USANA Health Sciences released their 2014 second quarter financial results. I would like to point out a few observations.
- USANA claims to now restrict associates purchases to within the country they reside. I believe this is in light of the fact they have had thousands possibly hundreds of thousands of USANA associates counted in their Hong Kong market that actually live in mainland China. This circumvents China's ban on multilevel marketing. USANA allowed all of these members to sign up in USANA's MLM using the SAME Hong Kong address (even though they actually lived in the mainland). Since USANA instructed these members to use a phoney address from Hong Kong, USANA knew this was wrong and violated foreign laws. Only a rat would construct such a circumvention.
I would love for a stock analyst to ask during the conference call "How many USANA associates switched to become Babycare associates?"
- USANA's Greater China sales declined year over year by $3.3 million. However, their active associates increased by 22,000 (102,000 to 125,000). This does not jive with historical patterns since there is a very direct correlation between the sales figure and the number of associates. So how is it that there is a 21% increase in the number of active associates yet a 4% decline in sales in the Greater China region? I have two theories!
Theory 1)
Hong Kong USANA associates have decreased while mainland China Babycare associates have increased and I believe a USANA associate spends a lot more money upfront to activate their business center(s). USANA associates participating in the MLM pyramid scheme have incentives to purchase excess product (Professional Starter Kit costs $1250) in order to partake in many gimmicks that they are led to believe will help their chances of succeeding (Platinum Pace Setter, Matching Bonus, Contests, etc...). This is all based on the fact that upline associates will get commissions from their downline's spending spree.
Babycare associates do not have downlines and do not collect any commission from the personal product purchases made by fellow Babycare associates. So there is no incentive to spend a lot of product that they aren't going to sell anyway.
Theory 2)
Assuming USANA is making all Hong Kong associates who actually live in mainland China switch over to Babycare, USANA may have actually counted the same individual twice! Once for Hong Kong and once for Babycare.
I would love for a stock analyst to ask during the conference call "Did you switch Hong Kong associates over to Babycare associates and did you 'accidentally' count the same person twice? I ask this because it doesn't make sense that you have a 21% increase in active associates yet experience a 4% decline in sales."
And for the sake of the world, disclose the number of Babycare associates! The sales from that market represents more than 10% of overall sales. Therefore you should be required to disclose the number of associates you have in that market.
Lastly, I would like USANA to disclose a couple very simple numbers:
1. Number of active Babycare associates
2. Amount of commission paid to Babycare associates
3. Percentage of product purchased by Babycare associates that was retailed to the general public
usanawatchdog,
ReplyDeleteDespite my pure hatred for this company, how can you explain this?
http://www.businessawards.com.au/winners/2014/Product-Innovation/USANA-Australia.php?from=timeline&isappinstalled=0
There is no way a company like usana can achieve this unless they bought this award to make them seem more legitimate.
Look at how this awards website works. Seems like any company can enter. I've never heard of any of these companies on the winners list. Put them up against actual companies who don't have to enter these silly awards contests and they'll get killed.
ReplyDeleteThat site also has links to other awards sites. Looks like companies enter these things to make themselves look better than they really are.
Hi USANA watchdog.
ReplyDeleteWhy did you claim that USANA is a scam? And why only usana you are targeting hence there are plenty of MLM company around the world?
The reason i discovered your site. I have a friend she is selling usana product the same time offering me business opportunity since am a business minded i did research the company thats why i arrived in your site. While im testing the product. Currently Taking essentials and for my kids usanimals. To be honest it has a good effect on me. Am less tired after work. My question to you:
1. Why USANA is a Scam?
2. Why you are only watching usana?
3. You mention usana not true that you dont earn money? Why i saw people change their lives when they do business with usana?
4. Did you ever heared people saying usana product is not effective?
5. Who cares if their product is expensive? Expensive products means scam?
6. Apple products is overpriced does it mean its a scam?
I can see why you are asking these questions, I have had the same questions when one of my best friend first introduced USANA to me...
DeleteI believe the USANA scam is not about their product, it's how they sell their product, distributors make you wrongly believe the effects of the products, sometimes over exaggerate the effects. For example, they use the "3rd party" book to make you believe that USANA products are the best, but the authors are somehow linked to USANA.
