Popcorn

[Troop22]

I received alot of complaints about the quality of the popcorn. Several freinds of mine that bought from my son said it tasted bad but at least the money went to a good cause. I don't feel right selling it with the number of negative comment about the cost and quality.

[hicountry]

The price point is now way too high on the popcorn products (for the most part) and the percieved value is very poor even when one considers it supporting a good cause. Our troop still does a fair job selling but they are getting more and more that don't buy and an increase in comments about price. We are seeing an increase in folks who don't buy but kick the boys $5 or $10 as a doantion to the troop. If you stop and look at a tin and think about a $20 bill the price is crazy, $5 is kind of OK, maybe $10 is a stretch but at $20 bucks a can the asking price is crazy. I hear the pitch about it being to support the BSA and units but at what price do things truely become out of hand....$50 a can, $100 ? I think for many $20 for the can is already way out of wack. At least the stuff used to come in a nice tin which gave the perception of something more, of quality, the bag they sell this year is a complete joke.

 

Case in point about percieved value. In the town I used to live in there was a fundraising company that offered it's services to a number of charitable organizations, you could always tell as they offered the same 3 product choices for your $25 donation, a 4 pack of light bulbs, a 10 pack of trash bags or a pizza. I bought once, the pizza that came was about the size of a pizza hut personal pizza and the quality was the dregs. In the future when I got calls from charitys and these choces came up I told them I wasn't buying but I'd donate $25 to them, the percieved value of the product was so poor I wanted nothing to do with it, BUT I was ok Doanting the same amount. I think popcorn has reached this point for many. In other wors, I was OK giving the charity $25 but if I had any mental connection to the cheap roduct connected to teh $25 I felt totally ripped off.

 

I am surprised no one has discussed the scout trail mix. A few years ago it came in a tin, was $20 and was a mix of common trail mix with raisens, peanuts, M&M's and other stuff. About 2 years ago they switched to a smaller bag, it was quality stuff (No more m&m's, less peanuts.) I told my Popcorn Chair I might buy a couple bags that were left over from the case buy the troop did. When he told me $25 for that little bag I darn near fell over ! It was clear to me someone in BSA popcorn fundraising had become completely clueless how far out of line the price of that trail mix was from reality. Next year we told no one to sell the trail mix as we got a 10 case teh previous year and had to either sell the remaining 5 unsold bags at cost or just use them at camp for snacks. I heard they did away with the trail mix this past fall. My Popcorn chair is a good guy, he told me Council told everyone to sell this stuff as it had no filler !....I asked him if they had gold nuggets in place of the m&m's. I have seen the exact same trail mi at wallmart and Target, cranberries, pecans and such, $6.00 for a bag about 2 and a half times the size of the $25 bag BSA tried to push.

 

One overall effect of this popcorn situation is gradually this damages a piece of BSA's perception in the community and parents. The degrading quality, size and even packaging and the continued price increases on an alreay way overpriced products adds to teh perception of being greedy, out of touch and having some misplaced priorities.

[ScoutNut]

>>"It was clear to me someone in BSA popcorn fundraising had become completely clueless"

[packsaddle]

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