‘So scary how they use teens to make them money’: Woman warns you to stay away from shifty company who recruited her to sell knives

In capitalism success isn’t simply selling things people want, it’s making people want things they don’t need. Enter such blights on humanity as fabricated scarcity, advertisement hells, and, of course, pyramid schemes. Remember; it’s not about being one’s own boss, but being convinced that one can be one’s own boss.

TikTok‘s @hot_future_milf got a taste of the foulest strain of entrepreneur life recently, and has since endeavored to share her non-too-flattering experience with selling knives for Cutco; some of you already know where this is heading.

In her story, Haley offers up a rundown of her very brief Cutco journey, which began with getting a letter in the mail asking if she would be interested in selling kitchen knives for $20 an hour. Haley, not one to miss out on such a sparkly wage, agreed to the offer and went through (unpaid) training, but it quickly dawned on her that she was responsible for her own customers. In other words, she had to awkwardly seek out friends, acquaintances, and strangers to ask them if they wanted to buy some Cutco kitchen knives.

Dissatisfied, Haley told Cutco that she was hanging up her knife-seller boots, only for a representative to call her at 11:30 PM and tell her “No, Haley, you can’t quit. You’re gonna come in tomorrow; you’re gonna come in for the next week, as a matter of fact, and you’re gonna ride it out, see if you like it.” It was at this moment in time that Haley had never been more sure about not liking something.

That’s where the saga seems to end; by Haley’s account, Cutco seems pretty par for the course as far as pyramid scheme nonsense goes. One commenter even claims to have sold Cutco knives as far back as 1998, so points for longevity, however malicious the company may be about recruiting teenagers to sell their products.

And malicious it is; Vector Marketing, the company who serves as the domestic subsidiary for Cutco, has been subject to a plethora of lawsuits brought on by their business practices, to say nothing of the less-formal alarm bells about the company that have been set off time and time again.

So keep sounding that gong, Haley; kitchen knives are no excuse for exploitation.