The Grand Rapids Public Museum has opened an exhibit of the History of Amway. Founded in Grand Rapids 50 years ago by locals Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel, Amway has today grown to be one of the world's largest and most successful direct selling companies.
"It's this entrepreneurial story about trying and succeeding," said Chris Carron, museum director of education, interpretation and research. "They tried and they failed. They tried and they failed. They were constantly looking for that formula that would succeed. "
Not succeeding in the end was never really an option. That's a great lesson."
The 2,400-square-foot exhibit, titled "Amway: 50 Years of Helping People Live Better Lives," matches the size of the company's first operating space. There are more than 600 artifacts and images on loan from Amway and its founding families. Some of the items, including a bomb shelter and home-weather center, display the product diversity DeVos and Van Andel hawked even within the Amway fold. Other items, like a duct-taped chair and a map of a Caribbean sailing voyage that ended in shipwreck, give insights into the founders' personalities.
The exhibit, to be open for a year in honor of Amway's 50th anniversary, is included with the museum's general admission, which is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors, $3 for ages 3 to 17 and free for ages 2 and younger.
"Everybody who lives in West Michigan knows about Amway. Everybody knows the DeVos name and the Van Andel name because it's on the buildings you go into," Carron said. "But there's a lot of the story that people don't know. It's this sort of metaphorical journey that the two of them were taking together. "It was about friendship, business and risk taking all rolled into one. It'll be a great nostalgia trip for a lot of people coming through."
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