Is Juice Plus a pyramid scheme? It’s likely that you have come across Juice Plus through an email list, on social media or got it recommended by a friend or family member.
You’ve probably heard of their unique supplements and the possibility of starting your own business with them right?
You’ve probably been told of the potential in store for you if you join Juice Plus and so on but, there’s also a reason why you’re here, it’s likely that your skeptical of Juice Plus actually been worth your while and you know what, I can’t blame you for being cautious.
For all you could have known, Juice Plus may very well be a scam or something completely illegitimate like a pyramid scheme or a complete scam so taking your time to do an extra bit of research can save you from quite a bit of financial heart ache.
To be transparent with you I am not a member of Juice Plus so I can assure you that I will not attempt to sell you this product unless of course it’s worth investing in.
What I will aim to do is provide you with an unbiased 3rd party look at this system that will hopefully help you make the correct decision in the end.
PRODUCT NAME: Juice Plus
OWNER/S: Jay Martin
TYPE OF PRODUCT: Health and wellness MLM (kinda)
PRICE: $50 to join + around $70/month of minimum autoship requirement
SUMMARY: Juice Plus is not or a pyramid scheme or a scam as far as I can tell. Also the fact that the FTC have yet to shut it down even after 25 years of remaining a company probably menans it’s unlikely to shut down unless it goes bankrupt. Although it’s neither a scam or a pyramid scheme, it’s still not worth joining due to the fact you need to be good at selling a lot of products or recruiting a lot of people to succeed. Also the compulsory 4 month contract in order to try each of the products is pretty annoying as it will cost a lot of money and although Juice Plus is not transparent about their income, going off of the statements from other MLM’s older or younger, there’s probably a 5% chance you’ll be making anything decent within them, in fact it’s quite likely the odds for success are probably even lower. This is why I’d recommend you avoid this company.
FINAL RATING: 1.5/5
RECOMMENDED: NO
Table of Contents
WHAT IS JUICE PLUS?
Juice Plus is a health and wellness business founded by Jay Martin in 1993 with the premise of helping build a business and a healthy lifestyle through their variety of juices.
Now in terms of it being an MLM completely, that’s a little complicated. Basically how it works is that the company isn’t operated as an MLM as Juice plus isn’t actually it’s own separate company, it’s more so a branded line of dietary supplements.
I’ll need to go into a little history behind Jay Martin and why Juice Plus is what it is.
Jay Martin created a company called “National Safety Associates (NSA)” back in 1970.
Since then, he’s created a few other product lines which include fire detectors in the 1970’s, water filters in the early 1980’s and air filters in later in 1980’s.
Juice Plus is pretty much just another line of products that Jay has created for his business however, unlike the aforementioned products, although Jucie Plus’ dietary supplements are a part of NSA they’re manufactured by a different company called National Alternatives International (NAI).
So to put it simply, Jucie Plus is a product line within NSA but since it is being manufactured through NAI, it’s now big enough to be regarded as it’s own “company brand” however, it still remains a subsidiary product to Jay Martin’s main company.
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JUICE PLUS’ PRODUCT LINE
As Juice Plus proclaims themselves to be ” the next best thing to eating fruits and vegetables” it should be pretty clear that the companies overall emphasis is on healthy eating and products good for your health in general.
Although the concept of fruits and vegetables being healthy for you isn’t something completely original, the fact that Juice Plus actually use real fruits and vegetables to create healthy supplements in my opinion definetly is.
The simple steps on how Juice Plus actually manage to turn the fruits and vegetables into supplement pills include :
- They first juice or I guess you could say blend the fruits & vegetables together
- They then remove carbohydrates from the juice blend
- They further add in vitamins and other nutrients and;
- Finally they dehydrate the juice and eventually transform the juice in to pill form.
For a more detailed explanation on this process check out this video.
A few of their popular products that include:
- Orchard blend (fruit juice powder-based supplement) – Contains apple, peach, cranberry, orange, papaya, acerola cherry, pineapple, prune, date and beet.
