A Shoe Thing!

In sports, I appreciate team play and team players which is why I absolutely love players like Kevin Youklis of the Red Sox or Tom Brady of the Patriots or Steve Nash of the Suns.

It is also why I have come to loathe "me-first" players such as Kobe Bryant.

Although I consider Stephon Marbury to be one of the "me-first" players that I despise, I respect and even admire what he is doing in New York.

He is marketing and selling $15 "Starbury" basketball shoes, and apparently, he is selling A LOT! In their first two months on the market, over 3 million pairs of shoes were sold!!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1680154,00.html

Isn't it amazing how the market responds if you offer a quality product at a reasonable price?

As is often the case, my mind began connecting this story to the TEAM/Quixtar conflict.

One one side, we have TEAM, which hopes to use it's growing buying power to drive prices lower and lower, eventually supplanting Wal-Mart as the world's largest distributor.

On the other side, we have Quixtar, which hopes to continue to sell its high-quality goods at uncompetitively high prices.

I believe that money can be made in both scenarios, but honestly, the potential for a low-price, high volume internet distributor seems limitless to me.

Imagine this: "Hey Fred, take a look at this website. You can buy all your stuff here and save 10% over what you are spending at Wal-Mart. Plus, if you help build the community, you could make extra income. Are you in?"

Or this: "Hey Fred, take a look at this website. You can get a big bottle of shampoo for around $23 (good stuff though) and deodorant for $5.20 The site's called Amway! Plus, if you help build the community, you could make extra income. Are you in?"

Now, I know that we don't contact like this, but which situation would you be more apt to succeed...the first or the second?

Obviously, most people would choose the first option.

Even if the prospect doesn't wish to build the business, he will likely become customer with such discounted prices.

All I know is that Orrin and the rest of the TEAM leaders were trying to make the first scenario a reality with Quixtar, but Amway decided that the second option was the only option.

Thank goodness that Amway is not selling the "Starbury" shoes in New York. If they were, I know about 2.97 million customers who would be looking to buy a pair of shoes--a pair of shoes for under the $135 assumed Amway price.

As for TEAM, the future is bright! It's a shoe thing!

(Note: I have no specific knowledge of TEAM plans. All thoughts here are my own, formulated from many CD's, seminars, and books over the years.)