Basementdweller Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 It says I don't have at least 10 characters in this post! My pack is in West Phoenix. Not a bad part of town, per se, but students qualify for free and reduced lunches at about 85-95% at our schools. We've had to fight the packs from the more affluent parts of time from taking all of our sales times at our local Fry's grocery store. The council arranges with the grocery store corporate office to have the store fronts available to pack and troops on certain weekends. Then council has units sign up for all the time slots thru them. Which means every fall I'm waiting and watching until the store sign ups start so I hopefully can snag some store time for my cubs at the store that is RIGHT THERE by where we meet across the street. We got like friday night, saturday and sunday morning so like 9 hours total, and all the other time slots for the two weekends were snagged by units that are 10+miles away. They've learned that our store is good with donations, sales are not all that good, but used to be we'd get $600 a weekend in donations money just having a cubscout sitting there asking everyone to buy popcorn and a small donations can sitting on the table. Used to be also that you could reserve a store based on how close your pack meets to the store, and how many cubs you have--which at least guaranteed we'd have some time at "our" store. The packs from the wealthier areas have more scouts and they could use more places to sell at, but they also charge more, have more $ in the bank, and it hurts if they are taking away the money we need to actually provide scouting to our boys rather than money to send leaders to wood badge. know what I mean? Without those popcorn sales times at Fry's, we've really struggled. We have a couple of gas stations, a couple of churches, dentist office, pediatrician's office, no big stores except ones where corporate has decide that if they open it up to cubs they'll have to let every non-profit have time in front of their store so they don't let anyone do it. There just aren't any other types of businesses to sell at. Finding other fundraisers to do instead of popcorn is a good idea, but again, if you don't have a place to sell those things, your sales will suck. door to door sales you have to have a really kick butt product. Painting house numbers on the curb I've seen do well in new neighborhoods or very old neighborhoods. christmas tree hauling away would work if you have access to vehicles and a place to dispose of them. My boy's troop sells flag subscriptions to make a LOT of $. But again, it's in a nicer area, more people with disposable income to spend $50 a year to have a flag put up at the home or business 8 holidays a year. and you hve to have a place to store the flags and vehicles to deliver them. We are still looking for that perfect fundraiser. Right now we are trying to sell enough popcorn to get uniform shirts for 4 cubbies that need them(probably used on ebay but still parents can't afford it so you gotta do it). Then the next goal is enough to pay for $2 per boy for awards every month for the rest of the year. then we'll see if there is any to help offset the cost of daycamp. So far we haven't met goal #1 yet. I returned my popcorn last Saturday. One of the ladies from the wealthy side of town was all up in arms because she was waiting in line and she needed popcorn for her Packs 5 store front sales. Why are you even bothering to sell popcorn you can pay for your program out of pocket. I should have said something, but I couldn't think of something that wasn't gonna start a fight. 5 cubs sorry to hear your struggling as well, but it is good to know I am not alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basementdweller Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 Stop and robs are about it. Habibs corner grocery.....a few united dairy Farmers....a walgreens with a CVS directly a crossed the street and a few pizza take out places and that it. A few Somali and Latino grocery and a number of dive barsThe smaller grocery stores have been converted to ethnic stores..... The Kroger was a day care center for a little while, The Ames has sat empty for 10 years now, The Big Bear Harts has been empty for more than 10. No idea why. I forgot we do have a hand full of used furniture and appliance stores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basementdweller Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 Kroger prides itself on being part of the community. Even though "your" Kroger is shuttered, they may let you use the commercial kitchen in the deli department The Kroger was gutted and a day care center.....I doubt the deli is still their intacted. I have researched the certificate and it is servsafe. my next step is to get with the CO's board and see about getting the kitchen upgraded.... I really like the idea of pulled pork sandwiches and smoked bake beans. 5 bucks a sandwich I can see making a bunch of money especially with it prepared on site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Ding Dong Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Kroger prides itself on being part of the community. Even though "your" Kroger is shuttered, they may let you use the commercial kitchen in the deli department I have mentioned this before because I want to do it with my son. I like the idea of the boys delivering butts, ribs or brisket to Sunday Football parties. Create an order menu and promote it to the guys with the big plasmas on the other side of the beltway. Butts wrapped in towels and in a cooler stay hot for hours. Selling sandwiches is good but think big. How about when you get that license you work on catering some corporate lunches or picnics. Better yet offer to cater some B&Gs for the rich white guys. You have a whole crew to do all the cleanup and serving. Got any car dealers around that want a promotion for their customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basementdweller Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 Kroger prides itself on being part of the community. Even though "your" Kroger is shuttered, they may let you use the commercial kitchen in the deli department I have no interest in becoming a cater. I just want to raise some money so my boys can go to summer camp, shirts when they out grow theirs and pay for camping. The entire year is $500 per boy including boys life and recharter. If I could raise $15,000 per year my program would be completely covered with nothing out of pocket for the boys. I have no interest in paying for white water rafting trips, funding Philmont or Northern tier trips. My units needs are more basic. I can see them tending the pit and becoming pitmasters. I don't want it to become a full time job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeverAnEagle Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Territory and turf, total BS. We have some McMansions in our "turf" but also a lot of apartment complexes. Popcorn does not sell there at all. Why are you selling popcorn at all ? Sell pizzas or something else people can actually use. Families are going to but frozen pizza anyway, why not pay a little more for some and help out a good cause. $20 for a small bag of Carmel popcorn is a luxury. Can you find a way to put that $4k BBQ to work ?BD: We don't charge for tree removal; its by donation. Some folks only give us $5 to haul away their tree, others have given $30. The average is about $10/tree. One apartment of young kids (18 to 20'ish) paid the boys with a bag of Hershey Kisses; I think that was their favorite house that year. LOL As I mentioned before, we do radio spots so people call in and schedule a day for pick-up, but as we are driving out if they boys spot any tree in a yard, ect. we stop and send a boy to the door to let them know we are removing trees for a donation. That's actually how we make the most money, just sending a kid to the door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeverAnEagle Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 The blog post that hasn't gotten any traction so far this month: http://scout-wire.org/2013/10/04/chiefs-corner-taking-scouting-to-the-inner-city/ On the other hand, all those reckless untucked scouters are catching heat for their slovenly ways. #firstworldprobelms (Yes I know this site doesn't do hashtags, but if does in the future, I'll be ready!) BD: Have your boys do radio spots before Scouting for Food and announce that you will also be collecting old BS uniforms to be given to boys who can't afford a uniform. We collect several uniforms that way every year, all of which go into the uniform closet. Sometimes we get really old stuff (a lot from the 1960's/1970's) and once got a uniform from the 1930's. We put the older uniforms in display cases in the Scout Room so the boys can see how the uniforms have changed over the decades. One of my boys scored a pair of Knee High socks that must have been from the 1980's that he insisted on wearing with his scout shorts all summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeBob Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 BD, we don't always agree but vent on brother. My situation isn't inner city but rural town. Getting access to the big stores in the surrounding communities has been tough. That said, we did get access to a Wal-Mart and Jewel one year and the sales were terrible. We do better at the little gas station in our community than we ever did at the big store. Best part is we get some suburbanite tourist money when they head through town to spend the weekend in the country but need to stop for gas and beer.We used a Coffee can for donations. Label it "Pack 550 DONATIONS" so that 'Donations' is easily readable. Half our money came from folks who didn't want a $20 bag of popcorn but were very happy to give $5 to $10 to Cub Scouts. BTW: 100% of donations stay with your unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berliner Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Pure Socialism...that's what that is... Honestly, if you're making 23k, it's not going to be that hard to maintain even if you have competition. Let the little guy have some of the largesse...another case of adult scouters giving Scout Spirit a bad name...Good luck on your fight Base... I disagree. Socialism is something completely different and seems to be a political play from a different debate and maybe we should start a different thread on it. "A Joey cares a Joey shares" Joeys = Australian Tigercubs If some Troops make more than 17 times as much as another (1700%), whats wrong with being a bit christian and giving 10% or so? If some Troops in Beverly Hills or Fischer Island have it so easy, why cant they share with those who have less? Scouts do "Scouting for Food" to help others less Fortunate, but shouldnt help start at home? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckfoot Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Pure Socialism...that's what that is... Honestly, if you're making 23k, it's not going to be that hard to maintain even if you have competition. Let the little guy have some of the largesse...another case of adult scouters giving Scout Spirit a bad name...Good luck on your fight Base... How is individual effort for the collective good not socialism? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berliner Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Pure Socialism...that's what that is... Honestly, if you're making 23k, it's not going to be that hard to maintain even if you have competition. Let the little guy have some of the largesse...another case of adult scouters giving Scout Spirit a bad name...Good luck on your fight Base... " individual effort for the collective good " no kidding, I like that line. Sounds like SCOUTING to me. Community Servie Hours, mmmmh? But seeing the threads here I see how some dont understand the difference between for example being social and socialism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckfoot Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Pure Socialism...that's what that is... Honestly, if you're making 23k, it's not going to be that hard to maintain even if you have competition. Let the little guy have some of the largesse...another case of adult scouters giving Scout Spirit a bad name...Good luck on your fight Base... It is SCOUTING. It also happens to be Socialism. Call it what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walk in the woods Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Kroger prides itself on being part of the community. Even though "your" Kroger is shuttered, they may let you use the commercial kitchen in the deli department The sandwiches sound good and maybe even done as a drive-thru kind of thing. Our church youth group does Super Bowl pizzas. We get the ingredients and assemble the pizzas folks order, the folks then pick them up on SAturday afternoon or Sunday after church the day of the game. Not a huge fundraiser but we're not a big congregation either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berliner Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Pure Socialism...that's what that is... Honestly, if you're making 23k, it's not going to be that hard to maintain even if you have competition. Let the little guy have some of the largesse...another case of adult scouters giving Scout Spirit a bad name...Good luck on your fight Base... I differeniate a lot between the 2. Acutally there is a lot more to it. If scouting was so socialist then the BSA wouldnt be doing it ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckfoot Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Pure Socialism...that's what that is... Honestly, if you're making 23k, it's not going to be that hard to maintain even if you have competition. Let the little guy have some of the largesse...another case of adult scouters giving Scout Spirit a bad name...Good luck on your fight Base... You're right. Congratulations, you win the internet today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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