The Amway Moment

Have you ever been in a friendship that ended abruptly because it reached the Amway Moment?

I remember one of my sisters had some very close friends who suddenly became Moonie-like Amway distributors. Instead of coming round to chat about life and the universe, they focused entirely on trying to sign her up to the Amway dream of household cleaning products that were somehow magically superior to those you could buy in Sainsbury's.*

Now Amway are still in business and have found some legal loophole that allows them to argue that they're not a pyramid selling scheme, but the effect - when you're on the receiving end of the sales pitch - is the same.

Now I've been guilty of being a bit of a Mac Moonie in the past, but my master plan to get all my friends and relatives on the Apple platform had their best interests at heart, and didn't involve them buying more Apple kit than they needed in order to sell it on to others.

The Amway Moment signals the end of the friendship. Like the moment in a Roadrunner cartoon when Wile E. Coyote sees the Roadrunner as a dressed and roasted bird, fresh from the oven and begging to be consumed, your former friend sees you as a potential customer, a mark. Their eyes become ££ signs (or $$ or ¥¥).

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*On the subject of Sainsbury's, have you been lately? A year on from when they claimed to have made things cheaper, they really are cheaper now. I can safely shop in Saino's and not spend £40 more than I would have in Tesco. It's a more pleasant shopping experience, too, because people haven't cottoned on, so it's still pretty quiet in there - though not as quiet (or plush) as Waitrose.