Ethical Issues Of Directbuy

Essay by RectifierCollege, UndergraduateA+, June 2004

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

Downloaded 44 times

Ethical Issues of Directbuy

My parents recently joined a club that allows them to buy furniture and other things for the house directly from the manufacturers that make them. The concept is interesting, because the club is private and members pay a fee that then allows them to buy things at manufacturers cost without any type of retailer mark-up. Basically, my parents now only pay about half price for anything they want for their home. Why is this relevant to the topic of ethics? My friend's dad owns the local franchise location. When my friend was telling me how the concept worked, it seemed a little "sketchy" to me at first. I have heard of scam artists and other schemes similar to this one that aim to steal people's money. The particular club that my friend's dad owns has a membership fee of $4,000 for 10 years! I thought surely my friend's dad wouldn't be running one of these types of businesses, but I thought it would be interesting to talk to his dad about it for the purpose of this paper.

Directbuy is the name of the company that my friend's dad, Steve Blume, owns. When I was at his home the other day, I told him that I was writing a paper on ethics and then asked him if I could talk to him for a few minutes about his company. He said that was fine and as he told me more about how the company operates, the concept seemed much more respectable.

The company is targeted at people who are building a home, remodeling or decorating a home, or moving into an unfurnished home. These people may have to pay $4,000 to join the club, but they may save well over ten or twenty thousand dollars on...