201 - Would You Like to Hear About Amneigh?
These were the words he heard. Silver blinked at the little lunar colt that stood before his desk. The colt was an adorable little thing, but had asked a confusing question. "What's Am-Neigh?"
"It's a new business." He produced a catalog from under a wing and held it up for Silver to look at. "Would you like some? You could even make more bits by selling some yourself, oh! Be sure to put my number. You don't get any less, and I'll get some! It's barely any bits to get started."
Silver tilted his head as he flipped through the catalog with his magic, seeing vitamins and various household things all mixed within. "I'll, uh..." The colt looked so hopeful, he couldn't just say no... He pointed to a small bottle of vitamin C he spotted. "I'll take this. So, how'd you get into this?"
The colt took the catalog back and made a few dutiful notes with deft motions of his wings. "Oh, a pair of singing unicorns told me about it and it sounded really good. Look, I made my first sale!" He bounced in place with so much enthusiasm that Silver felt his heart breaking with the mixed feelings.
Something was off, and this colt was involved... "Do they pay you to sell for them?"
"Uh huh!" He tucked the catalog away. "For everything I sell, but I can get even more if I can get other people to sell too with my number."
Silver clenched his teeth. The mechanism sounded familiar, too familiar, but he couldn't put a hoof directly on it. "The bottle I just bought is ten bits. How much of that do you keep?"
"One bit," reported the colt, tilting his head. "But if I get somepony to sell too, I get a bit from them too, and their sellers and their sellers, so I can get up to four bits! See?" He tapped his hooves together as if trying to do this math in his head. "Are you sure you don't want to sell too?"
Silver reached across his desk to pat the colt on the head. He really was adorable... "I have a job right here, but thank you. You don't get paid for trying to sell things?"
He looked confused. "We get paid when we actually sell things. To get rich we have to work hard and be industrious! I'm working hard, sir." He stood so proudly that Silver felt awful.
This wasn't how ponies should be treated... He tilted his head to the left and looked at the pony's flank to see nothing there. "Shouldn't you be in school and earning your mark?"
"Huh?" He glanced back at the soft, featureless, fur. "I have a job now. I don't need school. Well, I should get going! I won't earn more bits here, unless you want any more?" He held out the catalog hopefully.
The colt fled when Silver didn't seem to be moving to buy more. Samantha tilted her head left and right. "Maybe I should have signed up."
Silver blinked at that. "I gladly support you."
"But you wouldn't have to if I earned more bits on my own." She put a hoof at her chest. "Wouldn't that be the right thing to do?"
Silver hopped down from his chair and moved to nuzzle Samantha gently. "You're fine just as you are. If you were going to get a job, you should do something you're good at, or at least like, not that."
Samantha pointed where the colt had fled. "If even he can manage it, I'd probably do great at it. I bet there are wa--"
"No." Silver rose to his tallest. "On this, I refuse. Look, what do you like doing?"
Samantha considered that a moment, glancing around the room a moment before she looked at Silver, who was pointing at her? No, her side. She looked down where Morning Glory was trying to escape. Her horn glowed as she got him secured. "Oh..."
Silver nodded as things seem to reach an understanding. He returned to the desk, confident that she, if she would have to get an official job, would be a foalsitter or something.
This was not how Samantha's thinking worked. To her, being reminded of Morning Glory only was relevant to Morning Glory. Her thoughts were on how to approach her new activity. She'd get to be social too! She'd be the best! She would learn the system and become the best seller they ever had! She had something to do... "I will be back."
She departed Silver, foals riding along. She went to find that foal. Sure, she'd pay the fee to become a seller with Silver's funds, but he would not mind her using it, and she'd pay it back, and she would lend bits to Silver if he needed, so the Golden Rule seemed all in order. There was nothing to do but to enact her plan!
Samantha found the colt wandering the halls of the castle and the little pony smiled up at her. "Oh, hello! Did you realize something you had to buy?"
He was about to produce his catalog but she prevented him with a hoof over his reaching wing. "Nope. I want to become a seller. What do I have to do?"
His eyes lit up and a huge smile spread over his face. "Oh! You're gonna make tons of bits, follow me!" He started leading her along as he dug out a form and passed it back to her. "Fill that out and the fee is only sixty-seven bits."
