Direct selling through the party plan typically uses multi-level marketing (salesperson is paid for selling and for sales made by people they recruit or sponsor) rather than single-level marketing (salesperson is paid only for the sales they make themself).
Mr. Beveridge and Ms. O'Brien were former employees of the Fuller Brush Company, which sold its products with door-to-door salespersons.
[citation needed] The party plan is criticized for exploiting social conventions and pressuring "guests" into buying things they do not want.
[3] Merchandise at American purse parties is usually bought in bulk from smugglers in New York's Chinatown or in Los Angeles' garment district and sold to unsuspecting customers at a significantly higher price, although still lower than the retail price of the legitimate product.
These inferior smuggled goods have been linked to organized crime and the funding of terrorism, so purse parties have become of interest to law enforcement.