Usborne normally tells consultants not to compare Usborne to Scholastic. Well, Team Leader & Educational Consultant Gail Sawchuk decided to make the comparison and video herself while doing it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTuxZ0MOqhY.
In case Gail decides to pull her video entitled, “What’s the story with Scholastic? How does Usborne compare?” from March 2, 2016, I have the transcript below with my comments in red. To those who say the video is out dated.. not so fast. The comparison of the two continue today.
Hey everybody. This is Gail Sawchuk. I’m an educational consultant in Colorado and wanted to share a video about Scholastic how they are similar to Usborne, how they differ, and how we can approach schools that are already working with them and show them that Usborne is a great alternative.
A little background. Scholastic has been around since nineteen-twenty, primarily working in the school market, so they have a long history of being kind of the only player on the block providing book fairs and programs to schools. So, they have some great advantages there in comparison. Usborne’s really in the infancy of working with schools and libraries and we only have a fraction of our consultants who are working with schools. And so we’re just beginning to build our reputation for the services that we have to offer some of the benefits that Scholastic has.
Just so you know when you’re approaching schools and get an idea of why they have selected to work with Scholastic and may choose to continue to work with Scholastic. Probably number one is that they have books the kids recognize they’re going to have the Star Wars, Legos Minecraft, Harry Potter. That’s so their books that kids love and that makes them easy to sell.
Please note that Usborne can no longer state that they are a commercial-free company. Usborne Publishing is releasing the Bear Grylls series of books. If you are not aware, Bear Grylls is most known for his television series called, Man vs. Wild. It’s a complete disappointment to us that Bear Grylls decided to partner with any MLM. Funny that all of a sudden UBAM isn’t so against commercial books when it means more money in the company’s pocket. Since we are doing the comparison, Bear Grylls would have been smarter to sign with Scholastic.
There’s a misconceived notion that their books are cheaper and really probably their average price points about the same as ours. We offer plenty of five dollar books and they offer plenty of books and sets and kits in the thirty and forty dollar range. But what they to offer are some discounted books typically ones that are a little outdated and those can go I’ve seen as low as $2.50 or three dollars.
This also is not true. If you shop via your child’s Scholastic Book Club Link, you will find that Scholastic offers award winning books for as little as $1 as shown here:
The classics never go out of style, never outdated
To give you further proof regarding Scholastic’s price points, we went onto the Scholastic Book Club website to view Scholastic’s price points. In parentheses to the right of the dollar amount is the number of books available at that price. See below:
Scholastic Price Point
To be completely fair, we’d like you to see exactly what you get at the most expensive price point:
Examples of Scholastic’s higher price points
Usborne’s site is a little more difficult to navigate. Unfortunately, it is not possible to search for all of their books by price point. But to give you an idea, below are sets we found in the $99.99+ range. Please note that some of these books are going out-of-print and/or may be out-of-stock unlike Scholastic’s website.
Usborne price points
Currently, Educational Development Corp. (NASDAQ: EDUC) is offering a sale on their old inventory. The reason for this sell-off we believe is due to new terms with MidFirst Bank. Since MidFirst Bank will not recognize inventory that has been in the warehouse for over one year, the company is scrambling to get rid of it. Any sale items you see listed in the Fall Frenzy are most likely books that are going out of print such as Conspiracy 365 and The Last 13. Although the series is going out-of-print (on sale for $2.99/book), notice that the complete collection is not on sale.
We must be missing something. I’m not seeing a drawback to Scholastic’s prices.
Another thing that Scholastic offers which is fantastic is that their books come in these gigantic metal cases and that all the librarians have to do is open them up and put up the signage and that portion of the book fair is all ready to go. However, they do also send a lot of books in boxes and those still need to be set up in table so there’s definitely work to be done there.
Gail is right about this. The containers that are drop shipped to the school are amazing. Since Educational Consultants are not employees of Educational Development Corp aka Usborne Books and More,, they are required to purchase their own bookshelves and racks in order to look professional. This comes out of the consultant’s own pocket.
Their 17% book fair commission just isn’t worth it.
Cash registers are fantastic. They’re very easy for a volunteer to learn how to use and it makes it easy for people to participate in their book fairs. You know another great advantage is just that they have a history, that they’ve been around for a long time, that librarians know what to expect and what they’re going to get; and so it’s easy for them to just continue.
Again, I cannot disagree with Gail. Educational Development Corp does offer their own software for consultants to use for a minimal monthly fee. The downside to the software is that it is only compatible with a PC. But it is very easy to use with a scanner and small receipt printer.
