Have you been approached by someone in Juice Plus+ and they are trying to get you to see the great business opportunity you can have with the company? Are they trying to convince you that you can be your own boss and work when and where you want? Is Juice Plus+ worth working for, or are you going to end up losing more money than you make?
I think you need to be careful.
Let me break it all down for you, and I’ll show you exactly why.
Let’s go.
This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclaimer here. In addition, ChristinaPiccoli.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com plus other affiliate programs that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program.
What is Juice Plus?
Juice Plus+ is a health and wellness direct selling / multi-level marketing (MLM) company based out of Tennessee that was founded by Jay Martin in 1993.
According to the Juice Plus+ website:
“Juice Plus+ products are made from the juice powder concentrates and oils from more than 40 different fruits, vegetables and grains. While Juice Plus+ isn’t a substitute for eating fruits and vegetables, our whole food-based products support a healthy diet by offering a much wider variety of naturally occurring vitamins, along with antioxidants and phytonutrients found in fruits and vegetables. Every Juice Plus+ product is made from quality ingredients grown farm fresh, providing the natural nutrients your body needs.”
Let’s take a look at some of the Juice Plus+ products and how much they cost.
- Complete Variety Drink Mix (2 pouches of chocolate, 2 pouches of vanilla, 15 servings per pouch) = $35 / month (4 months) or $140
- Berry Blend Chewables ( 4 pouches) = $25.50 / month (for 4 months) or $102
- Omega Blend Capsules (240 capsules) = $30 / month (for 4 months) or $120
Let’s compare these prices to a couple of products on Amazon.
Here’s a product called Juice Festiv:
You get 240 Omega Blend Capsules for $120 or you can get 240 of the Juice Festiv capsules for $36.98. Now, to be fair, Juice Festiv says theirs is a 2-month supply while Juice Plus+ is a 4-month supply. But even if you double the Juice Festiv amount, it’s still much less than Juice Plus+.
In fact, an Amazon reviewer mentions that she used to take Juice Plus+ but, “finding juice festive at a fraction of the cost was a complete blessing.”
Here’s an organic super greens fruits and vegetable tablet:
This product has 60 tables for less than $20. That means a 4-month supply would cost less than $80, which is quite a bit less than the Juice Plus+ chewables.
Let’s take a look at these Clif Bars and compare them with the Juice Plus+ nutrition bars.
You get 16 Clif Bars in this variety pack. Juice Plus+ gives you 60 nutrition bars (4 months worth). In order to get about the same number of Clif Bars, you’d have to order 4 packs. (You’ll get 64.)
- 4 Packs of Clif Bars (64 bars) = $75.96
- 4 Months of Juice Plus+ nutrition bars = $140
The argument that you’ll likely encounter from people who are trying to sell Juice Plus+ to you is that somehow the Juice Plus+ product is different, better than the rest.
It helps explain the extra costs and why it’s worth it. This is a tactic that we were taught in Young Living. The reason our oils were expensive compared to others, I learned from my upline, is that we had a “Seed to Seal” process that no other oil company had.
The truth is, “Seed to Seal” means nothing, and the reason our prices were higher (and the reason Juice Plus+ prices are higher) is that this is an MLM and the extra money helps pay into the compensation plan.
I wanted to go over these prices with you because this will be important to know for Juice Plus+ customers.
(And do you know who the biggest Juice Plus+ customer is? I’ll tell you in a little bit.)
How Much Does it Cost to Join Juice Plus+?
There is a $52 application fee in order to join Juice Plus+ as a representative for the company. After that, you don’t need to purchase products, but it’s highly encouraged.
In order to qualify for downline commissions, you must generate 90PV a month. This can be sales that you make or products that you purchase for personal use.
There are other optional expenses that may come up:
- Travel for presentations and demonstrations
- Additional products to try for yourself or to give as samples
- Marketing materials such as brochures
- Company conventions
These are expenses that the person trying to recruit you probably won’t bring up, so I like to make sure to mention them.
Juice Plus+ Compensation Plan
Here’s a Juice Plus+ compensation plan video to give you an idea of how this all works:
https://youtu.be/5b2Ty-rjbf4
To be honest, I don’t really understand compensation plans, and I don’t care to since I won’t be recommending that you join an MLM any time soon. However, BehindMLM always does a great job of breaking them down, so here’s a link to their Juice Plus+ review if you really want to know even more.
I’ll just give you some tidbits that I learned from the video, without going into major details.
