Join the Party: Home parties a haven for fun and profit

Kimberley McGee

Monday, Oct. 15, 2001 | 8:29 a.m.

Amy Olson, 223-5146.

Cathy Edwards, 255-8509.

Debbie Carpenter, 914-8026.

Fish out your wallets and bring your friends and relatives.

Home-party selling is huge, and an army of independent product consultants for Pampered Chef, Tastefully Simple, Home Interiors, Creative Memories and, of course, the grandmother of home-selling, Tupperware, are hawking their wares in the valley.

And consumers are eating it up.

Slick and sometimes pricey, direct-sale products from cookware to candles are booming in the suburbs, where stay-at-home parents hungry for adult contact and extra income pedal bakeware, gourmet foods, paintings and home furnishings.

At a recent Tastefully Simple gourmet foods party, local consultant Amy Olson displayed a mini-store of the soups, jams, muffin mixes and spices that the 6-year-old Alexandria, Minn., company sells at home parties around the country.

Olson, who lives in northwest Las Vegas, is a stay-at-home mother of two who has sold Tastefully Simple products for the past year.

"I thought it was a great way to stay home with my children," Olson said. "But I still get to go out and have fun and make a little money."

Here's the skinny on how a typical home party works:

The show begins with a testimonial by the company representative, also known as the "host" of the party, about how well the parties have been to her or him socially and financially. That is followed by a pitch from the host to the group of guests to have a party at their own home.

Next comes a demonstration of the product. For Tastefully Simple products' host Olson, that means preparing breads, dips and desserts from the product line and letting each guest sample the goods by passing them around in a circle.

"My big rule is no double-dipping," Olson said. "I want to make sure everybody gets to try this great stuff, but don't take a bite and dip again. Ewww."

At most parties a retail area is set up in the middle of a circle of guests. Each product is passed around with a description and tips for use announced by the host.

In return for allowing friends and family into their home, the consultant gives the party's host discounts, products or a percentage of that night's profits.

To make it simple for everyone, cash, checks or charge cards are accepted at most parties.

"I've had so much fun with it and I've made some extra income," Olson said. "I just can't wait for the next party."

The desire to make money, paired with shopping in the comfort of someone's home, is what keeps the direct-selling industry booming.

Why it works

The dozen women who gathered at the Tastefully Simple party at the northwest home of Debbie Chase were friends, family and parents of Olson's that she has met casually at soccer games and neighbors' birthday parties.

"I feel sort of obligated to come to these when I'm asked," Christine Frei, a friend of Olson's, said. "But it's fun, social, relaxing. And best of all you can get away from the kids for a little bit."

Frei said she usually buys something -- out of courtesy to the host -- at the four or five home-parties she attends each year.

The home-parties are about more than product, purchase and fun, said frequent Pampered Chef customer Yvelise Bittner.

"I go to these parties because you can find better quality (products) than if you went and bought something at a Target or kitchen supply store," Bittner said. "I buy a lot of gifts at these parties. It's more intimate and fun than shopping at the (mall)."

She has also expanded on her culinary and craft skills by attending house parties.

Each host offers different ideas about how to use cooking tools at Pampered Chef parties, and at Creative Memories' scrapbooking parties Bittner has learned how to take a simple photo and make it into a memory page for her family's scrapbook.

"I look for quality more than the price in the (home-party) products," Bittner said. "But sometimes it's worth it to pay more for the ideas you get (for) what you can do with the simple things you buy."

Julie Chapman said she attends at least one home-party a month because of the one-on-one relationship with the salesperson, the product and her friends.

Chapman is a stay-at-home mom with four children under age 6 who vie for her time.

"It's really a social night out," Chapman said. "I feel that they (salespeople) demonstrate things that I wouldn't get if I just went to Wal-Mart and picked up (something) that probably wouldn't last anyway."

She almost always buys something she can use as a gift or for her own home, she said.

"I try to buy one thing, and only one thing, because usually I need 20 things, especially with Tupperware," Chapman said.

Fun on the rise

For the home-party industry, business has been on a steady rise for more than a decade, said Joseph Mariano, executive vice president for the Direct Selling Association in Washington, D.C.