That was a lot of money. Not that she couldn't afford it, but imagining a colt having that... "Here you are." She produced the funds and passed it to him along with the completed form.
He giggled with building joy. "Alright! Follow me and they'll give you all you need to be a seller just like me! You'll love it."
She was led out of the castle and to a pair of unicorns dressed in brightly striped clothes. "Look here, brother, do you see what I see?"
"Why yes! I do think that I do."
They both leaned towards the colt, asking in perfect chorus. "Did you get yourself your first seller?"
"I sure did! Here." He offered the filled out form and surrendered the bits that Samantha had paid.
"Very good."
"Fantastic."
"Welcome to AmNeigh!" He tipped his hat towards her. "Samantha, is it? A pleasure to meet you."
"An honor."
"I can't wait to get you started on the path to a brighter--
"--better--"
"--Stunning future! Are you ready to sell?"
Samantha bobbed her head fiercely. "I am ready to sell! Give me a catalog and one of every item we sell, I will--"
"It's like this, my dear. You earn a commission not just on all of the sales you make, but on all of the sales made by ponies you recruit, and by ponies that recruited ponies recruit, and by ponies recruited by ponies recruited by ponies that you recruit, and-"
"What my brother means to say is that you're not just selling vitamins and toothpaste, but rather selling opportunity!"
"Quite so, dear brother, quite so! With AmNeigh, you can earn money on sales without ever leaving the comfort of home, once you've signed up enough distributors who'll then sign up more distributors of their own! With this ingenious plan, their successes are your successes!"
The idea sounded appealing, but she wanted to win on her own, of her skill. "I don't need other ponies to sell for me..."
"Why would you deny another pony the chance of a lifetime?" asked one of the two unicorns.
"It's not like you can't sell while you recruit."
"Or recruit while you sell!"
The colt raised a hoof high. "I did that! Um, did you say you'll take one of everything?" His eyes shined with the joy of a sale made.
Stats
Page generated in 0.062 seconds
Total duration
983 users online
1,439,569 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Fucking Flim Flam...
adorale little - adorable little
anymore - any more
*****
A true horror has appeared in Equestria, multi-level marketing! There are those that would argue vehemently that MLM is not a pyramid scheme, but if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
Well, I suppose the crises can't always be of the world shatering sort, but this sort of thing can ruin lives just as effectively.
Addendum -
Samantha has a sharp, analytical mind, so I'm fairly confident that the math will make the whole structure of the scheme clear to her in short order. Numbers don't lie. People that manipulate numbers do.
7309422 Typos fixed! But AmNeigh remains...
7309432 That depends on if she applies the math to the whole organization, instead of just how she can excel at her piece of it, no?
7309422
This is overly simplistic. While multi-level marketing and pyramid schemes are similar, they are not the same. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission has stated:
Insofar as what's happening in this chapter goes, it appears to be skirting the line between the two, but I'd be more inclined to say that it's a pyramid scheme based on how much the Flim-Flam Brothers are pushing recruitment over sales.
7309432 While I agree that Samantha has a head for science, I don't think that's going to help her here. For one thing, it would require that she apply her thinking towards the whole of the ponies participating in this scheme, instead of just with regards to herself, and so far we've seen that she's exceptionally lacking in that regard.
Ah geez, Silver is so used to Equestria now, he can't recognize a pyramid scheme...granted, the little colt being his adorable self might have played a part in that. Now I'm worried Samantha and that colt will get caught up in the mess when Flim and Flam are outed as the con artists they are.
7309436 damn, she just walked right into a trap
7309506
That colt has one foal worth of cuteness, but Samantha is duel-wielding foals. Her sales-power is doubled!
7309648 I don't know if I should cheer for Samantha to succeed or jeer Flim and Flam for their admittedly clever way to scam the masses with unintentional cuteness.
Eh, I'll do both.
Omg a pyramid scheme equestria is doomed. What next a Ponzi scheme? Lol.
You can in Equestria employ underaged without restriction as long as monetary reparation is concerned.
Or will Flim Flam know the age limit, which this colt will be above, but the foals with Samantha will be below, so someone can arrange a whole encyclopedia of book throwing at her for this mental fail?
Of course, once Luna, Silver, Twilight etc get through the maths and psych, and Samantha learns just how badly FlimFlam used, abused beer and hookers The Golden Rule, I want to see just how good her balistic teleportation is.
