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Cutco

American direct sales company

Cutco

American direct sales company

FieldValue
logoCutco Logo.svg
logo_size200px
nameCutco Corporation
former_nameAlcas Corporation
typePrivate
foundation
locationOlean, New York, United States
industryKitchen accessories
productsCutlery
Kitchen knives
Pocket knives
Garden tools
Scissors
homepage

Kitchen knives Pocket knives Garden tools Scissors Cutco Corporation, known prior to 2009 as Alcas Corporation, is an American company that sells cutlery, predominantly through multi-level marketing. It is the parent company of CUTCO Cutlery Corp., Vector Marketing, Ka-Bar Knives, and Schilling Forge. The company was founded in 1949 by Alcoa and Case Cutlery (hence "Al-cas") to manufacture stainless steel knives for Alcoa's WearEver Cookware division. Alcoa purchased Case's share in the company in 1972, and Alcas became a separate private company in 1982 after a management buyout. In 1985, the company acquired Vector Marketing Corporation.

The company has been the subject of criticism and lawsuits for its business practices, and has been accused of being a multi-level marketing company. The Los Angeles Times claims that Vector meets the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) definition of a multi-level marketing company which is "businesses that involve selling products to family and friends and recruiting other people to do the same" because they sell their product through person-to-person sales. Salespeople are generally young and recruited from high school or college. Students are hired to sell Cutco products (mainly kitchen knives) to customers, starting with their friends and family. Vector's recruitment tactics have been described as deceptive, and they have faced numerous lawsuits over their pay structure and treatment of its salespeople, who are mostly independent contractors instead of employees. Vector claims they are a single-level direct selling marketing company, not a multi-level marketing company or a pyramid scheme as its detractors claim.

Products

Cutco is a brand of cutlery and kitchen accessories directly marketed to customers through in-home demonstrations by independent sales representatives who are mostly college students. More than 100 kitchen cutlery products are sold under the Cutco name, as well as a variety of kitchen utensils, cookware, sporting, and outdoor knives.

Although the products are not typically purchased in retail stores, Cutco has opened six of its own retail stores: Indianapolis, Indiana; Okemos, Michigan; St. Louis, Missouri; Novi, Michigan; Edina, Minnesota; and Erie, Pennsylvania. All of the company's knives and most of their other products are produced in Olean, New York, while other products are made in Mexico and China.

Vector Marketing

A few Cutco knives and a pair of super shears

Main article: Vector Marketing

Vector Marketing is Cutco's direct selling subsidiary that builds its sales force through advertising via newspapers, direct marketing, word-of-mouth, posted advertisements, letters, and various media on the internet. The company has been the subject of criticism and lawsuits for its deceptive recruiting and business practices, and has been accused of being a multi-level marketing company. Their fliers advertising "student work" are distributed in many high schools and college campuses across the United States and Canada. Students are hired to sell Cutco products (mainly kitchen knives) to customers, starting with their friends and family, then branching out through recommendations, all through one-on-one demonstrations. Vector Marketing is also listed on the state of Hawaii’s “State Authorized Multi-Level Marketing Agreements” registry, which records companies that have entered into a tax collection agreement with the Hawaii Department of Taxation for MLM-related activity. While Vector required a deposit on the sample kit representatives were issued in the past, this was changed in 2011, and deposits are no longer required from representatives.

References

References

  1. Shaw, Jeff. (2008-12-08). "Alcas changing its name to CUTCO". Olean Times Herald.
  2. (March 2024). "CUTCO Cutlery: History".
  3. [http://www.cutco.com/compan/history.jsp Cutco Company History]{{Dead link. (March 2024)
  4. Lazarus, David. (June 23, 2020). "Beware of this 'important opportunity' for job-seeking students". [[Los Angeles Times]].
  5. Chu, Kathy. "College students learn from job of hard knocks: Door-to-door sales draw thousands every summer". [[USA Today]].
  6. Davis, Jana. "What is 'Work For Students' anyway?".
  7. Schouten, Cory. (2011-03-28). "Roundup: Cutco, Marshalls, Performance Bicycle, Sensu". [[Indianapolis Business Journal]].
  8. [http://www.cutco.com/company/made-in-america.jsp Made in America], Cutco.com
  9. (September 6, 2013). "Did I Participate In A Pyramid Scheme?". [[Popular Science]].
  10. Kellman, Beth Robinson. (April 2, 2010). "Better Business Bureau offers advice on multilevel marketing". [[The Oakland Press]].
  11. Deal, A. Matthew. (September 26, 2006). "High wages for student work – but beware". The Carolinian.
  12. Gunn, Eileen. (August 5, 2008). "Summer Job: Nice Pay, if You Can Cut It". [[The Wall Street Journal]].
  13. "State Authorized Multi-Level Marketing Agreements".
  14. [http://www.cbc.ca/streetcents/archives/guide/2001/10/s02_01.html Episode 10]. [[Street Cents]], January 14, 2002
  15. "Blue-Eyed Devil: Don't get scammed looking for work while in college". lsureveille.com.
  16. Lucchesi, Nick. (February 4, 2004). "Vector Marketing targets unaware college students". The Journal.
  17. da Costa, Polyana. (August 21, 2004). "Firm misled sales recruits to sell knives, students say". [[Statesman Journal.
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

kitchen-knife-brands retail-companies-established-in-1949 companies-based-in-cattaraugus-county,-new-york multi-level-marketing-companies 1949-establishments-in-new-york-(state) knife-manufacturing-companies olean,-new-york
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