Alyssa and John: Lunch with Lurch

[RebeccatheWriter]

Please forgive, as I am going through some personal stuff right now. I just watched the Webster vlog. They are selling hats, right? Just hats? Why is Alyssa acting like she has a cure for cancer? It's a freaking hat! It's not even a cute hat. She's talking about her whole life has been leading to this moment and it's a hat.

I missed something, right? Tell me I missed the point of this because Alyssa is doing a hard sale on a freaking hat. 

[BitterApple]

57 minutes ago, RebeccatheWriter said:

Please forgive, as I am going through some personal stuff right now. I just watched the Webster vlog. They are selling hats, right? Just hats? Why is Alyssa acting like she has a cure for cancer? It's a freaking hat! It's not even a cute hat. She's talking about her whole life has been leading to this moment and it's a hat.

I missed something, right? Tell me I missed the point of this because Alyssa is doing a hard sale on a freaking hat. 

The worst was the comment section, telling her she should invest in all this fancy printing and labeling equipment. Um, I don't think she's going to need any of that. The business isn't going to last long. 

 

[65mickey]

In the youtube video she is unpacking hats. She must have ordered a thousand. She said that she has been working on this for a long time.  I cannot imagine how much money they are going to lose on this. On the other hand maybe i'm wrong and they will be wildly popular. 

[Salacious Kitty]

The comments on her YT are, by and large, negative. 

[ranchgirl]

Quick, hurry and run ... there is a 10% sale on the merch (hats) for 24  hours.  

[BitterApple]

3 minutes ago, ranchgirl said:

Quick, hurry and run ... there is a 10% sale on the merch (hats) for 24  hours.  

I just saw that on Instagram, lol.

I honestly feel bad for Alyssa at this point. UnCheerfullyU is only a week old and she already needs to have a sale? Her latest post with Rhett only has 96 likes and no comments, despite being up for four hours. 

I don't know if she fell into the trap of thinking her following was more loyal or what, but this was a really bad idea from jump. She might as well donate the hats to Goodwill and write off the loss. 

[GeeGolly]

I'm a bit confused, is there more to CheerfullyU than hats? 

[BitterApple]

37 minutes ago, GeeGolly said:

I'm a bit confused, is there more to CheerfullyU than hats? 

No, it's one style of hat, available in three sizes. 

[ginger90]

59 minutes ago, GeeGolly said:

I'm a bit confused, is there more to CheerfullyU than hats? 

As far as product, no. You can read a bunch of blah, blah, blah on the website though!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FizzyPuff]

On 8/24/2024 at 1:55 AM, BitterApple said:

No, it's one style of hat, available in three sizes. 

They couldn’t have made some T-shirts as well. Or I don’t know ask their audience what sort of things they would buy. 

[Notabug]

23 minutes ago, FizzyPuff said:

They couldn’t have made some T-shirts as well. Or I don’t know ask their audience what sort of things they would buy. 

Of course they could've. Or key chains or bible covers or beer koozies.  I suspect that the hats were the cheapest option and they bought the minimum number to get them at a discount.

For all their talk about how entrepreneurial they are, most fundies seem to lack business sense.  They seem to fall for all sorts of MLM and other marketing schemes regularly.

[RebeccatheWriter]

47 minutes ago, Notabug said:

Of course they could've. Or key chains or bible covers or beer koozies.  I suspect that the hats were the cheapest option and they bought the minimum number to get them at a discount.

For all their talk about how entrepreneurial they are, most fundies seem to lack business sense.  They seem to fall for all sorts of MLM and other marketing schemes regularly.

They have the typical build it (buy it) and they will come mentality. On Reddit and other places there are people who compliment Carlin for coming up with the idea of BSB. They repeat the tongue-in-cheek phrasing of Gil describing Alyssa as someone who (as a teen) would do your taxes and design a logo for you. 

Yay they figured out how to create an online store selling cheap and fast "fashion" in the form of dresses, tops, and now Alyssa with the hats. Carlin didn't exactly break the glass ceiling with her idea to do what others were doing with the benefit of a show advertising for you. They break many business rules by buying too late in the season and clearly buying too much (their in-person sales are ridiculously overstocked). She and Whitney have hired someone to manage the store but have made no known efforts to learn anything themselves. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen when someday they hire someone who decides to steal from them. They are relying on their followers at this point and creating their marketing (photos, videos, and social media) weeks after grown-up retailers have already pushed theirs out. They did a preview of fall drop three weeks ago on their Instagram and were still promoting sleeveless flower dresses as of four weeks ago. Last Valentine's they started promoting dresses for Valentine's day FOUR days before the holiday. Shipping takes longer than that. 

Alyssa has focused on one item in a variety of sizes, but her marketing only targets men. Her audience is female. She admits that she doesn't even like wearing what she is selling. Her setup is ridiculous with replacing the toys in the cabinets with various sizes of hats. So if she makes a sale, does she have to open the cabinets to get the items and box them on the ground? Her girls are doing "school" on the first floor and she's now making it so she has to leave them and haul herself upstairs to do the hat stuff. Even if she traipses downstairs to box and ship, she's got a toddler to deal with and four children who she needs to be supervising. I would have thought it would make sense to buy a cabinet to put in the dining room and use the table as a shipping station. I certainly hope John runs out and ships them for her since she'd have to lug five kids to the UPS store, USPS, etc. The hats are more of a giveaway that you would ship when someone bought $50 or $100 of merch from you. 

 

[Salacious Kitty]

Someone, somewhere (I forget where I saw it) figured out that Alyssa bought 600 hats, divided among the 3 sizes. As of there writing, she had only sold a small handful. Like 9 children's and a few more toddler's. Something like 30 adult's. No wonder she already had a flash sale (24 hours). I wonder how that went, getting $2-3 off. 🙄

[AstridM]

26 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

Someone, somewhere (I forget where I saw it) figured out that Alyssa bought 600 hats, divided among the 3 sizes. As of there writing, she had only sold a small handful. Like 9 children's and a few more toddler's. Something like 30 adult's. No wonder she already had a flash sale (24 hours). I wonder how that went, getting $2-3 off. 🙄

Someone on Reddit added all the stock to their shopping cart when she launched, and now they can see how many have been sold, yep! 😆

[Salacious Kitty]

1 minute ago, AstridM said:

Someone on Reddit added all the stock to their shopping cart when she launched, and now they can see how many have been sold, yep! 😆

Ah, that's where I saw it! Thanks. 

[GeeGolly]

Maybe its just me, but shouldn't hats and such come after a rollout of whatever the business plan is?

Like there weren't any John Deere hats before there were John Deere tractors. Cheerfully U means nothing to me. Actually the U makes me think of university.

Even C&E called themselves the Stew Crew for a few years prior to selling their "merch".

[AstridM]

2 minutes ago, GeeGolly said:

Maybe its just me, but shouldn't hats and such come after a rollout of whatever the business plan is?

Like there weren't any John Deere hats before there were John Deere tractors. Cheerfully U means nothing to me. Actually the U makes me think of university.

Even C&E called themselves the Stew Crew for a few years prior to selling their "merch".

Right? Weren’t trucker hats a “thing” like 15+ years ago? 🤣

[RebeccatheWriter]

4 hours ago, AstridM said:

Right? Weren’t trucker hats a “thing” like 15+ years ago? 🤣

According to my annoying and "fashion diva" co-worker, they still are. She also refers to Youtube as new. 

[BitterApple]

The Redditer figured out Alyssa sold 66 out of the 600 hats, but I wonder how many orders that translated to? If people were purchasing say, an adult and a couple of kids hats per transaction, the numbers could be even more dismal. 

 

[GeeGolly]

A quick Google search reveals wholesale orders of custom caps run anywhere from $.01 to around $10.00 per cap.

How much is Alyssa charging?

[Salacious Kitty]

Oh, I didn't take into account a couple hats on one order. She could really have like 30 total sales. 

1 minute ago, GeeGolly said:

A quick Google search reveals wholesale orders of custom caps run anywhere from $.01 to around $10.00 per cap.

How much is Alyssa charging?

$30 for the adult. I forget the kids' pricing, but around $20ish. 

[Salacious Kitty]

Alyssa and John are quitting the vlogging, at least for a while. They claim it's to protect the kids. 

[Notabug]

1 hour ago, Salacious Kitty said:

Alyssa and John are quitting the vlogging, at least for a while. They claim it's to protect the kids. 

More likely, it isn't very profitable and it takes so much time to delete the negative comments.

[BitterApple]

2 minutes ago, Notabug said:

More likely, it isn't very profitable and it takes so much time to delete the negative comments.

I haven't seen the video yet, but that was my first thought upon reading the comment.

Alyssa's numbers have been tanking for a while and she never has any sponsorships. She also outsources the editing, which comes off her bottom line. It may no longer be worth the effort. Also, like you said, negative comments have been increasing with regards to how poorly she treats Allie. 

[Salacious Kitty]

How will they sell those god awful hats now? They weren't the success they anticipated when they ordered like 600 initially. 

[floridamom]

Sadly, I noticed how poorly Allie was treated in their Christmas "opening presents" video. That poor girl was sitting on the couch waiting to be filmed opening HER gifts. Alyssa was too busy filming Rhett who was actually doing nothing. My heart goes out to that little girl.

[ranchgirl]

I'm so glad they are stopping the weekly filming.  I didn't like that they blamed some of their viewership for saying bad things about their kids as the reason.  They should have just said they thought about it and since the girls are getting older, they have decided to pause the filming.  That's all they needed to say.  Also, interesting that Alyssa said that Allie was about to go through the awkward teenage years ... yet that is where Alyssa was when the Bates started their reality show.  Hmmmm.  

The Webster's are very butt hurt that their new business didn't take off and not only did they not sell hats, but they were ridiculed by the general audience.  This probably influenced their decision to not share their kids anymore too.  

 

[BitterApple]

Alyssa has always been contemptuous towards her fans, which is why her Influencer career stagnated while her sisters are rolling in dough. 

She's just flat out awful at p.r. All she had to do was say "We're taking a step back to focus on our family." Short, sweet and understandable. Instead she blames her fans, scapegoats Allie and takes zero accountability for her own failings. Also notable that she and John addressed things they're often criticized for: John's disinterest in the girls and the lack of fun/joy in the family. It comes across like they're the ones who can't handle the negative feedback, and they made Allie the sacrificial lamb. 

 

Edited January 4 by BitterApple

[Salacious Kitty]

Yeah, they claim that Allie reads the comments. HOW? Does she really have that much access to the Internet at 9 years old? 

And no one shames Allie. The comments shame John and Alyssa for their treatment of her. 

[ozziemom]

Just another example of how Alyssa blames Allie for all that is wrong in Alyssa’s world. I have an aunt who always treated my cousin, her son, badly cos he was born 10 months after the wedding. Maybe that is Alyssa’s problem with Allie. As my aunt used to say, I never got time to just be meeeeee.

[BetyBee]

18 minutes ago, Heathen said:

Then Alyssa should have used birth control. If the bitch can separate herself from the cult enough to wear pants and sleeveless shirts, she can separate herself enough to use birth control. Alyssa is trash and so is John. 

This hits close to home. My father says I "ruined his life because I was born." Apparently birth control was illegal then. 

My 74 yo SIL RECENTLY told my husband he ruined a happy family by being born. Newsflash - their parents were never happy. His sister is always asking why we don't get together more. Gee, I wonder! @Heathen- I'm sorry your father said such a terrible thing to his innocent child. That's just wrong.

I think Alyssa has a lot of issues and marrying John didn't help. Poor Allie!

[floridamom]

I watched this video of them signing off "for now". I got the impression that Alyssa blamed insulting/put down comments towards her children as the main reason. I don't know of viewers putting her children down...what I have seen are comments putting HER down for her poor treatment of Allie. It's obvious even to me that Alyssa does not "like" Allie the best. Alyssa needs to re-evaluate her own behavior. 