However, most consultants will either use Paypal/Square or write receipts to charge through the system later. Why is this? My guess is that it easier for consultants to offer discounts that are not offered by their company to spark interest in the books. Any discounts given is a direct hit on how much a consultant will actually make at a book fair. That means consultants will start to see their 17% book fair commission slowly dwindle down. This is why consultants beg other consultants to use their Square code when setting up a new Square account to make sure they keep getting $1,000 in free transaction fees.
If consultants were smart, they would track all of their expenses so they would know just how much of a net profit they made doing a book fair. Let me give you an example of what I mean.
Let’s say you did a book fair over 5 days and sold $3,000 worth of books. I’ll pretend this amount already excludes sales tax. $3,000 * 17% commission = $510. But it does not include all of the marketing materials you need to advertise the book fair or the business supplies.
You have to remember to deduct the cost of printer paper and ink along with the time spent creating fliers. You also have to deduct the cost of stickers if you label your books with your contact information. Don’t forget about the cost of bags, catalogs, and business cards you may have purchased to ensure each customer has a way to carry their purchases and any other advertising materials you may have stuffed into each bag. You also have to account for the time it takes you to unpack shipped inventory to ensure you received all of the books you requested undamaged and then pack it up again. You still have to load and unload your car. The cost of the bookshelves, display racks, tablecloths, and signage needed for the fair. If you do a raffle, you’ll need pens and paper.
Let’s be kind and say all of your materials needed for your book fair cost you $300 (excluding the cost of bookshelves, display racks, tablecloths & signage since you can re-use it until you need to replace it). And you spent 8 hours per day at your event figuring it a little high to allow for the time and effort to meet with the school to discuss event plans, design fliers, set-up the book fair, assist customers, and break down the event at the end of the fair. Setup and tear down takes approximately 5 hours total plus a few extra hours to load and unload your vehicle. Books are a ton of manual labor.
Total Revenues – Total Expenses = Net Profit or Net Income
$510 in Commission – $300 in advertising materials & business supplies = $210 Net Profit
That means you earned $42 per day or $5.25/hour.
Is the Usborne Books & More MLM sounding lucrative to you, yet?
Um, one thing that they do is scale up their rewards so their basic package is pretty similar to ours. However, they will add extra incentives for booking additional Book Fairs during the year and for reaching certain price points.
Oh Gail…we know you are not being truthful here. We do know that Scholastic offers teachers way more than just books. All it took was a simple Google search to find three important links:
Maximizing Your Profit with Scholastic Dollars
Redeem Profit Through the Scholastic Dollars Catalog
Scholastic Dollars Catalog FAQ
The Scholastic Dollars Catalog features more than 1,600 new items, including:
- Popular books and collections
- Library-bound books, including exclusive editions
- Furniture and carpets
- Electronics and technology items
- Gifts and incentives for volunteers and kids
- Audio libraries, curriculum-related materials, and more!
You can spend Scholastic Dollars in a variety of ways, including at your Book Fair, through the Scholastic Dollars Catalog (online access available through your Chairperson’s Toolkit), or via regional Scholastic Dollars book lists.
Gail, please tell us again how Usborne Books & More’s incentive package is similar to Scholastic.
So let’s now talk about Usborne in what we have to offer. Of course number one for us is our high quality educational books that teachers and parents and kids librarians all love. And our books our non-commercial. So while it is an advantage for Scholastic it’s also an advantage for us. It gives parents and the school another alternative to have books that don’t have all those characters that are promoting education and learning and all the great things that our books do.
We already proved this is not longer true. Bear Grylls from the television series Man vs. Wild now has a book series through Usborne Publishing.
We also offer personal service. I highly recommend especially when you’re working with a school for the first time that you be there for the entire process. Help them order the books, set up the book fair, be there for wish lists, and talking to the kids about our books, and doing little book previews for manning the book fair all hours that kids and parents are there. Having that you or volunteers do the cash register. Packing up the book fair, that is something that Scholastic absolutely does not offer and puts us at a huge advantage. Especially as many librarian positions or getting cut or shared, they’re just super busy and that’s something that we can offer it.
