Remember Shoe Spray?

"Can I talk to you about Amway?" Do you remember the days when your parents used to look like a deer caught in the headlights when one of their friends came to your house and asked them that question? If you do then you probably recognize the can of product pictured on the left.

Back in the 70's when I was growing up Amway was a home based franchise company that allowed people to market a line of cleaning, vitamin, laundry and other household products through their own small business.

Because of it's multi-level marketing (essentially a legal pyramid scheme) the company urged its lower level"employees" to be extremely aggressive in their approach to sales; promoting it as the way to success. As I stated in the opening paragraph the result was that even though Amway did offer some decent products, people were very reluctant or even resistant to the sales pressure of the franchisees as well as the high prices they charged.

Nevertheless my mom knew someone who sold Amway and actually used some of their products. I remember she used Amway laundry detergent for a while and some cleaning products. But because of the cost she eventually stopped. The only thing I remember being used in our home for any length of time was the Amway Shoe Spray.

Essentially it was a spray can of liquid lacquer that dried quickly and made shoes shinny. It smelled awful and was probably toxic by today's standards. But it made your shoes gleam and sparkle like they were spit-shined by a boy at the bus station.

The reason I'm even mentioning Amway's Shoe Spray is that when Paula cleaned out storage area of the small closet in the kitchen that serves as our laundry nook she found a can of it.

That brought back lots of memories. Shoe Spray was one of my dad's favorite products. When I think of it being used he's the one I remember using it. Sad to say Shoe Spray has gone the way of lawn darts and other things that used to be useful and fun.

How about any of you? Do you remember using Shoe Spray or any other Amyway product? If so send me your memories to me on Facebook or through email. I'd be interested in how Amway has touched the lives of others.

By the way the Amway company still exists today. Only since 2001 it's been known as Quixtar in the USA. From what I've discovered and read from my Googel search, it's still a very controversial company.