- Garden blend (vegetable juice powder-based capsules) – Contains broccoli, parsley, tomato, carrot, garlic, beet, spinach, cabbage, oat bran, rice bran and kale.
Other products within Juice Plus’ line include soups, meal replacement shakes and bars, you know all the other basic type of health and wellness products companies just like Juice Plus probably sell too.
I do think that the concept of turning fruits and vegetables into supplement pills is a pretty neat idea however, I also think it’s a little strange too, I mean isn’t it better to just consume the fruit and vegetables fresh as opposed to in capsule form?
I know for some the benefit of being able to consume multiple of your 5 a day within the footprint of a few pills is a nice little idea but in my opinion I don’t quite see why it’ll be more beneficial for anyone over just eating fruits or vegetables fresh.
That’s why I feel its appropriate to see the opinions of people who’ve actually tried the products and if this idea is worth you investing your time in.
ARE JUICE PLUS’ ACTUALLY ANY GOOD?
I can’t speak from experience whether or not Juice Plus create good products for its customers nonetheless, what I have done is researched the opinions of individuals who have actually tried the supplements and this is what I found…
Within bbb I found out that people who have actually used the products find them to be very good. Some even have been taking it for multiple years and have found that it definitely has positively affected their health.
The supplements are described as being far from miracle pills, instead how they benefit every individual is by being taken consistently.
However, within trustpilot I found that customers were being overcharged for the products and on top of this they didn’t experience any health benefits, in fact many individuals claim experiencing no tangible health benefits from consuming the pills.
One customer in particular even suffered multiple health issues from taking Juice Plus’ supplements. Daniel Jarius said he suffered from “heart palpitation, uneasy breathing, Tongue dryness”. Although I don’t consider these to personally be major side effects, I can see why you should be a little more cautious here.
All in all from what I’ve researched, there definitely are some Juice Plus consumers who have genuinely experienced positive results but, to me it seems like a lot more individuals really didn’t gain at all from using the supplements.
Instead they felt the products were too expensive and generally not worth investing in. To be honest with you this overall view of the products does make sense to me as to me and from what I’ve learnt from other MLM’ s like Zija, Waiora, Javita, Nature Sunshine etc is that, from the get go it was highly unlikely that everyone would benefit from the unique pills anyways.
This is because of how everyone’s immune system and conversion of consumables for legit results would be all over the place. For example older folks are bound to experience better results from using Juice Plus’ products over 20 year olds because of how much weaker their immune system generally is.
Well that’s what I think anyways. So to answer this question, from the research I’ve done, I’d say that for the most part the pills really aren’t that beneficial for the majority of people and in turn means that they’re more or less a bunch of average products.
HOW DO YOU MAKE MONEY JUICE PLUS?
As is the case with pretty much all MLM businesses there are 2 ways to make money with them, Juice Plus being no exception.
1. The first method is by directly selling the product to other individuals and in return make a commission for the sales
2. You make money through your recruits and downline, by getting residual income by following and meeting certain criteria as well as make money through bonuses and incentives due to meeting company set goals.
HOW TO GET STARTED
To get started with Juice Plus you’ll need to part with a $50 one time joining fee. By doing so you’ll essentially be given access to the MLM’s starter kit which includes:
- Your custom website
- A back office
- Amongst other things to get you started with the business
To fully maintain eligible for the bonuses and commissions within Juice Plus, you’ll also need to maintain at least $70 in autoship costs every month.
This in turn means that running your own Juice Plus distributor business for at least a year will set you back…
$890!
Honestly compared to the prices that other MLM’s such as Scentsy, Life Leadership, Max International etc charge, the price to run a business here is actually reasonably cheap.
Of course this is only relative to MLM’s, in normal circumstances I’d consider nearly 900 bucks to be creeping up on being “expensive”. Nonetheless, it’s still a fairly “cheap” MLM business to run in my opinion.
COMPENSATION STRUCTURE
Juice Plus in my opinion has a pretty typical compensation structure.
The pay for each distributor within the company is determined on the rank of the distributor and how many members they manage to refer to Juice Plus personally.
This image more or less summarises how the plan actually works.
Retail Sales Profit
These are payments that you’ll be eligible for every time you manage to get an individual to purchase a product within Juice Plus. The retail sales profit that you can actually make range from $13-$55 per product.
Commissions
Once you’ve reached the 2nd rank you’ll be able to earn commissions on every plan that your customers purchase on top of the retail sales you’ve already made. The commissions range from 6%-22%. The manner in which the commission are paid out are dependent by the Purchase volume credit (pvc) for every product.
For example a 4 months supply of the trio capsules is worth 169.5 pvc. Let’s say for instance you’re at the 6% commission mark, you’ll make $39 in retail sales profit from the trio capsules as well as another $10 for the 6% commission.
Bonuses
Juice Plus provide you with incentives to reach higher ranks or certain sales pvc goals within a specified time frame. As the image above shows if you reach the direct distributor rank within 30 days, you’ll receive a $100 bonus and the bonuses also apply for the other ranks too.
This to me shows how Juice Plus really want you to create a downline team as soon as possible, they want to sell as many products as they can even if they’re not necessarily worth it.
It’s pretty clear to me through their compensation plan that recruitment is a very crucial component to reaching success within this MLM and honestly it’s definitely not surprising.
If you want a more comprehensive look at the compensation plan, check out the video below.
THE NOT SO GOOD THINGS
Heavy Emphasis On Recruitment
As is the case with MLM’s in general, you really need to recruit members to actually make the most out of them. Juice Plus obviously has a pretty large emphasis on this matter.
In fact they also will provide bonuses for if you manage to achieve ranking up within a certain amount of time. The time limits that Jucie Plus actually set for you to level up per se, is telling of how Juice plus pretty much run on the action of it’s distributors recruiting for them as it makes more money for them.
Moreover, without recruit it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll really be making enough money to sustain your business anyways. There’s no doubt in my eyes that it would be very hard to actually be successful without the added benefits of the higher ranks such as the commissions you can recieve for the amount of PVC you have.
Yes it definetly is possible to make a decent amount of money through just retail sales profit but, you’d likely need to have people purchase 50-100 products to actually get anywhere in that manner.
On the other hand if you recruit multiple people under and in turn qualify for the commissions, as your downline memembers have to maintain atleast $70’s in autoship every month, you’ll at the very least be guaranteed 6% from each of your refferals ever month.
And of course once you reach the 22% commission level, you’ll be making a lot more money than if you were just directly selling the products.
So yeah there’s a heavy emphasis on recruiting because Jucie Plus are guaranteed to be making sales as all distributors must be on a autoship plan and of course the amount you make will exponentially increase the more you recruit.
The Products Are All Over The Place With Their Performance
The products are very much a mixed bag as far as I can tell through the opinions of others who’ve used them although I’m leaning more towards the possibility that the products are less likely to work for most people.
As I’ve already discussed previously, people in general don’t seem to feel any benefits from the supplements, they don’t seem to add energy or even cause any kind of major side effect which is what would’ve been a concrete reason to avoid them.
All in all the performance of Juice Plus’ supplements are dependent on the person taking it and whether or not they’re already in good physical health or not.
There definitely are individuals who have experienced positive effects from the supplements but, from what I could find, most argued that there were no real positive or negative effects from the pill.
A Hidden Compulsory Contract!?
Yep, Jucie Plus have a “hidden contract” regarding their product plans. As it turns out, in order to purchase one of Jucie Plus’ product line, you’ll at the minimum need to get an auto shipment of 4 months on the product.
This means that you can’t just get 1 set of supplements from the company just to try out and see if they work instead, in order to try a product you’ll need to also sign for a 4 month shipment plan.
This is ridiculous don’t you think?
So let’s say for example you wanted to try the product line called “Orchard & Garden Blend” capsules which would cost you $93/month.
This product would need to be on the 4 month autoship plan meaning you’ll have to spend $372 over the 4 month period just to try them. That’s a helluva lot of money for supplements and it’s a plan that has negatively affected multiple people who purchased one of Jucie Plus’ products as they weren’t aware that this kind of shipment contract existed.