There are 3 phases in the Juice Plus+ compensation plan:
- Fast Track Plan
- Building a Juice Plus+ Team
- Leadership Positions (Senior Sales Coordinator, Qualifying National Marketing Director and National Marketing Director)
Here are the ways you can earn money with Juice Plus+:
1. Retail sales profit. You get the difference between the retail price and the wholesale price on any of the products.
2. Commissions. There are three different commission levels: 6%, 14%, 22%. These commissions are earned on the PVC (Purchased Volume Credit) You earn more % of PVC as you move up in ranks.
3. Bonuses. There are several bonuses available as laid out in the compensation plan.
Is Juice Plus+ worth working for? Let’s keep exploring to see if it makes sense to join the opportunity.
Juice Plus+ Income Disclosure
There doesn’t seem to be a public Juice+ Income Disclosure for the American market, but there is this one from 2017 for New Zealand and Australia. I think it gives us a good idea of what happens in any market, and it lines up with other income disclosure I’ve looked it.
These would be annual earnings.
Therefore, the only way to make a decent income is to move to the top and become a National Marketing Director. Which only 0.3% of people do.
They’re the only ones making a full-time income. (And this excludes expenses, which can really add up as you move up in the ranks. We’ll come back to this point a little later.)
Juice Plus+ Complaints and Positive Reviews
Healthline does a great review of the Juice Plus+ products. They have an unbiased approach to looking at each of the product claims and show whether or not those claims are actually true.
If you don’t want to go through the whole article, their conclusion is that while Juice Plus+ products can increase your vitamin and mineral intake, there’s no proof that they do it better than a regular, cheaper multivitamin.
Also, just eat more fruits and veggies!
Here’s a YouTuber who is a registered dietitian and recommends Juice Plus+. But please also note that she sells the product too:
https://youtu.be/Ea8tfPizhSU
Juice Plus+ BBB Rating
Juice Plus+ is accredited with the BBB and has an A+ rating. You can see that their reviews are iffy.
They don’t have a ton of complaints, which is good. Most of the complaints have to do with trying to cancel an order but continuing to be charged. It seems Juice Plus+ is responsive to those people and have helped them get their orders straightened out.
Here’s a review I thought was worth noting though:
Juice Plus+ Reviews On Trustpilot
I love going to Trustpilot to see what people are saying about a particular company, and there are plenty of reviews of Juice Plus+ there.
Here are some of the positive reviews from Trustpilot:
- I’ve been using Juice Plus+ for over a year now, and I have seen some health improvements
- I will not go a day without taking these products
- I absolutely love these products and will recommend them to anyone
- I love the shakes
They also have their fair share of negative reviews. They said things like:
- Waste of money
- Overrated and overpriced pyramid scheme pills
- Not worth the hassle and the products are way overpriced
- I wasn’t told it’s a 4-month contract that automatically renews
Now here’s an interesting review from someone who “lost” his wife to Juice Plus+. Read on to see what I mean.
This was a great description because this is what happens to a lot of people in an MLM from what I’ve read and experienced myself. I have read many stories where someone lost their family member to an MLM. It can be very cultish.
Juice Plus+ on TINA.org
If you ever want to dig a little deeper into a company, then I suggest you look on truthinadvertising.org. For Juice Plus+, they list an open lawsuit, company income claims and company health claims.
In the summer of 2017, TINA.org took a look at income and health claims that were being made by distributors of Juice Plus+. For instance, here’s someone who created an Instagram post about how Juice Plus+ helped her get rid of her “severe depression”. You can’t say that without proof.
Here’s an income claim post from Instagram. You can’t say that Juice Plus+ will give you financial freedom without proof or without posting an income disclaimer.
TINA.org has gathered a variety of these posts, and you can see them on their website using the link above.
Juice Plus+ on Reddit
If you ever really want to see what people think of a particular MLM, then reddit/AntiMLM is your answer.
If you think the poster above from Trustpilot was the only one to lose their wife to Juice Plus+, then let me show you this guy from Reddit.
Here’s the line that sticks out the most from his story:
“She never have some times to spend with me, friends, son,… She’s just obsessed about this ugly Company and her business.”
This is always interesting to me because MLM’ers say that you can work this business on the side and still make money. But it’s not true. In order to make any money, you need to constantly be selling, recruiting and training. Here’s a guy on my Color Street post that admits it:
One reason people don’t like MLMs is that of the marketing tactics of the distributors. Here’s a story about a hun who tried to promote Juice Plus+ products after the story author’s brother got his leg amputated.
This was an interesting point in the story:
“The “friend” audibly gasped and from a giant purse I hadn’t even noticed she was carrying, pulled out 3 large containers of Juice Plus and immediately started talking down to my mom “for allowing those big pharm toxins into her sons body” and for us allowing them to put a feeding tube in him, and started pushing us to replace his PAIN MEDICATION with these supplements. ”
Of course, there’s no proof this really happened. However, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit because I see crazy marketing tactics like this from huns on Facebook and Instagram frequently.
