Popcorn Sales

[atrups]

Hi,

 

I come from a small pack that has never had big success with the popcorn sale. Last year was our best year, but only 2 scouts really sold. What are some best practices that other units use to help make the popcorn sale worth doing?

 

Thanks

[infoscouter]

We use individual Scout accounts to provide an incentive for fundraiser participation. Our parents appreciate the fact that their sons can earn part of their camp fees, etc.

 

We also communicate to the parents the benefits to their sons of participating in the fundraiser. The Scouts develop self confidence, demonstrate bravery (its hard for a little kid to approach an adult), hone math skills, even get a little exercise walking around the neighborhood with their buddy or parent.

 

We use prizes and a pie throwing incentive to keep the boys enthused. For every twenty items sold, the Scout earns a ticket he can redeem for a whipped cream pie to throw at any adult leader. Twenty items sold in the first week earns an additional ticket.

 

 

[walk in the woods]

atrups,

 

We are also a small pack in a small community. We have our best results from table sales rather than take order sales. For whatever reason our parents would rather sit outside the local gas station for a few hours than walk around town with their scout. I think it has to do with not needing to do deliveries or deal with handling the money at the end of the sale. That said, we still only get about 50% participation if we're lucky and 2 or 3 scouts make up the bulk of sales. Pareto defined I guess.

[JoeBob]

At the risk of being a pariah, I don't like the popcorn. It just isn't very good.

 

When my son was a Tiger, we went all out and sold a respectable amount of popcorn to friends and family. When the orders arrived, we were dissappointed in the size of the containers. We and our customers were expecting the larger containers sold for similar dollar amounts from other vendors. The taste was poor. Even the stuff you pop yourself was lacking in flavor. (Granted, we only tried the light.) It was so bad that my kids haven't even opened the case of cheese popcorn from two years ago. We've been embarassed to go back to our neighbors to sell them more.

 

We need a product like Girl Scout cookies. They're good. Slightly expensive, but it is a fundraiser. Everybody looks forward to Girl Scout cookies, because they know they'll taste good.

 

Many in our pack feel the same way, so we're actively looking for an alternative. Pasta salad shaped like college teams is what we're looking at now, but it's priced at $7 with half going to the pack. Same size packets of regular pasta in the store sell for $1.50.

 

Has anyone had a good experience with any other products?

 

[Beagle Scout]

Our pack has been very successful increasing our sales the past few years (from $2900 in 2004 to $23K last year with a membership of 34 Scouts). For us, the keys to a great sale are participating in Show and Deliver sales, holding an exciting kickoff, having a Blitz Day with a party and prizes, and offering Scout accounts to families who sell more than $500 in popcorn:

 

1. Our council offers Show and Deliver, and we take full advantage of it. The council allows us to pre-order all the popcorn we expect to sell, and there is no risk because we can return whatever we can't sell (we do not have to return full cases). The Scouts go door-to-door and are able to give customers their popcorn immediately, saving time-consuming return trips. Studies suggest that this form of sales is twice as effective as Show and Sells in front of a store (if you are not in a rural community).

 

2. We cut our regular September pack meeting short and lead right into a kickoff to get everyone excited about the sale. We start with a loud, wild, fun skit by the leaders. Once everyone is all pumped up, we serve popcorn and go over the pack's sales plan, including prizes the pack purchases for the sale and how Scouts can earn money for summer camp. The pack prizes are in addition to the Trail's End prizes awarded after the sale, and we have them on display so the boys can see them and touch them. We make a big deal about each boy coming to Blitz Day and getting a prize.

 

3. The first day of the sale (Saturday) is Blitz Day. Scouts pick up popcorn in the morning and sell for at least two hours sometime during the day. Everyone gets back together in the late afternoon for a pizza party, and everyone reports their Blitz Day sales and turns in the money they have collected so far. In 2007, we had 27 Scouts participate in Blitz Day resulting in one-day sales of $7776. In 2008, we had 23 Scouts participate in Blitz Day resulting in one-day sales of $8021.

 

4. Every Scout that participates in Blitz Day gets a prize ($5-$20 value), with the Scout with the highest sales for the day selecting first, then next highest, and so on. This seems to work well for us, because every Scout wants to come to the party and get a prize, and once they get out and try, they found out how easy it is to sell the popcorn. By the end of the day, most are well on their way to whatever goal they've set for themselves, so there is incentive to keep selling after Blitz Day.

 

5. Scouts and their families set their own goals, but the pack offers $50 toward summer camp for anyone who sells at least $500 in popcorn. The amount the pack contributes toward summer camp goes up for every $250 sold above $500. Last year 17 boys earned $2650 toward summer camp. This way, not only are the Scouts helping the pack go, they are helping themselves, too.

 

Hope you find at least some of this useful!