Tips for selling cub scout popcorn???

[MichelleinMaine]

Booth sales are when you sell at Walmart/etc. As others said, the slots may be filled up (though doesn't hurt to ask.) Our WM also matches the $ amount sold. (They do only have a limited amount of funds/year and it was hit or miss whether they'd run out before popcorn season...)

My biggest tip, if you can get permission to have a booth sale somewhere, is to have a straight donation jar as well. It's hard for people to justify $10+ for popcorn. (I know it's also a donation to scouting but it's just not in everyone's budget.) The dollar or change people have on hand to toss in really adds up.

And I really suggest talking to the pack committee about more reasonable field trips/ more reasonably attained goals. WDW from NC is a pretty high standard and like you said will cause hard feelings for those not able to pay the difference. (I'm fighting this battle regularly in our troop committee. Some people just don't take into account how deeply hurting many people are in this economy.)

 

[lovebuzz]

Also, new this year, you can print out a tax deductible form if the want to donate popcorn for the military. It is a form that you can print out at home and give it to them right away.

 

[pudge the fish]

in our town we were told Walmart no longer will allow any sales on property. This includes Sam's
only the people who were signed up to do a sale will be allowed for the next month to do them.
We were told by walmart it was a corporate decision to make their stores nicer italics are my words

When we do donut sales I take DD to the police dept, fire Dept and city hall.
We do pre -orders and I deliver the next day bright and early.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

If you sell at a business, remember to put out a donation can out, too. I think the popcorn is the biggest rip off out there, and won't buy it again. That said, I would toss in $5 for a good cause.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I will be sure to suggest a donation jar, that's a good point about people being willing to throw in a little bit. I will also print out some of the tax deduction forms, we have a pretty decent sized military population in our community so I think that would help our sales and would be good for the boys to remember there are still soldiers overseas.

Indiana Rose Lee, unfortunately I agree with you about it being a rip off, I think that's one of the reasons it's hard for me to get into pushing the boys to sell it. I see the value in them learning to raise the money and donating to BSA, but the frugal side of me can't spend that much for popcorn. Girl Scout cookies on the other hand, I will have a freezer full of, I guess I should've been blessed with 4 girls and 1 boy instead of the other way around .

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

LOL, there is a huge huge difference between girl scout cookies and $2 worth of popcorn in a $15 package! I like the boy scout program, but I got scammed by the preacher's kid! I'm giving up church this month, now that you gave the warning!

 

[mrsklamc]

We were told by walmart it was a corporate decision to make their stores nicer italics are my words

OT rant.
I am so sick of wal-mart trying to be target. They re-did the local one with a more target-like feel and target style merchandise. I suspect that this is another attempt to follow target. You're wal-mart. Stop trying to be target.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Our walmart still has people out nearly every day. You might not want to write off that option.

 

[ceecee]

Our walmart still has people out nearly every day. You might not want to write off that option.

I think what makes it tacky is that they don't care who sells there. The last few weeks there were people with home baked goods (which I would never buy from strangers!) with a sign that said "It's our time" No idea what group or why they were even there, it was adults and not kids. BS and GS I think are totally acceptable. Maybe that Walmart decided to cut down on all of that.
We do get a lot of donations from our GS cookie sale too. $1, 2 or 10 goes a lot further than .50 a box! So we always appreciate those, we also donate boxes for people who want to do that.

 

[Chicago526]

The scouts (boys and girls) always sell outside my local grocery store. Check with the owners but around here most stores allow scouts to sell (as well as other non-profit orgs).

 

[NeverlandClub23]

Oh, also try the local car and RV lots. I worked at an RV dealership as a receptionist for a few years and every time a kid came in selling anything the sales guys would buy it up (and some customers too). Being in sales themselves they always said it wasn't what the kid was selling but that they had the courage to come in and ask in the first place.

 

[3boymthr]

Crazy question. I know you live in a rural area, but do you live anywhere near a major football stadium (like within a 1 hr drive). My cousin raised $2,500 in the hours before a game started by hitting up the people who were tail-gating in just one parking lot at Gillette (they have 40 parking lots). Since will have the popcorn available for them to take with home you could seriously sell it all in a couple of hours. Drunk people are generous .

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

I love their popcorn. To me it tastes better than the other brands of microwave popcorn. Unfortunately I haven't had any cub scouts come to my door this year. I didn't realize it was that time already.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

Popcorn Kernel for our Troop here.

Sounds like you have a lot of great advice. The only thing I would suggest, is make sure your boys are in uniform, with shirt tucked in, neckerchief on, no major wrinkles, etc.

People are a sucker for uniforms.

I really like your ability to have the product and sell it immediately. We do pre-orders and it can be a pain in the fanny. It took me hours last year to get the orders sorted and then 4 more hours the next day to get the boys to come pick them up.

 

[tink_lover]

My Girl Scout set up a table at a local car wash - with permission of course. She and one other girl sold out of their cookies in about an hour.

 

[rumrunnergirl]

.

 

[gasperdam]

Sounds like maybe they should choose a less expensive trip to work towards!

That's not really fair, I would guess that almost ALL cub scouts are REQUIRED to sell popcorn. I know 2 of my sons are cub scouts and they have to sell popcorn every year. Its manadatory for them, and it's their big fundraiser of the year. And they DON'T go on any expensive trips, they go camping in the area, last year they went to a local Iron Pigs baseball game and the year before they went to a museum in Philadelphia.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I won't let my kids sell Door to Door so what I did was give popcorn as gifts one year to everyone I needed to get gifts for including the kids teachers.

The next year most of those people bought popcorn from DS because they liked it so I was able to meet his sales goals. Luckily. Because I sure wasn't buying all that for myself. LOL

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

That's not really fair, I would guess that almost ALL cub scouts are REQUIRED to sell popcorn. I know 2 of my sons are cub scouts and they have to sell popcorn every year. Its manadatory for them, and it's their big fundraiser of the year. And they DON'T go on any expensive trips, they go camping in the area, last year they went to a local Iron Pigs baseball game and the year before they went to a museum in Philadelphia.

I think that they were talking about a trip, to wdw. That is expensive.

 

[TaraPA]

That's not really fair, I would guess that almost ALL cub scouts are REQUIRED to sell popcorn. I know 2 of my sons are cub scouts and they have to sell popcorn every year. Its manadatory for them, and it's their big fundraiser of the year. And they DON'T go on any expensive trips, they go camping in the area, last year they went to a local Iron Pigs baseball game and the year before they went to a museum in Philadelphia.

Are you kidding me? The OP clearly stated they were trying to raise funds through the popcorn sale for WDW! They OP said Ft Wilderness, park tickets and transportation! I'm all for camping trips, local trips, etc. but I don't think anyone, Cub Scouts or any other group, should expect to go to WDW for a group trip & have others pay for it by buying things through a fundraiser!