Not every consultant offers this personalized treatment for many reasons. Most are stay-at-home moms and can’t afford child care to sit at a school all day. Some work full-time because Usborne Books & More is not profitable. The other problem is that consultants do not receive training on any of the authors or what is so special about any of the Usborne/Kane Miller books. That is why they will instead tell you about the book quality rather than the quality of content. When the CEO was asked to train consultants on this information, he basically said it was not possible and it is easier for consultants to read them on their own. I don’t know which consultants have time to read 1,600 books to know what is inside of each one of them. But more power to you if you have that type of time. This is not how salaried sales representatives are trained. Therefore personalized assistance from consultants is just not possible when they have not received training to know anything about the books or authors they are promoting.
Scholastic just one we also mentioned our rewards are competitive. And they’re fantastic to be able to offer the fifty percent back in free books or depending on the book fair size about twenty-five percent in cash, so I don’t think that our rewards or anything that the librarians need to be concerned about. However, our books being offered can be a huge advantage because oftentimes either the librarians can’t takes Scholastic books, they are not allowed by their district, or they just don’t want them because they don’t offer the library bound and they’re just not the quality of books that they want to have in their library.
Gail is right in that I do not believe that Scholastic offers an actual cash option. But the 25% cash option does not work in the consultants favor and is rather confusing. Therefore many consultants do not offer it. But let me give you an example as to how it works:
If you had a $4,000 book fair, the school would receive $2,000 in free books. But the consultants commission would only be on the $4,000 in actual sales. The consultants 17% commission would be $680.
If the school chooses the 25% cash back instead of 50% in free books, then the consultant has to manually enter the book fair into Usborne’s ordering system. Ultimately, the consultant has to trick the system into believing the consultant sold less books than she really did. The $4,000 book fair has to show up in Usborne’s system as having only sold $2,266.67 in order to free up the cash the school needs. This option means that the consultant’s commission is $385.33.
As for Gail’s claim about schools not wanting Scholastic books, I cannot speak for all districts. So maybe some schools choose not to purchase Scholastic books for their schools. Even if this is true, Scholastic Dollars do not have to be spent on books. They offer a plethora of other options as we previously discussed. We also found that Scholastic does offer library-bound selections as well as library processing.
http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/articles/scholastic-dollars-catalog-faq
Another thing that we offer is flexibility where Scholastic book fairs are pretty much status quo in how long they’re going to be. We can come in for just tonight, we can be there for three days, we can be there for five for two weeks. You know, depending on your schedule. But that’s something that we can offer is meeting the needs of the school. So, as you are going and approaching librarians in schools about the possibility of doing a book fair, you definitely do not want to disparage Scholastic because they may be extremely happy with how their Scholastic book fairs are going. You just want to be able to offer that we have another alternative. So perhaps they just do one book fair a year in the fall or the spring and you can offer doing one at the opposite time. Maybe they’re doing two and they’re not super thrilled or it’s fine, but they would love the idea of a different kind of book fair and then you can offer to do yours either in the fall or spring. I do have a few schools that already have their fall and spring one, but they have me come in in the winter or later in the spring towards the end of the year. So typically with more upper middle-class schools, a third book fair can be an option as well. And don’t be discouraged if they’re not interested in a book fair because there’s plenty of other ways that we can work with them. They can have their Scholastic book fair and then choose to spend money that they earn on our books which is great. You go in and get a wish list from them and do a literacy for a lifetime and everybody wins. And I do that with several schools as well. And you can talk to them about other programs or other ways of sharing the books with the school. Perhaps doing a teacher lounge is a great way to get in show the teachers the box and then maybe they talk to the library and about how they would love to have our Book Fair as well. I think a good approach is just talking to them about their book fair. What do they like about it, what are they not super happy about so that you can kind of compare the two and see if we might be a good option.
Gail, that is a lot of rambling. It sounds like you know schools would prefer to stick with Scholastic. Maybe you are trying too hard to convince schools that an MLM is a better alternative to a well-established company? We don’t understand what you are trying to say here.
Um another question I hear a lot is about the teacher program and Scholastic has Flyers that get sent home with the classrooms. The teachers get points for any book that the parents order and then that’s how they create their classroom library. So we don’t exactly have a program that works just like that; but you can send home our school library flyers and set up an fair the parents order through and the classroom would get that fifty percent back if they meet that minimum. So it works best if you have at least a grade level doing it so you’re getting enough orders or hopefully a whole school, um, and you can do that for one month or for several months. You have some flexibility and how that works as well.
Gail, this will not work. The flyers that Usborne prints for consultants to purchase out-of-pocket become obsolete pretty quickly. This is due to how quickly Usborne books go out-of-print and out-of-stock. There is no way to know until you place an order. And then you will receive what is called a Book Buck in the mail. The Book Buck is pretty infuriating for a number of reasons:
- A Book Buck is a credit. As a customer you do not get your money back if a book you want goes out-of-print or out-of-stock. This should be Usborne’s problem to refund customers. Customers should not feel stuck ordering something they may not have even wanted just feel whole again.