When you consider how just one batch of Orchard & Garden blend is $93 a month, it’s already an expensive product to the average person but, when you’re more or less required to spend $372 to try them, it becomes a little ridiculous to me, you could likely find cheaper alternatives from other trusted supplements instead.
The company claims that in order to benefit from their products, you need to be at least on a 4 month cycle with them but, whether or not it’s true, the forced shipment plan is still not a cool thind for most customers in my opinion.
No Income Disclosure Statement Insinuates Lack Of Transparency
I couldn’t find a an income disclosure statement for how much Juice Plus’ distributors make so obviously this means that there’s a lack of transparency here but, from previous MLM’s that I’ve reviewed such as Xyngular, Ariix and LuLaroe I’m fairly certain that the income potential for most distributors is likely not that great.
In fact in the income disclosure that I found within those MLM’s, generally less than 5% of members were actually making a somewhat decent income of $1000 whilst the individuals making a sustainable monthly income usually only made up around 1% of all distributors within their respective companies.
Although I can’t be sure if that is the case with Jucie Plus because of their lack of transparency, I’m almost certain that the fact Jucie Plus is more or less a MLM too, it’s quite likely that the number of successful members also don’t make up a majority of the companies distributors.
THE GOOD THINGS
It’s Been Around A While
The fact that Juice Plus but more so its parent company has been around since the 1970’s must mean that something must be going right for them right?
Although this company started as a subsidiary it became it’s own company by 1993 and has since been doing reasonably well for the last 25 years. I’d say Juice Plus’ longevity definetly gives it some kind of edge of other younger MLM’s as well as giving people more credibility about its functions.
Clinically Tested Products
Juice Plus have supposedly conducted a bunch of clinical tests on their products to make sure that they will benefit individuals who use them.
Although this company has done clinical tests, I’d probably take their legitimacy with a grain of salt afterall, experts aren’t necessarily able to make sure that they’re legitimate themselves so it only mean that you going to have to remain cautious just incase.
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IS JUICE PLUS A PYRAMID SCHEME/SCAM?
No I do not believe that Juice Plus is a pyramid scheme nor a scam, in fact I do think it’s a legitimate MLM company purely because it has been around a while and still continues to remain active within the MLM scene although I do feel that there are quite a few problems with it.
Firstly the products are expensive and the 4 month compulsory contract makes these prices even worse, in order to really make a good sustainable income with Juice Plus, you’ll need to be really good at recruiting and for the most part, the products they sell don’t seem to have any effects at all for people using them.
Theres no income disclosure statement so I can’t be certain about this but, from what I have learnt from other MLM companies and their income statements, it’s probably unlikely that you’ll be making anything decent with Juice Plus unless of course you’re either really good at recruiting or just have a big enough audience to sell the supplements too.
Although it’s longevity may be reason to join Juice Plus over other MLM’s, I personally still don’t think it’s worth joining and building a business with it because of how difficult it will ultimately be to make decent money through it.
MY PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION
I personally will always recommend against using a MLM business model to make money, not because you can’t make money through it (you totally can) but, the system has always seemed shady to myself and is kinda synonymous with the likes of a pyramid scheme or scams (MOBE and Digital altitude).
Instead I prefer working with something created through ones own means and is ultimately dependent on yourself and your work ethic alone.
This method I’m talking about is affiliate marketing.
The reasons as to why I recommend it over MLM based structures are because
– there is no need to recruit constantly
– it is a legitimate method that has been working consistently and continues to grow as more businesses want individuals to promote products
– and because it is free to start up, no unnecessarily large start up funds needed.
The service I recommend is Wealthy Affiliate. It’s free to sign up to and will get you set up and ready to start your affiliate marketing journey within minutes, as it did for me when I begun my journey.
If you have any questions that you would like to ask me regarding Juice Plus , feel free to do so in the comments section below and I will get back to you as soon as I can. If you have your own thoughts about Juice Plus and would like to talk about it, again feel free to do so in the comments.
Thanks
Amhil