I'm not talking about the business owners, but the customers. If I choose to go and give the Cinnabon at the mall a five dollar bill, they give me some crap an

I'm not talking about the business owners, but the customers. If I choose to go and give the Cinnabon at the mall a five dollar bill, they give me some crap and my change. End of transaction. With every MLM I've ever seen, the salesperson comes to me (or leverages a pre-existing friendship to sneak in to my space) without my permission, tries to pitch me on why I want some product, and then tries to pitch me on becoming part of the MLM. During that time I am not doing what I set out to do-- instead I'm listening to their sales pitch. That's my time and consequent opportunity cost. I'm claiming that the only way any MLM makes money is if they don't pay their potential customers/underlings for the time it takes to pitch them on what they are selling. Am I right? Can you think of an example of an MLM that violates my claim? Example-- Mary Kay salesperson uses someone's residence for their showroom, but doesn't pay the resident for use of their real estate.