The Truth about Magazine Salespeople

I promised in an earlier blog post about soliciting I would write a post about “magazine salespeople”. Now I am sure there are legit people selling them for schools. When I was a freshman we sold them for our trip to Kings Island. When I was younger I was fearless. I was one of those kids that thought nothing could happen to me. Luckily it didn’t really. I mean I had my normal teenager drama but I am telling you I had guts! When I was 17 I met some people who were selling magazines. I thought it sounded like fun. Yeah I was naïve and probably even a little stupid. I decided to go around with them. Yes I got in a van with complete strangers and they could have kidnapped and murdered me and no one would be the wiser. Thankfully I survived and I was ready to jump out of a moving van, like I said I was fearless. They went to a neighborhood and they were telling me about their pitches. I thought it was pretty weird and deceitful. They asked me a few questions and told me they all travel the US and sell magazines. I don’t know if they really fulfill the orders or not. It wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t. This is how it works: Forgive me this was 11 years ago if I don’t remember exactly.

Good looking guys are trying to win a contest where they get a modeling contract for being the most handsome guy or something. I don’t know what that has to do with magazines but people fell for it. Not me though. Then there is what they call power houses. Power houses are in nice neighborhoods. They are big houses and presumably have a lot of money. The salesperson pretends to be in college and is trying to raise money for various reasons. It is usually is something academic. Their pitch starts out like this. Hi my name is Lisa and I live in your neighborhood. You have seen my mom around. She drives a Volvo and walks with our Dalmatian. I go to *insert local college* and I am trying to raise money for my *insert some kind of once in a lifetime learning experience* and I am selling these magazines. They would also try and squeeze information out of people like names and kid’s names and then turn around and say your neighbor told me to stop by so it would be more convicting. Quite a few people signed up for subscriptions. In reality these people are from God knows where and they roam the US peddling magazines to trusting unsuspecting people.

I think it would be good ideas if you don’t think they are who they say they are don’t give them a check with your account number or credit card number. That is just common sense. I guess if you really wanted to do it and wanted to be careful you could ask for a school id before proceeding. Even then they could be forged. That is why I totally trust my gut and if it doesn’t make sense then it probably isn’t true as the brilliant Judge Judy would say.