Related Articles:
- Selling Essential Oils Online [MLM vs Affiliate Marketing]
- MLM vs Affiliate Marketing – Why Affiliate Marketing is 100x Better
- Why I Quit Young Living [Any Why I’m Now Anti-MLM]
Is Juice Plus+ a Scam or a Pyramid Scheme?
So, now maybe you’re wondering…is Juice Plus+ a scam? Is it a pyramid scheme? Technically it’s not a scam or a pyramid scheme. Yet.
One of the big issues with MLMs is that they can quickly go from legitimate business to pyramid scheme, just like with what happened to AdvoCare. Now imagine you were one of the few who worked your way up to the top and you’re finally making good money and then you get sued by the FTC.
Poof.
Your income is gone.
Now, most people trying to get you into an MLM will tell you it’s not a pyramid scheme because pyramid schemes don’t have products. This isn’t true. AdvoCare has products.
In order for a company to not be a pyramid scheme, distributors have to be able to make money through product sales only. And you can with Juice Plus+. That is true. But you’ll never make enough money to get you to the top unelss you recruit.
And that takes the company into pyramid scheme territory.
Pros
- Inexpensive startup cost
- You aren’t required to buy products upfront
Cons
- It’s way too hard to make money (Just look at the Australia income disclosure again. I guarantee it’s similar for the U.S.)
- Most people lose money in an MLM (source)
- MLMs can turn cultish, as we’ve seen with the two stories of men losing their partners to Juice Plus+
- While you’re not require to buy products, you will end up buying them so that you can be the product of the product
- YOU are the customer
You Are the Customer
Remember above when I said it’s important to note the product prices. Here’s why.
First, because the products are so much more expensive than other products, it’s going to be very hard to sell them retail. How easy is it going to be to convince someone to spend $120 on vitamins when they can spend $40 for the same amount of high-quality vitamins on Amazon?
You might get some friends and family to do it just because they’ll want to support you.
So this is what happens.
Your upline will pressure you into buying more and more products. You’ll get excited about the sales and promotions and you’ll be obsessed about buying them! (I’m telling you this from my own experience.)
They’ll convince you that you need to be the product of the product and to replace as many things that you can in your life with Juice Plus+ products.
And do you want to know why?
Because you are the customer, and that’s how your upline makes money.
Is Juice Plus+ Worth Working For?
Now, let’s get back to the original question you had. Is Juice Plus+ worth working for? I really hope I’ve answered that question for you already.
Honestly, it’s your time and money and you are free to do whatever you want with it.
My recommendation is to never join any MLM, and that goes for Juice Plus+ too. There is just too much evidence that it’ll be a losing proposition for you.
You will end up spending more money on buying the products yourself. Even if you could manage to work your way up to the top, what will that cost you in time and money?
An Alternative to Juice Plus+
When I joined Young Living, the idea of selling something in my spare time was really appealing. And I understand that side of things. That’s why I’m happy it led me back to affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is promoting other people’s products for a commission. But without:
- Buying a starter kit
- Hard sales
- Recruiting
- Uplines
- Downlines
- Training
- Spending money on products
- Spending money on brochures or marketing materials
Do you see the products I posted above from Amazon? I link those using my affiliate link. If someone decided to purchase one of those products, I would get a commission for it.
That’s what affiliate marketing is all about.
You don’t have to push sales onto anyone. You learn how to attract people to you site (for instance, for this article, I used the keyword phrase “Is Juice Plus+ worth working for?” I know that people are searching for that phrase so I decided to write this article about it and now you’re reading it.
There’s certainly more to affiliate marketing, and if it sounds like something you would be interested in, you can check out my free guide here.
Conclusion
I hope I’ve thoroughly answered your question “Is Juice Plus+ worth working for?” because I really wanted to show you exactly why I believe it isn’t. Of course, as I mentioned above, you are absolutely free to do whatever you like with your time and money. If you still want to join Juice Plus+, I wish you well.
If you like the idea of selling something, but in a much more chill way, then I recommend affiliate marketing. This is the training website I used (and still use) that taught me exactly what to do step by step. It’s still my #1 recommendation today.
Other related content:
- Best Programs to Make Money Online
- Learn How to Make a Site That Pays You Over and Over Again
- How To: Affiliate Marketing for Beginners (FREE Guide)
- Ultimate Wealthy Affiliate Review
Juice Plus+ Resources: