The Trouble With Avon

The trouble with Avon LLC starts in their tagline which is as misleading as it comes, ‘A company for women’. If it reflected truth, it would read, ‘A company for women ran by men’ because if you go to their distribution center, you’ll discover almost every area supervisor is a male, while every floor leader beneath them is female. This even when the women often have been there far longer.

Recently, there was a big ado on the financial markets about Avon possibly recovering from near bankruptcy. Yeah, don’t count on it. Because activity in their distribution center tells a different story. Here are some points to consider:

*They closed their distribution center in California in 2018. That leaves only one for the whole country, located in Ohio.

*That distribution center doesn’t field enough orders to keep its single shift working 40 hours a week this time of year. Many employees are encouraged to take unpaid time off.

*Holiday sale results meant that many promotional items, like their ‘A’ boxes, had to be broken down and used as excess.

*Tech and equipment is dated. There are constant jams and breakdowns. Many functions aren’t automated (in the current sense).

*They rely on temp workers for much of their employee base but have trouble attracting workers since the pay was until recently, under $10 an hour. Currently, it is at $11 which is still not a livable wage. At some point, if they want to stay competitive, they’ll have to really raise them.

So if you want to rely on Avon, you do so at your own peril. The health of a company can often be judged by its own internal infrastructure. And even though it imports many goods from places like China, Avon here in the States doesn’t rate too well.