- Usborne does not have a way to automatically ship out-of-stock books to customers. It is the responsibility of the customer or consultant to keep checking when a book comes back in stock to reorder.
- When you do use your book buck, you will have to pay an 8% shipping fee even though it wasn’t your fault you received a book buck
And another way to offer teacher rewards again is trying to do a teacher lounge event. I like to either offer buy two books and get one free or twenty-five percent off. And that gives teachers some discounted books for their classroom as well.
We discussed the problem with consultants offering their own discounts. The 17-25% they make in commission is already pretty pathetic. Having to offer an additional discount just puts their earnings into the red. The reason you go into business is to make money. Most consultants are losing money. When you support an MLM, you are not supporting a small business. You are putting consultants into debt. Please do not support any MLM. Per CEO Randall White, “…our concept is for a lot of people to sell a little.” Please raise your hand if you’d like to make a little bit of money.
So I hope that has answered some of your questions, um, it’s glass take it. It’s like I said, Scholastic has been doing this for a very long time but we can offer a really great quality book fair event for schools. Thanks.
Good luck, Gail. It looks like you are going to need it.
That’s my take. Tell me yours. 
uzziesuncensored.com 
I just have to mention that Usborne is far more superior in quality than Scholastics. And a big difference with Scholastics and Usborne is that Scholastics sells trinkets kids love to buy. Most of the students DO NOT buy books, they go for the junk that Scholastics offers and Librarians, mind you, hate this. It is okay to sell commercial books. The problem is that Scholastics often sells books with poor writing.
LikeLike
First, it’s Scholastic Books. Second, Scholastic Books sells the Harry Potter series. And you believe that is poor writing? I’d also be more than happy to provide you with hundreds of less than par books consumers have received from Usborne Books and More that are: torn, misprinted, printed upside down, and typos. There is NO quality control when checking these books. Warehouse workers dump them in a bin– assuming the book is in stock and you actually get the RIGHT book you ordered and not a book buck.
LikeLike
No. I didn’t say that ALL their books are bad. I said that they let almost any writing slide.
And Scholastics and Usborne can be at a school fair. I usually tell my school accounts you can use both. You can pick and chose the books you want from the scholastics book fair and allow Usborne for more variety.
I love the books and you are just a bitter pill.
LikeLike
Unless you have something of some importance to say other than we have a chip on our shoulder or we are bitter, then by all means say it. Otherwise, this is NOT the blog for you and you will be banned.
Bitter of what exactly? That we don’t have $4,000 worth of books sitting around? Bitter that this company is a product based pyramid scheme and takes advantage of people like you who are naive to think you can have a career in selling in MLMs? Bitter, that all blog pieces are 100% fact and that your leaders and CEO lie to you daily?
You are repeating the script fed to you regarding Scholastic Books. I encourage you to re-read the blog piece again.
LikeLike
I’m not sure what you mean by Usborne has more variety? Usborne is mostly for toddlers to lower elementary school. They have only one series that is written at a high school reading level.
Scholastic allows a wide variety for all genres. They have silly joke books to classics like Wuthering heights. And who doesn’t love Clifford the Big Red Dog? Scholastic offers books children and adults know and love.
Usborne does not belong operating in schools. If you actually read the article, you would understand why it’s an unacceptable for Usborne to pretend to be something that it isn’t.
FYI – Name calling is not a way to earn anyone’s respect or take what you have to say seriously. When you have to resort to name calling, you lose all credibility in what you are trying to say. When you are ready to have an intelligent conversation and can back your opinions up with some type of substance, we will gladly listen to what you have to say.
Have a wonderful evening.
LikeLike
Usborne does have high school books
LikeLike
And those and the cream of the crop best sellers. Look… MARLA Fatima Fernandez-Benavides, aka UsborneStoryTamers, or whatever name you choose to use next to post here– YOU are angry that the truth has hit a little too close to home.. that if Usborne was such a steller company and you believed in their mission, you’d quit your day job as a paralegal (but you hate all lawyers) and give selling books full time a go (but you don’t know what spell check is). Neither job is working out for you. McDonalds is better suited for you. ADIOS.
LikeLike
I don’t have a day job. I homeschool my son and use Usborne in my curriculum. They are the best! I don’t need to work.
