Let us guess, you’ve been recently introduced to Juice Plus, perhaps as a way to improve your look and health or as a way to make your money, right?
The product looks great at a first glance but you know that when things look too good to be true, they usually are.
That’s why you’re wondering if Juice Plus is a scam or a pyramid scheme. This is a question many concerned people have when they first come across Juice Plus.
That’s why we came up with this post in the first place. What are we going to discuss today? The following:
- What is Juice Plus and how does it work?
- How much money does it cost and how safe is it?
- What’s its legal situation and what people say about it?
Let’s start by answering the most obvious question…
What Is Juice Plus?
In order to assess something, first, you need to know what something is, how it started, and where it comes from. That’s why we need to talk about the history of Juice Plus first.
Juice Plus, the company is less than three decades old. It was formed in 1993 by the owner of National Safety Associates founder, Jay Martin. His aim with Juice Plus was to improve people’s health through healthy juices and snacks.
The history of Juice Plus goes even further back. Jay Martin originally intended to sell health products through a company called National Alternatives International.
He used NAI to sell supplements, but he also wanted to enter the healthy juice market.
That’s when he decided to launch Juice Plus. Despite modest beginnings, Juice Plus managed to grow into a brand. That’s why it operates as its own entity.
How Does Juice Plus Work?
Now that you know how the company started, let’s discuss how it works.
On the surface, it functions just like other multi-level marketing organizations, such as Primerica and Amway that promote health-related products.
In order to attract more salespeople, Juice Plus allows people to buy their products at wholesale prices and sell them to others.
That way, the company has a steady stream of money and the people are able to earn a profit.
In that way, it’s different from Cutco (check out in our Is Cutco a Pyramid Scheme review) that doesn’t allow you to earn money from people beneath you, but make money from single, direct sellers.
However, that’s not the entire story. The biggest difference between Juice Plus and your average MLM is the way they prepare their products.
All of the products they sell are made out of fresh fruits and veggies. That makes their products 100% healthy.
They start by blending the ingredients and then adding additional nutrients and vitamins to the concoction.
Afterward, they eliminate all of the extra carbs from the product. Lastly, they dehydrate the juice and put it in their supplements.
How Much Does Juice Plus Cost?
Since the company manufactures a number of different products, they naturally don’t have a unified price for all of their supplements.
Let’s look at the prices of some of their best-selling and most widely used products:
Juice Plus Blends
This is probably the most popular Juice Plus product, capsules made out of 20 different fruits.
The product costs approximately $44.50 per month, however, it’s only available in a package with 4-month supplies.
This package costs $178.
Complete Juice Plus
Next, we have a combination of energy bars and shake mixes.
These chew bars will satisfy all of your protein and fiber intake needs. Like the capsules, the bars come in a package that will last for at least 4 months and costs $130.
Juice Plus Chewables
People who don’t want to take capsules can purchase Juice Plus Chewables and enjoy the same benefits.
While you have an option to purchase a 4-month supply, the individual products will cost you between $17 and $71.
If you want to become a Juice Plus salesperson, you need to pay for your training first. The one-time you need to pay before starting your training is only $50.
After you receive your training, you’ll have to $70 for the product every month.
Although this is the main reason why Juice Plus has left a bad taste in some people’s mouths, the fee you need to pay won’t bankrupt you.
In fact, compared to other MLM companies, Juice Plus charges significantly less.
Needless to say, Juice Plus products themselves are completely safe to use.
However, can the same be said for working with the company?
The biggest problem for most people is the fact that a vast majority of Juice Plus products can’t be bought individually. As we mentioned above, most products require you to buy a 4-month-long subscription plan.
As soon as you sign the contract, you’re fully committed to purchasing Juice Plus products for the next 4 months. For $70+ the company will deliver products to your doorstep for 4 months until the contract is over.
According to company officials, the 4-month subscription is necessary because that’s the time your body needs to feel the effects of their products.
Of course, most people feel like this statement is nothing more than a ploy to earn more money from their customers.
What’s worse, some of the Juice Plus distributors aren’t transparent about their practices and are known to auto-shipping additional products after the contract is over.
Can You Make Money With Juice Plus?
It is possible to make money with Juice Plus, but we can make the argument that your efforts are better spent elsewhere.
However, to make even a minimum wage a year, you’d have to heavily focus on sales and recruiting people. And that is quite hard on its own, and even more so when the product system is far than ideal.
Is Juice Plus a Scam?
Should you be worried about Juice Plus scamming you? If you know what you’re doing, you shouldn’t be worried at all.
Even though their monthly subscription plans are problematic, the company is pretty straightforward about them.
Another big problem people have with Juice Plus is their questionable marketing. According to some ex-members, their referrers asked them to spam their friends on social media.
Now, most of us receive spam from time to time, but actively asking your members to send promotional messages is simply unacceptable.
If you don’t believe us, you should go out there and look for these testimonials for yourself.
Customer Reviews
As a part of our research, we also went through some customer reviews. And as you may assume, the reviews are rather mixed.
Some people accuse the company of functioning as a pyramid scheme, while others enjoy their products.
Some people don’t like the fact that the main focus of most MLM sellers is to make money, by any means necessary, including sending spammy messages.
On the other hand, most people only have good things to say about their natural products.
Whether they require four months to work or not, they seem to work just fine for a wast majority of users. And now, let’s talk about something more controversial…
Juice Plus Lawsuit
Last but not least, we need to talk about the recent controversy involving Juice Plus
Last year, Christine Lunsford accused Juice Plus of charging her automatically and renewing their subscriptions without asking them.
The lawsuit claims that the company violated the California automated subscription renewal law.
What’s more, Christine said that she used her credit card to buy some Juice Plus supplements in Aug. 2019.
She received her supplements and was subsequently charged for her order. However, the following month, she received a next shipment and was charged again.
This Jan. the court determined that the company failed to make their terms of use clear during the initial sale.
Conclusion
In the end, is Juice Plus a scam? The answer to that question is definitely no, Juice Plus isn’t a scam.
However, it’s a multi-level marketing company in which the sellers need to recruit more and more people in the program in order to earn more money and climb the ranks.
Even though Juice Plus sells legitimate products that won’t affect your health in a negative way, the only way to make real money is through recruiting.
The business has been operating for a quarter of a century. If it was a pyramid scheme, the FTC would shut it down already.