"Because people buy soap": Amway and the priests of capitalism

This essay is based on field research conducted largely in the winter and spring of 1982-83 in Charlottesville, Virginia, including attendance at presentations of the Sales and Marketing Plan by two different distributors in spring 1981 and January 1983, participation in a local rally in March 1983, and interviewing and informal conversation with distributors throughout the period. Other sources of information were rally tapes produced both privately and by the corporation, official company literature, and accounts by non-distributor friends and acquaintances, as well as a March 1983 trip to Ada, Michigan for a tour of corporate headquarters and interviews with officials in public relations and distributor relations.