LikeLike
And so you mooch off Usborne and others because…? no wonder why your name is called story-tamers… you can’t keep up with all the stories you tell. Lawyers are Ambulance chasers, maybe. But at least they don’t work for a product-based pyramid scheme. They received an education in order to get paid a very high salary. Can’t fault them for knowing more about the law than an uneducated person. This, gentle reader is an example of a person like yourself “fakes” people out to become a consultant who tells a good story to get them to join their team. Slow applause. Seriously. Don’t go away mad, just go away. Maybe next year you’ll tell us you’re a PA and doctors are scammers too.
LikeLike
It is okay to sell commercial books. I love Disney. I also love the original classic stories Disney twists in a more happier ending. But some books should be scrutinized for foul language and just bad writing.
I love the Scholastics nonfiction. But I also love Usborne’s nonfiction.
I like Amelia Badelia, a classic. But I also love Billie B and Penny Dreadful.
Turn your blog into a POSITIVE blog and you will be much more influential
and make a much greater impact.
LikeLike
The only reason you are now okay with commercial books is because Usborne can no longer claim to be “commercial-free”. We have seen plenty of screenshots of Usborne consultants bashing Scholastic for selling books like Sponge Bob. If it gets a child who does not want to read to pick up a book, then more power to Sponge Bob.
You do not love Usborne. You only love the commission you make by selling Usborne and manipulating others into joining your product-based pyramid scheme. How many are trying to get out of debt by selling their Usborne books at major discounts on the hidden Buy Sell Trade groups? Aren’t you ashamed that you allowed consultants to go into debt?
At least be honest about what you are doing. We are being honest with you. Positivity does not create reality. What world are you living in?
If you believe that Usborne is the best thing to ever happen to you and you’re making killer money doing what you are doing, then by all means let’s talk figures. How well does an Usborne rep like yourself do? How many poor souls are in your downline making you additional commissions? How is that product knowledge training? I don’t mean training on how to book parties and harass people into joining your team. I mean real training about the authors of your books and quality of the content (not physical quality of a bound book).
Let’s open up this dialogue and talk about the real benefits you gain by having others join Usborne. We’d love to hear your side.
LikeLike
I love Books! Love the discount – I get more discount than at Barnes and noble- girlfriend, get your negative ass of here.
Ya wanna see my library? Love the books
LikeLike
Get your negative ass of here? Umm this is MY page. Not yours. Who gives a shit about your library. We all know the only people you sell those books to are other Usbotne sellers. You’re getting ripped off. What are you going to when sonny boy is.. I don’t know 8… or do you have a herd of 6 children. Enjoy your garage sale where no one with half a brain would buy your books at full price.
LikeLike
Your kids don’t deserve these books. May God bless you and have mercy on you.
LikeLike
Kids get such better quality , and deserve much better than the lousy cotent Usborne publishes and EDUC shells out at an overinflated price. Thanks you for concern, gentle reader. I feel better now.
LikeLike
Manipulating? Girl you need to get off your rocker!
At Barnes, I get 20% in discount as an educator. But with Usborne, I get 25% discount plus some as educator.
If you don’t see the benefit an educator gets and only see the direct selling aspect you are wearing blinders!
LikeLike
I can careless about the money. I care more about having a library for my son and the books are the best quality
And I love serving the kids I meet
LikeLike
The only benefit I gain from a team is getting points to go on a trip with Usborne
LikeLike
How much training does a Barnes and noble rep get on authors? How much book knowledge do they have?
My upline is the best at everything
LikeLike
Also I make it fun when there is a typo. It happens… For example, I tell my son is this guy clean? And we laugh at the typo… It happens. Most books are great! And awesome and you can just laugh over the mistakes. They aren’t worst mistakes in the world. People are human.
LikeLike
You sell a misprinted book and THINK that is funny? Wow. What poor business practices you have. But I am sure you buy from your upline and replace the book out of your own expenses, creating a loss for you, never holding the company responsible.
LikeLike
There’s soooo much incorrect and outdated information on this blog post. At least, that’s my experience.
Who goes into thousands of dollars of debt on a $75 or $125 investment? If you e got friends and/or family who are in debt due to joining Usborne at those prices—it ain’t Usborne. Take a look around—the issue with debt is the consumer, not the publishers or distributors. That’s like suing McDonald’s for making me fat after eating their food I’ve obviously found delicious over the a stretch of time.
No. The real problem isn’t MLM opportunities, it’s ignorant people who, regardless of what they’ve actually been trained or explained, think it’s a get rich quick scheme. People with no concept of actual business management are the problem.