[RebeccatheWriter]

1 hour ago, floridamom said:

I watched this video of them signing off "for now". I got the impression that Alyssa blamed insulting/put down comments towards her children as the main reason. I don't know of viewers putting her children down...what I have seen are comments putting HER down for her poor treatment of Allie. It's obvious even to me that Alyssa does not "like" Allie the best. Alyssa needs to re-evaluate her own behavior. 

I don't know that Allie actually saw any comments or if Alyssa is just projecting. However, yes there have been comments that are derogatory toward the kids. People on social media tend to diagnose everything from learning disabilities to physical and mental issues without context or actual knowledge. These are people who view depression (as an example) as a personal failure and the result of a lack of faith or bad relationship with God. Even a comment meant with good intentions such as, "Alyssa should treat Allie better because the girl looks depressed," might trigger an internal struggle for someone being raised in that sort of household. Allie could in turn view that as people think she is to blame. While on the outside we know that is not true, a person in isolation such as that and with parents who are toxically religious is going to look internally rather than externally for the blame.

 It comes down to Alyssa and John needed to have put down rules and expectations for their social media interactions and content from the start. If you accept the comments people make that question your child's intelligence, looks, demeanor, health, etc., then you have to be ready to protect your child. For example, Alyssa posted video Q&A's with the girls that included the infamous comment from Allie that she didn't like homeschooling. Alyssa follows that up a year or so later with a video about curriculum and reveals that Allie is struggling academically so they changed curriculum. People tend to be ignorant and insensitive so there was a string of messages that questioned and doubted Allie's ability to learn and said that she was not doing well because of her inability rather than Alyssa's lacking. Alyssa could have nipped that in the bud by changing her own language. Rather than call out Allie's failures, Alyssa could have said they like Abeka for the fundamentals but wanted to give the girls more options as they grew. She could have said with the co-op that they saw children thriving with this other curriculum so they wanted to try it with Allie and Lexie. Instead she put all the blame on Allie's struggles on Allie. Unfortunately for Allie she is growing up in a family and culture where abuse victims are blamed for tempting their abuser and independence is equated with obedience when not being watched. Her grandfather (Webster) is a key figure shaping the priorities of the family and beliefs. He's big on homeschooling and unless John and Alyssa were to both go rogue, Allie's not going to get away from homeschooling. 

The majority of the negative comments are directed at Alyssa and John. However, these two aren't smart people. Telling them that they treat Allie badly is essentially telling them that Allie is bad at keeping it sweet and other such things that these people value. Expecting them to understand the nuances of cognitive development and perception of a 10 year old girl is asking a bit much from a woman who thought her family had a "mid-evil" Valentine's Day party.  I feel bad for the kids. They deserve better. 

[BitterApple]

It's sad because I think Allie is incredibly bright but how do you learn with no hands-on instruction? No teacher to give little tips or tricks, or explain things in an alternate way? No extra help for students who may be struggling. Alyssa is not qualified to homeschool, and even worse she's totally disinterested. 

FWIW, I don't think privacy and the kids' well being really factored into this decision at all. You can't convince me that if Alyssa was pulling big money like Katie and Carlin that she'd walk away. They quit because the mask slipped. They're not good enough actors to convince everyone they're a happy family and the children are equally loved. 

[satrunrose]

5 hours ago, BitterApple said:

It's sad because I think Allie is incredibly bright but how do you learn with no hands-on instruction? No teacher to give little tips or tricks, or explain things in an alternate way? No extra help for students who may be struggling. Alyssa is not qualified to homeschool, and even worse she's totally disinterested. 

 

Agreed. I was on-line teaching during the pandemic and it was a hard go with fully trained teachers who knew the content and had 7 months getting to know the kids as learners before we went on-line. Most kids are really ill-served by computer-only (or workbook only) instruction and the younger the kid, the worse it gets.