SoMdNews.com:
Charlotte Vass was ready to party, but it was business as usual.
She had set up a few of the home decor products she sells as a home-based consultant in Karla Radtke’s Waldorf home. Catalogs filled with such products lay in a stack on a counter. Radtke’s hors d’oeuvres were arranged on a foyer table.
Radtke was recruited by a friend to host this home selling party and was in charge of bringing friends and family to the early-afternoon event, at which Vass would make a presentation on new Southern Living at Home items. There would be laughing, shopping, games, food and more shopping.
This is how she — and many other Southern Marylanders — make a living.
In times of corporate layoffs, low consumer confidence and higher costs of living, the direct selling industry has seen steady gains in revenue and its number of consultants over the past couple of decades. These companies recruit home-based salespeople who sell just about everything, from beauty and skin products and jewelry, to cooking items, scrapbooking materials and home decor.
But last year the National Direct Selling Association saw its first sales and consultant recruit declines in years — albeit relatively small — but it is evidence that the country’s current economic downturn has managed to affect even the fastest-growing industries that had never felt economic pains before.
“Twenty-plus years ago, direct selling was more counter-cyclical — doing well during hard times and perhaps suffering during more prosperous times. More people looked to direct selling when times were tough,” said Amy Robinson, vice president of communications and media relations for the NDSA. “But analysis of past data reveals a bit different trend. In fact, during the last official recession in 2001-2002, we did notice a bit of a spike in both sales and sales force when compared to the rest of the economy. Interestingly, though, since that time we have seen direct selling move in much closer rhythm with the economy.”