To answer the question “why not LuLa?” we first have to answer why LuLa in the first place. Why did we look at it, why did we consider LuLaRoe as a business, why did we pour our hearts and souls into selling LuLaRoe only to turn our backs and choose another company a few weeks later?
Why We Loved LuLaRoe
We loved LuLaRoe because the clothing was fun, comfortable, and high quality.
We loved LuLaRoe because it was fun to sell.
We loved LuLaRoe because the money was good.
7 Reasons I (We) Quit Selling LuLaRoe
1. We loved the clothing, but… Paying $36 for a shirt seemed outrageous to me at first, but when I fell hard for that Perfect T, I bought them all. They said they were all made in the USA and high quality, so why not spend a few extra bucks on well-made clothing? Especially as a plus sized girl… y’all know how difficult it is to find awesome clothes? Unfortunately, the quality started to go downhill and the price was the same… even though they were no longer made in the USA. Most of my Perfect Ts are from Guatemala. Now at $36 a pop, I’d expect them to be made in the USA and definitely not see-through. The last Perfect T I bought was see-through and I can’t wear it.
2. It was fun to sell, but… Each consultant had different inventory so there wasn’t any cut throat competition among retailers. Well, until there was. The dynamic and how things worked in LuLaRoe really changed towards the end of last year, but I tried to look past it. By the time we onboarded in February, half the consultants I knew were having going out of business sales. The other half were scrambling to make ends meet. There were a few that were raking in the big bucks but that is how MLMs and other pyramid schemes work: the big guys at the top make the big bucks while the rest struggle.
3. The money was good, but… In the three weeks I was selling with a partner, we sold over $10,000 worth of clothing. We profited about $5,000. In 3 weeks. Unfortunately the partnership didn’t work out, and it was all downhill from there. I took a step back and day by day, started to realize how shady the company was as a whole. Regardless of how good the money was, I couldn’t stay with a company that called their consultants “stale” and refused to accept credit cards for initial inventory purchases. Shady.
4. The sheer amount of defective pieces of clothing (not just leggings) was insanity. We looked at each piece of clothing before it left our hands, so even though some of the big guys say “it’s YOUR FAULT if they arrive with holes”, that’s just one more issue with LuLaRoe. The holes aren’t there upon arrival in most instances! The holes show up after they try the leggings on, usually even before the first wash.
Sometimes it’s a sizing issue, I won’t deny that, but I’d say 90% of the time it’s a quality issue straight from LuLaRoe. We sold lots of clothing but we also had to replace lots of leggings and shirts due to holes or pilling.
5. Constantly having to defend a company that literally gives the consultants no answers to their questions is exhausting. I asked my upline questions and was told “I don’t know”, “Call LuLaRoe”. I called LuLaRoe and was #126 in line. Great way to get help, right? She also told me the way we were doing things was “gimmicky” and all in all it was just a really unsupportive situation. The main thing that attracted me to selling LuLaRoe was the support. I asked her about what I should say in regards to some of the questions I was being asked about the negative publicity. She lectured me and told me to stop being so negative and to ignore it. Yes, ignore my customers. Great idea.
6. LuLaRoe refused to take credit cards for inventory purchases. In and of itself, this wouldn’t have been a huge red flag. However, when they’re in several lawsuits (they admit this – it’s not a rumor) and they all the sudden say they can’t take your credit card for an inventory purchase, my spidey senses start tingling. LuLaRoe wanted us to do a bank draft, which as we all know makes it much more difficult to file a dispute if we get screwed over. Note: LuLaRoe changed their minds after many of us fled the company because of that announcement. They will now take credit cards for initial inventory orders only.
7. In my opinion, LuLaRoe is a sinking ship. I felt like every time I turned around, I was seeing yet another red flag. They don’t appreciate their retailers, they don’t appreciate the customers, and they have no intentions of improving the quality of their clothes.
My customers are more important than any paycheck, no matter how big. For that reason, I had to say GOODBYE to LuLaRoe. Rachel and I have since started my own clothing boutique. Why? For the same reasons I originally fell in love with LuLaRoe: the clothing is comfortable, cute, and unlike LuLa, it’s affordable. We absolutely LOVE selling clothes and wanted to continue. After looking into all the companies we could find, we decided our own boutique was the way to go. It’s MUCH more affordable for our customers when we cut out the middle man! Can’t wait to see how everything goes!
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