Of course you can earn money from USANA, but not as easy as you have been told and not by selling the products, you need to recruit people to be your downline, then you can earn money when you have a lot of downline and they all purchase products continuously. Is it difficult? Yes, unless you are a very talented salesperson, you need to be very good at convince people, just like selling everything else, but if you are a very talented salesperson, I believe there are so much jobs pay a lot of money are waiting for you. You may heard stories of how USANA changed their life, everyone can tell stories, you need to be able to judge if it's true or not? I once heard USANA can cure cancer and after my research it shows for some cancers, taking the right amount of vitamin may help but only in the early stage. And precisely speaking, "it's vitamins may help to cure cancel at the early stage ", not USANA can cure cancer. When your friend tell you a good USANA store you may believe it even without seeing the evident because you have trust in your friend. Because my best friend is in the business so I know a lot of successful USANA distributors and also a lot of unsuccessful ones. I can say from what I see, only about 2% of them are really making profit and the profit is enough for them to live a life, and they don't get it overnight, it takes 5 years, 10 years or even longer. They may tell you if you work hard, you can start making profit very quickly, while this is true, but it's actually impossible for most of the people. So how can you support your life before you starts making profit?
I have also seen some distributors, they drive a good car and live in a good house, which gives you a false image that they are making big money by doing USANA, but the fact is that they have a rich families, and they got the car and the house way before they started doing USANA, they have to show this to you because they want to wrongly believe that you can own the good things by doing USANA so that they can recruit you.
I can say USANA product is not effective on me, but I must also state that I am a 25 years old male, I have a balance diet and life style, I eat good amount of fruit and vegetables everyday and exercise a least 3 times a week. At first, I have tried essential, calcium and fish oil, which my friend recommended to me, and I don't feel any changes. Then he recommended me to the reset program which suppose to help me lose some weight, which he claims that the program is for everyone and has no side effects, but I have had a serious side effect. I dropped 3 kgs from doing the program, and I believe if you just drink any weight lose milk shakes and eat nothing will do the trick. As for the side effect, after the program I started to eat more than ever! which puts 5 kgs on me.
DeleteThey called themselves a trained professional nutritionist but the fact is that they don't know anything, they are just been told to say what they told to say by their upline. And this is why I don't buy anything from USANA again. Another interesting thing is that they have been told to say that not all natural substance can be processed by human body, they will take a piece of iron for example, they will ask you, would you eat a piece of iron if you have iron deficiency? And when I asked them, can you name one natural food that can't be processed by human body, and they can't think of one. From this example, they make you wrongly believe that you can't get enough nutrient just from food. And this example made my friend who is in the USANA business to believe that my morning chia seeds drink can't be processed by human body.
Think about it, no matter how good your friend told you USANA is, it's just vitamin, different brands make different dosages, the purpose of taking them is make sure you have enough to live on, and you need to find what dosage suits you the best, taking your daily diet into consideration. Do your own research and don't just easily believe what you have been told, even the word is from your dearest friends or families, make sure you see the evident and you should also exam if the evident if true. Expensive doesn't mean good and cheap doesn't mean bad, take vitamin C for example, I am using the one from Costco, which I believe cost $10 something per bottle, and the similar product from USANA is like $40 something I believe, $10 one has already meet my need, why should I spend more for it? But if you think only the expensive one can meet your need, that's a personal choose, but bear in mind if there is any evident shows that the cheaper one if any worse than the expensive one, if no, why pay more?
DeleteApple products are a completed store, they have different designs, functions, user interface and etc...and the evident is that they are just unique as you can see, feel and touch and because they have unique ideas, good customer service so that they can charge more and there are still people want to buy their products. With vitamins, how can you distinguish the differences? Not easy, vitamin C is just vitamin C, how can you find if this vitamin C is different from another vitamin C?
So is USANA all bad? I personally believe this is not the case. Vitamin products help us to get enough nutrient for body to function and be honest, some of the USANA's snack tastes quite good, and their energy drink contains lesser sugar than other market brands, but again, they are way over-priced. Take the energy drink for example, if you think 10g less sugar per can is worth to pay extra $1 - $2 for it, then it is the right product for you.
This website has a lot of useful information that is enough for you to tell how USANA is like. I hope all above can help.
ex-silver director 2009
Deleteit is a scam because most never win...... and you only win if you lie, use, trick, and destroy peoples lives.
research the organization I was in back in the days.. Its called Next Evolution. under Aaron Dinh and he is Under Duke tubtim. So many faces and non made it.. some stay because they already invested so much time and they are happy to break even... most moved on.. none are rich... Aaron Dinh isn't even rich.... your goal is to be rich..??? only a handful are really rich in USANA.. that's collette Larson, Jeremy stansfield.. and few multistar diamonds.. but they started decades ago when the internet was not big yet. Good luck trying to recruit someone that read information from the internet....... and find out the truth!!!
a good example is yourself... it would of been easy to recruit you in the 90s because theres no internet to research the truth like this blog.....
this whole blog will teach you everything you want to know...... so if you really are asking all these questions before joining..... read the whole blog....
