actually.

I sometimes get the kids selling candy bars in my neighborhood to raise funds for some imaginary nonprofit.  Kind of similar.

Except candy is really easy to sell. Textbooks? Who the hell buys textbooks for random subjects?

"Honey, I'm going to learn Graph Theory!"

Would they buy the 40 year text books I have in the attic?

i wouldn't be surprised if 16 year old me was lured into selling textbooks overseas by a promise of cheap travel and foreign girls.

The guy that came to my door left me a card. I just looked for it, my wife must have thrown it away. Had his picture and contact info on it. He had a whole brochure of books from pre K to college. He seemed legit and honest. But man you should have seen the reaction of everyone on Nextdoor. It was ugly. 

My city required solicitors to have a permit that must be displayed on their person for door to door sales. He had one. It was legit. I doubt they sold a single book though. 

We do get a lot of door to door sales people here for some reason. I've had as many as five different ones on a single Saturday. It's the only place I've lived where I've had anyone other than Jehovah's witnesses come to the door. 

What a tough gig.

Floating Doc said:

I thought they were all selling magazine subscriptions. That's what we get here.

Don't end up with 40 subscriptions to Vibe.

Had one stop by a few years ago, i think it was a Estonian kid as well.  Very nice kid really happy just to be talking with someone. Probably late teens? Anyways the books were some American company and the books were for kids and were quite religious. I had looked the name up to see what it was, wish i remembered. 

TJL said:

Had one stop by a few years ago, i think it was a Estonian kid as well.  Very nice kid really happy just to be talking with someone. Probably late teens? Anyways the books were some American company and the books were for kids and were quite religious. I had looked the name up to see what it was, wish i remembered. 

This.

In reply to Pete Gossett :

My thought process: "Oh. that sounds interesting.. <click> Oh, that's my thread. Duh."