If we’re goong to get really honest here. You only chose the Library bound editions of Usborne collections when they have less expensive alternatives, like paperback.
You have only taken ONE consultants thoughts? Ideas? I’m not quite sure what to label her jargon as, but a poor example of an Usborne consultant. As well as some made up or outdated information about commissions, programs/fundraisers/book fairs.
My favorite aspect of this whole “article” and your unbelievable lack of skills in research??? Guess what it is??
You forgot about the UBAM consultant who posted a picture of two books—same title, two different publishers to compare quality. That’s right, Usborne actually ALLOWS Scholastic to print a bit of their stuff. Does scholastic include the flaps that engage young readers? Nope. Does scholastic use the board book binding Usborne uses for BETTER quality? Nope, just paperback. And it’s certainly only a portion of an Usborne Book that Scholastic is allowed to print…oh, did I forget to mention that the US is like the ONLY place Scholastic is NOT an MLM too???
Don’t start something you can’t finish, especially accurately. And don’t knock what you don’t comprehend.
MLMs are great if you’re not an idiot. Be upset at the INDIVIDUALS that prey on those idiots, get mad at the people complaining about all the money they lost because they either didn’t put the work in it and/or they have a severe compulsive disorder preventing them from stopping themselves from clicking on “submit order.”
Please stop writing as you’re unwilling to do the research it takes to be a dignified author of anything. You’re passionate, and that’s great. Except it’s misguided—it would seem by at least one resentment I’d be very interested in learning how you developed.
What MLM did you or a loved one “fail” aka quit at? How much did you think you were going to earn your first year? Six figures? So you took out a loan or something?
Business 101: very rarely does a BUSINESS make money their first 3 years. Meaning, an actual profit. They may have had sales all day. But profit, in the business world, means NET.
I’m done. I just wish anti-MLMers had a real argument about pyramid schemes. Y’all realize it’s only a scheme if there’s no product right? And then that’s called fraud—not a pyramid scheme.
Oh, unless you’re referring to that whole thing about “there’s one person who benefits the most financially, the owner, and consultants do all the hard work and don’t get paid nearly as much” uhhhhhh…
Now I’m just worried about your ability to write, like formulate words into sentences you’ve got down quite well, but your critical thinking skills, reading comprehension and total disregard for research makes me think you might need some tutoring.
You’re in luck! I’m a tutor (reading mostly)! Guess what books I’d suggest for you!?!?
PS please excuse MY writing—I was so taken aback by this post that I just tapped away on my phone which has to be the most terrible way to communicate on WP.
LikeLike
Since reading this blog, I find any time someone responds that the information is incorrect or outdated, no one actually says what is true. This is a concern.
The first paragraph of this post is completely ignorant. Suing McDonald’s for making you fat? Really? That’s your analogy? At least McDonald’s posts calories. Directors, Team Leaders, and Consultants who want to be team leaders will never tell the truth as to how much anyone actually makes after all of the overhead expenses. They will tell you they are not allowed. That isn’t true. Randall White has no problem inflating the number, why shouldn’t consultants feel compelled to do the same?
Team leaders and those aspiring to be will tell consultants to take out consignment for booths and book fairs. What they don’t tell you is that if you can’t sell it, it will cost shipping plus 5% of retail value of to return the books. I have yet to hear of a consultant who has actually returned the books. Why? Because consultants are adamantly discouraged from sending them back. So, they are forced to go onto buy/sell/trade groups to try get what they can for it as a “going out of business” sale at 60% or more off of retail. That’s how consultants lose money. And that’s how the some try to come out with a little bit of dignity left. Others go even further by selling…are you ready…through Amazon. It’s not allowed, right? But you’re going out of business anyway, so who cares? Let’s just pretend VIP groups don’t exist and everyone sells the books at full retail. *Cough*Cough*Bullshit*Cough**
And training? Are you serious? Training doesn’t exist. What does exist are directors and team leaders telling you how to harass friends and family into joining the scam or buying crap they don’t need or want. The books are not high quality. I have seen many pictures showing books misprinted or pages glued in upside down. One consultant said she just laughs at the misprints. Laughs? You should be embarrassed. These aren’t hard words to spell correctly. But it’s hard to reason with someone who uses the word “ain’t”. I don’t get it. Are we quoting Huckleberry Finn or Dickens? I hope you aren’t tutoring kids using improper English. That’s just scary.
