The Pink Pyramid Scheme: How Mary Kay cosmetics preys on desperate housewives

Mary Kay products are sold primarily for women, by women. But is the cosmetics giant good for women?

Journalist Virginia Sole-Smith, a reporting fellow with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute, says no. In the August issue of Harper's Magazine, she contends that Mary Kay, founded in 1963 with an initial $5,000 investment by Mary Kay Ash, is less about empowering women than luring them into what the story calls a "pink pyramid scheme" that exploits its salesforce.

Sole-Smith said that under the company's wholesale business model, the company's sales staff is heavily encouraged to buy the products they then sell to customers. For Mary Kay's "consultants," the financial returns on that investment are often minimal, she said, and typically a far cry from the hefty income that the company wants women to believe they can earn peddling its wares. Indeed, while Mary Kary claims annual sales of roughly $3 billion, its salespeople often end up in debt, with boxes of unsold lipsticks, facial creams and other products. A handful of employees profit, but most don't.


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