Chapter 4
Sell Something Everybody Needs
Selling vitamins turned out to be a lot like Rich DeVos’s early experience selling onions and other vegetables his grandfather had left over from the farmer’s market—only more difficult. People needed to eat, but a lot of them didn’t see the need to take nutritional supplements and thought they were a waste of money. Those who did want to buy vitamins could find them in retail outlets. Miles Laboratories’ first vitamin product, the One-A-Day brand, released in 1940, became the first mass-market multivitamin success story.1 It was cheap, too, compared with Nutrilite. A month’s supply of the Nutrilite extra strength formulation could cost up to $20, which was a lot of money at the time.2