You know who is the problem? The one’s high up on the food chain who no longer have a moral compass. Why should they when they make a profit from the losses of their downline? And who cares if you lose them if someone else will quickly take someone else’s place thinking they can do better? You know why you responded on this post? You are afraid. You are afraid people will start to learn the truth and will no longer buy into your MLM scam. That is what it is. But don’t take my word for it. Do your own research.
And…I didn’t forget about anything. I saw that person’s YouTube video to show quality. You know what’s funny about that? No one cares. When you are talking about children’s books, kids outgrow them. They are temporary fixtures until they can read more complex work. There are solid books, classics, that are worth buying as quality to hold onto. Only a select few of my children’s books were kept to pass onto my own children. The rest were donated or given to another family who could use them. What I will spend money on is quality of content not book binding. That’s just silly.
I am upset with the people who prey on unsuspecting individuals who have no idea what a scam MLMs are. I am upset with people like you who defend it rather than condemn it. You should be ashamed.
You are correct that start-up typically make zero money for the first three years of its life. However, MLMs are not start-up businesses. The model has been around for quite some time. But if you did your research, you would know that the top falls over once there aren’t any consultants willing to jump on board and recruit others into your scam.
Thank you for tasking the time to respond. I think we all know where you stand on this topic.
LikeLike
I forgot to mention that Scholastic is not an MLM in the United States. If it was, I can assure you I would be just as hard on that company. Usborne doesn’t “allow” Scholastic to do anything. According to many consultants and leaders, Scholastic owns a portion of Usborne. Therefore, Peter Usborne doesn’t have a choice but for Scholastic to be able to print. I can’t find actual proof on that, so I can’t say for certain. As I am sure you know, everything from Usborne is hearsay. It’s quite difficult to get the company to tell anyone anything since they think their clueless leaders should be in charge. That will be the company’s ultimate downfall. If there is anything else you would like me to clear up for you, let me know.
LikeLike
I have been teaching for over 20 years. I am an Early Childhood Educator and my specialty is 3-5 year olds. I have been running Scholastic book fairs for about 15 years. I can tell you that they have some great books for all ages (even adults) and they have a lot of crap books for little kids and a horrible baby selection. It is their unwillingness to offer infant and toddler books that made us want to give up our Scholastic book fairs. The majority of the books we received were crap from bad cartoons. Some were from good cartoons, but written poorly and illustrated poorly. They also have some of my favorite books and authors. So I think they have a place in schools, but that they should be chosen wisely. Sadly, Scholastic refuses to leave out books that you don’t want. Until we threatened to quit using Scholastic they refused to send extra infant and toddler books, yet kept sending unwanted books, adult and middle school books. We gave them another chance and they failed us. We used Usborne for the first time last year and we loved the books. Most of us Teachers and some of the parents were familiar with the books and know what great quality they are. You mostly get paperback books that rip in less than a year with scholastic, with Usborne you mostly get hardcover and thick cardboard/board books. Yes, they have quality paper backs for older ages as does Scholastic. What our school has chosen to do is offer Scholastic catalogs throughout the year and do Usborne as a book fair. We are not allowed to have commercial cartoon books in our school, so no Lego, Disney, or Pokemon. We can have Franklin and Clifford because they were books before getting commercialized and we don’t use the books made off tv shows, but the originals from the series. I do agree that if a kid is willing to read a book because they love the character/show let them read. But I also feel it is very important to get high quality books in the hands of parents and children and to use commercial books to a minimum. DK books are some of my favorite, but they don’t offer book fairs as far as I know and they are mostly non-fiction, which Usborne offers similar titles.
LikeLike
I am having a really hard time on the quality aspect. When consultants speak of Usborne’s “quality” they never speak about quality of content. I am willing to pay for quality of content. Scholastic does do Sponge Bob and other super heroes. They are not the best and drove me to insanity when my child selected those books. However, I never complained since they were only a few dollars and my child would outgrow it anyway and move onto more advanced books.
I grew up on Scholastic and never had a physical quality issue. I also purchase Scholastic for my own children. I have never had any of their books rip. Maybe because I am a big believer in the public library. I taught my children the concept of “borrowing” books so that my children understood how to care and respect property that does not belong to them. The positive to that is that I was able to pass down all of my children’s books, including those from Scholastic, down to my siblings children. And those books have also survived.
In a classroom, where books are handled constantly, paperbacks in general will suffer 1. due to constant contact and 2. because not all children are taught to respect property that is not theirs. And that goes for Usborne Books, too. The 50% policy that Usborne has is a joke when books go out-of-print. You cannot always get the same book back. Even if you do, it will cost roughly the same amount, since schools and individuals have to pay 50% plus tax plus the cost of shipping. And if you’re consultant isn’t around to process the 50% replacement, you have to show proof you once bought the book from a consultant.
