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Ara Wilson
The Empire of Direct Sales and the Making of Thai Entrepreneurs

The Empire of Direct Sales and the Making of Thai Entrepreneurs
Ara Wilson
The Ohio State University
Abstract n This article offers an ethnographic investigation of contemporary capitalist discourses about entrepreneurship by exploring the expanse of the direct sales industry into Thailand. Direct selling is a century-old merchandising approach that developed in the United States as an ‘alternative’ form of capitalism. Since the 1980s, the direct sales approach of Amway, Avon, and other firms
has become increasingly globalized and has achieved some success in Thailand.This article demonstrates the implication of local meanings and social hierarchiesfor the translation of entrepreneurial rhetoric into Thai contexts throughthe case studies of two direct sales distributors in Bangkok. This ethnographicexploration of the production and reception of discourses about entrepreneurialself-help offers a cardinal illustration of the cultural processes of post-Fordist
capitalism.
Keywords n direct sales n entrepreneur n ethnography of capitalism n post-
Fordism n Thailand
What will take the place of the communist state, the socialist state, and the
welfare state? The spectacular growth of global entrepreneurship, epitomized
by Amway, points us to an answer. (Robinson, 1997: 104–5)
Following the onset of the Asian economic crisis which began in Thailand
in July 1997, discourses about economic strategies for individual and
national development have become ever more prominent. Early into the
crisis, the business pages of the Bangkok Post ran an article that pointed to
the possibilities of selling Avon, Amway or other direct sales brands. ‘In a
sluggish economy,’ the article proposed, ‘non-store retailing could have its
attractions as workers look to extra jobs to keep their income steady’ (Apisit,
1997). Six months into the downturn, direct sales had become more
urgently relevant, according to another article: ‘I have applied to be an
Avon sales representative because I’m going to lose my job at a finance
company next month,’ it quoted one woman as saying (Sukanya, 1998).
Among the self-help recourses available to the ranks of hard-pressed Thais
is direct sales, a hundred-year-old American ‘non-store retailing’ approach
that is being revitalized as its products, format and discourse spread around
the world.
Of course, with currencies drastically devalued and unemployment on
Article
Vol 19(4) 401–422 [0308-275X(199912)19:4; 401–422;010640]
Copyright 1999 © SAGE Publications
(London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
Downloaded from https://coa.sagepub.com at University of the West of Scotland on November 27, 2009
the rise, most Thais began cutting back on purchases in general (including
education tuition), and imported or luxury goods in particular. Thus direct
sales distributors and their companies have faced soberingly low rates of
sales and profit (e.g. Krungthepturakij, 1998 [BE2541]). Indeed, direct sales
firms in Thailand responded to the slack in consumer demand with tactics
designed to stimulate purchases, for example, injecting novel products into
their catalogue. Avon dispatched personnel from Brazil and Mexico –
markets seasoned in economic crises – to advise staff in Thailand on how
to weather the downturn (Sukanya, 1998). Tellingly