7309442
Let's see here...
10 bits a bottle...
commision for the seller: 1 bit.
commision for the recruiter on a first level sale: 1 bit.
commision for the recruiter on subsequent saler: 1 bit up to (or exceeding) 4.
so... on a 10 bit sale, the first level recruiter gets up to 40% of the sale, the second level gets up to 30% of the sale, the third level gets up to 20% of the sale, the forth level gets up to 10% of the sale, and the seller gets 1 bit.... so, with a sale of 10 bits, there are 11 bits going out before cost... But don't worry, it's Flim Flam economics! And with those two, you know they're counting on ponies not asking the right questions... or noticing when their checks don't add up.
After all, at first tier, 9 bits are coming back to flim and flam, and we can bet they swindled or bought on margin to get goods below cost...probably with the distributor paying them.
Samantha will figure this out after the first check seems off and they "explain" how the system takes a while to equalize... And when she does, Silver will be apologizing while Night does the legal limbo to keep Samantha out of prison. Luna will facehoof and Celestia will look upon the twins with such a tssk-ing glare.
It will be glorious to watch this explode.
7310116 It was an explanation given by a foal, so expect inaccuracies.
7310116 A slight flaw in your math:
In this instance the "forth level gets up to 10% of the sale" and "the seller gets one bit" are the same individual, so it adds up to 100% rather than 110%.
That's because the colt said "But if I get somepony to sell too, I get a bit from them too, and their sellers and their sellers, so I can get up to four bits!" In other words, he identified three levels below himself, for four total individuals (e.g. himself, "somepony else," "their sellers, and their sellers"). By contrast, you identified five individuals (e.g. the first level recruiter, the second level, the third level, the forth [sic] level, and the seller).
A lot of people seem to be equating Samantha's passion for science with having a head for numbers, and I don't think that these two match up. She's not an economist nor a business major, not to mention the fact that she's focused largely on herself (both in this endeavor and in general) rather than on larger systems that ponies operate in. Even her social experiments are at the individual scale, rather than attempting to look at wider societal trends. In other words, her tunnel vision makes her more likely to be hoodwinked here, rather than less.
I'm also dubious about "legal limbo," since it doesn't seem likely that Equestria has business laws. After all, Flim and Flam's previous scheme involved out-and-out fraud (e.g. selling snake oil to sick and injured ponies) and all that happened once their sham was exposed was that they took the money and left, with Applejack - and apparently everypony else - just shrugging it off.
yep Samantha walks right into something?
the Film Flam brothers.
We wonder what Penny would say about this venture...
Keep going! ;)
7310144
<chuckles> If it's between the colt and the Flim Flam brothers, I'll put my bits on the colt being more forthcoming and honest.
7310145
Nah... No flaw, I was extrapolating to make it absurd. The idea being that if each seller gets a portion of the profits of their underlings, at that point the sale doesn't even cover the commission. I consider the seller separate from the higher ups... so it would be seller , x level , x-1 level, x-2 level, etc until you get 1st level and ultimately Flim and Flam. Assuming that the bottle still costs 10 bits, all you have to do to fudge the numbers is get beyond 4 levels. Even if the direct superior to the seller only gets 1 bit, that's still only seller + 4 supervisors to exceed profit... but you know Flim and Flam are skimming off the top either way.
Even so, the idea is VERY much Flim Flam material. Aaaaaand, I'd still trust the colt over those two.
Bloody Amway has gotten into Equestria through the Flim Flams. What scummy human have they being talking to. I hope the sisters hear of this quickly & outlaw pyramid schemes immediately or there will be a lot of ponies hurt. A friend of mine got sucked into one of their seminars & was convinced of being a millionaire in a couple years, well a couple years later & he's struggling in a business of his own making ends meet, at least hes now doing something constructive.
redundant would
Damn. They're at it again…ahead of the curve but in a socially-detrimental way.
7311968 Fixed!
and that is how pyramid schemes were invented
A pyramid scheme is only illegal if you don't have an actual, tangible product to sell, as far as I'm aware. And Samantha's getting in while the getting's good too. It's best to be near the top.
Film and Flam are actually selling product, right?
I smell a scam
7838500
Yes, but whatever they sell is likely a scam as well. Why would you sell actual product if you can sell cheap placebo for twenty times the price?