As a school teacher with a specialty in 3-5 year-olds, you know those children are either being read to by an adult or with the help of an adult. As far as stating Scholastic forces you to accept whatever they send you, I know that isn’t true. I have spoken with PTA/PTO members who state they tell their Scholastic representative what they want sent. And that sometimes means they request not to have erasers, pens/pencils, bookmarks, and other silly items sent to their book fair. You even admitted that Scholastic worked with you when you threatened to leave the company. If you weren’t happy with your Scholastic representative, you can easily complain to that person’s boss. You cannot do the same at Usborne. You are stuck with whomever names your K-12 school as that person’s “territory”. Schools do not have any say in that.
Thank you for your opinion regarding Scholastic Books.
LikeLike
This post turned negative kind of quickly. USBORNESTORYTAMERS, since you are a consultant for Usborne Books & More, I am curious if you have any facts to provide to this post. I have read your opinions; but facts would be helpful to determine whether Usborne Books are worth purchasing. As it stands, it doesn’t appear UZZIESUNCENSORED is say anything about Usborne that isn’t true. I’d appreciate another viewpoint that is based on fact.
LikeLike
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. And we live in the great USA where we are protected by the First Amendment. But you ask for facts. Your facts are slanted and biased so I am not sure I would qualify your facts as legit. And, all consultants are independent. So what they do with their biz is their biz. Scholastics is a wonderful company whom publishes any authors work. So, here is a review of their pros and cons from theglassdoor https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Scholastic-RVW4975090.htm
Every company has it’s pro’s and con’s. I rank Usborne along side DK publishing. Those books have the best information and the best illustrations. Usborne has the same quality as DK publishing.
LikeLike
Your views aren’t accurate either, and your view is very slanted. Come back in a year and show us your paycheck. We’ll still be here. You should consider another MLM like Mary Kay, or Scentcy, or essential oils. I hear Juice Plus and Plexus are fabulous for brain health, you could definitely benefit from that, gentle reader!
LikeLike
It’s funny. To bc to be a good sales person you need great communication
You need to build trust
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha ha. To be a professional takes a wee bit more than that. The UBAM is a lot of things… communicators is not one of them. They are great BSers. JOIN MY TEAM you’ll make 6 figures!!! BULL (cough) SHIT. Joke is on you gentle reader. Don’t quit your day job.
LikeLike
I don’t know who’s team you were going on but no one ever told me I would make 6 figures.
And I represent the books independently so my professionalism is my business and developing soft skills is my business. I don’t work for Usborne. I get paid for selling the books. The better I am at commicatinnf the better I am at selling. And the better I know what my customers want the better I am at making the sale.
It’s funny but law school is the biggest scam and there are so many lawyers not making it bc many of the lack salesmanship skills that you don’t learn in law school
LikeLike
Being in a pyramid scheme and begging your friends to join under them so you can make money off your friends and family. S-C-A-M. Many are working to make this type of work illegal… those damn scammers lawyers and such.
At least a lawyer has: A : a college education B: earned their way into law school and C: HELP people. It’s a profession that is needed to uphold the laws. What you do??? Well lets just say enjoy your work for pennies, gentle reader. Now then, shoo!! Go work “your bidness!” Go beg some more people sell books for the greater good of the world!
LikeLike
So, I popped on this page thinking I’d learn something. Negative. The author asks for your take at the end and then throws a bf. I’m soooo confused. Is this how the blog is, like, is it supposed to be funny? Or, are you serious? If it is, there is no way I can take you seriously and you siding with scholastic is making them look bad. 🤔
LikeLike
It’s not our job to sell you. We’re not like consultants at Usborne who feel their books and publisher are “Like THE BEST E-V-E-R!!!” If you learned nothing, well that’s not our problem either, hence why you are “sooooo confused.” Scholastic is a fantastic company. They actually hire people. Have you been to a Scholastic book fair? Apples and Oranges. Never seen a line out the door for a Usborne Book Fair, assuming the consultant who sells “I do it ALL for you!! BUT don’t expect me to stay at your school for 5 days in a row during school hours, I’ll just set up a table in the teacher’s lounge and send some homemade flyers home with your students, cause I don’t have time for that!” You are confused. It’s Usborne consultants who insult Scholastic. Tally-ho!
LikeLike