BUT your wording makes me believe you're in the system already though... words like "changing lives" "business minded" and your defensive questions about the product....... people that just start the business never ask these questions... these words are often used in USANA trainings... I could be wrong but I'm just speaking from experience.... I did have about 80 people in my downline so I know a little about USANA.
Hi Usana
ReplyDeleteThe answers to your questions are in the website. Too bad you didn't read all the all the blogs. For you to understand the answers to you questions you must have some mathematical ability and have an open mind. I don't have 1000 hours to reproduce this website in this post. If after reading the Watchdog's posts you still have questions. I will answer them.
Ask your friend who was put in her up-line today?
Its not about upline and downline.. The product is so effective. Im a Pharmaton user for years. But essentials is way better. In fact the famous boxer in the world is using it .he told me 2010 when his conditioning coach introduce it to him he feel better. During his training regime his using the usana shakes..
DeleteI don't give a damn if their products are effective or not. I have just been annoyed by enough USANA business people and their stupid Facebook posts. I really hate their ways to get rich, they are liars and pricks.You probably are too.
DeleteYes its true they are well trained to convince people to engage usana business. But i dont believe them that they become rich because of usana.
ReplyDeleteMy frienf started USANA 6 mos ago. At first he make money through bonuses (from pairing). Now, he's chasing money because his other leg is faster than the right. Where does the money go? To USANA of course!
ReplyDeleteI always joke to him that USANA is his favorite charity. :)
ex-silver director 2009
Deletehe didn't really make real income because his bonuses came from matching bonus from his friends. I know because in the beginning of his business you only have a little bit of recruiting skills.. matching bonus has a timeline to do it early in the beginning of your business. they have a timeline because they know a new recruit doesn't know much and has "NEW MARKET' the longer the associates stay the more chances they will quit... so matching bonus benefits the early associates which in turn have a low chance of recruiting "COLD MARKET" most of his bonuses came from family and friends....... in my opinion I name that type of income gift money.... example of gift income: money you get from Christmas gifts.. lets say you made $300 from all your aunties and grandmas and friends and cousins during Christmas from gifts..... you made money but its from family and its really not a way to make a living... same in usana... early in your business you can only sell to family because there is no way you can go out there and sell overpriced products at the mall... you probably could with a lot of skills... and a lot of hardwork which isn't worth it for a few hundred points..
@ Ex Silver Director
ReplyDeleteThe extra $2000 he made in the last 6-7 months is fine.
Though I doubt he counted the cost of doing business (autoship, bills, etc.)
Basically, it's just letting money go around and around.
What I don't get is why people still sign-up with USANA.
Would it be ok if you share some of USANA's recruiting tactic.
What my friend did is to show his orgchart (downline management system to his prospects) is that allowed? or is it USANA's practice to show it?
ex-silver director 2009
Deleteusana recruiting tactic.. the best way for me to recruit was make friends first.. so basically you're motivated to make friends BECAUSE OF THE BUSINESS... be very nice and make a bond with them.. similar to trying to get with a girl.... you have to make the chemistry click.. keep spending time and more time..... then when its the right time you can ask them.." hey want to do this with me and lets go at it together" if they became your real friend they will try to help you out......
another tactic is making it seem like its a job and you edify a person to present to them so that they will listen and get brainwashed.... so you tell one of your uplines to dress up in a suit and look like a GQ millionaire and have someone looking for income meet him and tell that person you're meeting one of our successful director to show you how to make money........ or whatever the person is looking for to fit in his life... wether good health (BS its just vitamins) money (your director will explain the income chart which is total BS) just a bunch of garbage to get him to sign up..
you can also recruit someone in a SPA party where they already tried to products.. you can scam lie deceit that its this easy to make $ and all we do have fun with the facial products....
you can think of your own imagination how to recruit.... people are gullible.. specially the younger 18 year olds... some people have weird reasons for joining.. they're lonely, bored, you can probably show them to a presentation to tell you the truth a lot of people go to presentation and trainings to meet some girls or a date.... some people in my downline join because their friends joined..
a distributors role is to distribute products, have you seen a distributor who doesnt sell or distribute products? you signed up as a distributor thus you should sell or distribute. right? usanawatchdog is stupid
ReplyDeleteex-silver director 2009
Deletehow do you distribute without lying and why does the income mostly come from your downlines purchase of business packs and autoship.. you distribute product okay that's okay I guess.... but on paper (mathematically and statistics of past distributors which is proven) your income from distribution of products alone does not cover your overhead which is autoship and propecting cost... to be a solid income earner who makes a decent income you have to have a downline that are always working to recruit and doing presentations... quick sales of packages... pound pound pound scam scam scam.. gogogogo..
prove to us the business is worth it as a distributor with sales from the needs of people.... not sales from pitty and lies.. I could show you all my checks in the business but I can't do that due to my friends still doing the business.. most of my income was from my downlines rank advancements..
shows us some good paychecks from sales of products alone after the autoship has been covered ... if you can't even do that then why even call usanawatchdog stupid.. think about who is stupid right now..