The friendly atmosphere, food and products turn shopping into a social event, Mariano said.

"People like the parties because it's something they can do on their own terms, it's not a large investment and it's a lot of fun," Mariano said.

The DSA, which was organized in 1910 to preserve ethical door-to-door selling practices, boasts 200 members including Pampered Chef, Amway Corp. and Tupperware.

Total sales for direct-selling businesses were $25.5 billion last year, which was up from $23 billion in 1998. The sales force has increased by 2 million people from 1998 to more than 11 million total, 73 percent of whom are women.

The urge to conduct home-parties begins as a quick, seemingly effortless way to increase a household's income and sometimes soars to lets-get-rich levels.

But that's not always the case.

"Most people get into it with that goal to be full time and leave their other jobs," Mariano said. "But most make a bit of money and use the business to supplement other family income."

Most of the direct salespeople work less than 30 hours per week making phone calls to regular customers, planning parties and presenting the product at homes. Less than 20 percent work full time.

While statistics show that the odds of becoming rich by hawking wares at parties are slim, the promise of cash on the side and a little social interaction keeps salespeople coming back, Mariano said.

Shake your money maker

The direct-selling companies themselves are doing very well. The Pampered Chef's sales totals rose from $324 million in 1996 to about $600 million last year.

Cathy Edwards has done her part for the bottom line as one of the top local sellers of Pampered Chef products.

Edwards, a local independent advanced director for the Pampered Chef, first began hosting parties in 1995.

The year before she had resigned from her hectic job as a room reservation manager for a local casino when she became pregnant. But one year after her first son was born she became restless.

Edwards took up substitute teaching and other supplemental-income side jobs, but each took her away from her son during the day.

"You miss so much when you are away from them at that age," Edwards said.

Her husband supported what he called her "hobby" and watched their infant son on the weeknights she was away from home conducting parties and bringing in a few hundred dollars a month.

Initially Edwards wasn't sure she how long she would stick with the business.

"It's scary," she said. "You're your own boss and you have to take a lot of initiative and call people. I wasn't sure I wanted to continue."

The low initial cost of buying the products, usually about $50, as well as the small amount of time needed to complete the job made the endeavor worthwhile, she said.

"I didn't care if it didn't work out," Edwards said. "If it did, at least I'd probably make a little money."

After each party, two guests would ask her to host another party at each of their homes. Within three months Edwards had two parties a week booked months in advance.

"I was busy, but not too busy," Edwards said. "I still had time for my family."

After one year her husband was urging her to turn her hobby into a part-time career. She rakes in more than $2,000 a month and works about 20 hours a week.

"You get to be with people, laugh, eat and have fun, share cooking tips," Edwards said. "It's a business, but it's also been great for my family."

Tupperware is considered the forerunner of home parties by most in the direct-selling industry. It was one of the first companies to cater to stay-at-home mothers in the '50s and gather women for parties to sell its plastic containers.

Tupperware's top-selling Las Vegas consultant, Debbie Carpenter, started her career with the company three years ago.

The mother of nine had the intention of making $300 for her eldest son's high school graduation photos, and then quit selling.

She made the $300, plus an additional $700, which came in handy with her large family.

Carpenter hosts 12 parties per month, with at least a dozen guests each, and averages $50 per order. She sells about $5,000 worth of product per month and works about 20 hours per week.

"Everybody usually buys something," Carpenter said.

She finds the best way to sell is usually to let the women talk among themselves.

"Women sell to each other," Carpenter said. "They say what is best for them and how it works for them. If a friend says it works, it will sell immediately."

While the number of hours spent preparing for and presenting the parties may be few, the job also involves follow-up telephone calls, bookkeeping and writing invitations and thank-you notes to customers.

"I'm on the phone a lot," Carpenter said. "But that works for me at home. It's just a lot of calls."

Carpenter plans to continue with the parties to supplement her children's education.

She has a 20-year-old son at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in Maryland, and an 18-year-old at the University of Evansville, in Indiana.

"I've always figured out a way to supplement my income," said Carpenter, who once worked as a phone dispatcher for a sewer company for little more than minimum wage.

"But nothing has been as fun and as big as this. Everybody loves the parties. I don't see it stopping anytime soon."

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