Thinkin' of buying the new product 'x' at your local Supplement store...READ THIS

[PhiSigPhi]

I thougt this was hilarious. I got it in one of my daily newsletters. Its by Brad Pilon, CSCS

I'm sure most of you wouldnt listen to them anywayz, but there are a lot of people on the board who are new to this. Watch out!

Enjoy!

Last week someone emailed in and asked me to check out a certain supplement. Since supplement ingredients change all the time, I figured I would head down to my local supplement shop and check out the newest label on this particular product.

When I got to the store, it wasn't very busy, so the sales clerk was pretty quick to notice me while I was standing in front of the giant wall of protein powders. Since this particular clerk thought it would be a good idea to stand RIGHT BESIDE ME while I was reading the labels, I asked the clerk what kinds of fats were in one of the products.

His response shocked me.

HIM- "I'm not sure to tell you the truth, but it's a great product. It stacks great with Thermo-Smack"

ME -"Oh, Okay".I already knew what was going on, but I figured I'd try one more time. I pointed at the label of the product I was looking at to get his attention away from the green bottle he had in his hand.

ME - "I've heard this product contains a lot of MCT's, is that true".

HIM - "Yeah, I think that's why the stuff tastes so great. I use it after my workouts, and I use Thermo-Smack before my workouts, I'm telling you this stuff is amazing, I'm totally stronger whenever I use it".

By now you are probably wondering why this guy was trying so hard to push Thermo-Smack on me, especially when I'm obviously interested in a different product.The answer is another one of the supplement industries dirty little secrets.

During new product launches, supplement companies often offer something called promotional money (PM for short).If a salesclerk sells a bottle of the product with the PM, he gets a commission direct from the supplement company. Sometimes, these commissions can be big money -I've seen them as high as fifteen dollars.

Considering that most people don't make 15 dollars an hour working in supplement shops, this is a great way for the supplement companies to get the employees to really push their products.In a good store with a lot of traffic, you could easily pull in an extra 200 dollars cash during an eight-hour shift.

Imagine, you might make less than 100 dollars in actual salary, but you could make more than 200 dollars just by pushing the product with the PM on it!And this is where it gets tricky. The sales people are there so you can ask their advice.

Since the advice you are getting from the sales clerk is now biased towards the products offering the biggest PMs how are you ever going to know if they are telling you the truth?When you ask "What's the best product?", or "What product can help me?" you may not be getting an honest answer at all.

What you could be getting is the answer that lines their pocket the most.If you are going to shop for supplements, make sure you've done all the research you need to do before you go to the store, and once you are in the store don't let them talk you into buying something you didn't want or didn't need.

BP

PS- Just for fun, if a supplement store sales person is really pushing a product on you, ask them how much the PM is and see what kind of flustered response you get!

[Taekwondo Guy]

lol, very true...

i havent been in a supplement shop for a long while, i get my whey online and that sorts things out.
I had an old woman working for GNC telling me i was doing too much weight lifting as i had stretch marks, jeesh, just sell me the frikin cream

[lostboyrufio]

lol so true

Me- "where is your cellmass?"
dude behind the counter- "over there, but why would you waste your time when you could be taking cell tech."

[waynaferd]

The manager at the local GNC has always lead me to believe BSN products are the best....

When Xyience first hit the scene he said he didn't have any good opinions from users, so he couldn't really tell me how good they worked.

I asked about NXcare, but he says he always felt he got more from BSN stuff

I asked about Fizogen, he claims to hyped up and expensive.

So either he gets a good commision from BSN, or he really is telling me what he feels is the best products. And he tells me what seems to stack best with what.

Plus he always gives me free samples of whatever, so I think he really likes his job and helping people, or he's gay and likes me :O.

But the other guys that work there or at the other GNC store tell me they use "this or that" with "awesome" results, but they're scrawny as hell or very porky and outa shape, so I don't know what their motovation is.

[UCFKnight85]

Originally Posted by waynaferd

The manager at the local GNC has always lead me to believe BSN products are the best....

When Xyience first hit the scene he said he didn't have any good opinions from users, so he couldn't really tell me how good they worked.

I asked about NXcare, but he says he always felt he got more from BSN stuff

I asked about Fizogen, he claims to hyped up and expensive.

So either he gets a good commision from BSN, or he really is telling me what he feels is the best products. And he tells me what seems to stack best with what.

Plus he always gives me free samples of whatever, so I think he really likes his job and helping people, or he's gay and likes me :O.

But the other guys that work there or at the other GNC store tell me they use "this or that" with "awesome" results, but they're scrawny as hell or very porky and outa shape, so I don't know what their motovation is.

I'd agree too that BSN is better than those brands. A guy at my local GNC is actually very straight with me. He knows online deals are way better so he'll knock off tons of money for me alot. He also doesn't BS me. He'll tell me which products are crap and which work and usually they're in line with what I have researched myself.

However, yes- most vitamin store employees are idiots and/or have a comission agenda for a product that is probably subpar or total crap.