What if I join just to enjoy the product. Where would you place me?
Deleteproducts are okay... nothing wrong with taking vitamins most of the time.... but if you're paying $30 for vitamin C and its cheaper somewhere else and it probably does the same thing... that's your problem...
Deleteif you're paying $20 for melatonin and there is no proof its better than the $7 one at the other stores... that is also your problem..
if you're out there thinking its curing sickness and stop taking other medications for your problems and it messes you up.. then that is your problem..
if you enjoy it then that is your problem.. LOL
there's no point discussing with usana people, you're like a cult. #POWER!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to the chat post?
ReplyDelete@USANA people, share your story on how you've been scammed.
Agreed. Will usana make you rich?
ReplyDeleteI am currently a USANA Distributior. I joined because the products really helped out my allergy issues I had and really helped so many of my family members with their health problems (all were customers none distributors) is my aunt had a severe joint problem with her thimb. She used some cheap joint supplement at the local pharmacy and it gave her a little relief but not much. After using Procosa her issue went away 100%.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry the ex-distributors on this blog did not have a good experience. The method I sponsor new associates is simply bring up the business only if they show interest in earning additional income. I never push the business or products on anyone. I value my friends and family a lot more than ruining relationships. Obviously the method your teams are using to recruit people is very unprofessional. I am able to keep all my friends and build my USANA at the same time. It is possible by just being real.
As a distributor you should also be aware of USANA's policies and procedures:
DeleteUSANA POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
3.4.1 product claims
USANA Associates may not make claims that USANA products have therapeutic or curative properties except those contained in official USANA literature. In particular, no Associates may make any claim that USANA products are useful in the cure, treatment, diagnosis, mitigation, or prevention of any diseases. Such statements can be perceived as medical or drug claims. Not only are such claims in violation of the Associate Agreement, they also violate the laws and regulations of the United States, Canada, and other jurisdictions.
As with the product claims, you are just sharing to others that the product you're taking in from USANA is effective.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, this is a good venue for sharing ideas about the company and how it operates, but what I dont like is how you put too much negativivity about the company. The products are great I believe, while the business may not be sound logical to everyone because we are used with the traditional way of marketing through fixed retail location and not through direct selling.
USANA sells over 90% of their product to their distributors. The remaining is sold directly to Preferred Customers. Both USANA Distributors and USANA Preferred Customers pay the same price for the product. Not only that, but the cost distributors pay is more expensive than the retail price of most vitamin/skincare products found on store shelves. Because of these facts, distributors have very little chance to ever RESELL the product at a higher price than they paid themselves.
DeleteConclusion: There is no "direct selling" by USANA distributors. The primary role of a USANA distributor is to recruit more distributors by selling the dream of becoming rich and being a star diamond director. This is not marketing. This is swindling people to join a pyramid scheme.
If USANA was forced to end recruiting of new distributors, the company would go out of business and all the distributors would drop out because there are no retail customers. A legit business would be able to sustain itself without the need to constantly recruit new reps. 80% of new USANA distributors drop out within their first year. This is because they cannot convince anyone to buy the product.
It seems that you're neglecting the fact that the distributors or associates are consumers of USANA products as well. And I would rather put those prospective consumers as Preferred Customers than to resell the product to them for them to enjoy discount.
DeleteI think when you look at USANA business model, it should be just a by-product of you being a user of their products and not just about making money out if. You yourself is a consumer and believes that's effective and that's when you share you share your experience to others. So in this regard, the points requirement for you to earn a commission shouldnt be an issue. If you find that high enough as to what you're currently consuming, then dont pursue the business. If you are higher or on that level, then good for you because the business opportunity is a plus.
ReplyDeleteYou aren't describing a business. You are describing a club membership. When someone signs a business contract, they do so with the intent to make money. After people join USANA and find out nobody wants to buy the overpriced product, reality sets in and most wise up and drop out.
DeleteIf you disclosed to people upfront that 80% of USANA distributors dropout within their first year and that 99% of USANA distributors never make a profit, then nobody would join.
USANA has been published by FORBES as one of the recommended stocks of WARREN BUFFET to buy for 2015.
ReplyDelete"10 Stocks Warren Buffett Would Love
Buffett-type stocks are not the kind of sexy, flavor-of-the-month picks that catch most investors' eyes; instead, they are proven businesses selling at good prices. "
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/gg45eimhl/10-stocks-warren-buffett-would-love/
What do you say about the last comment? Silent
ReplyDelete