Popcorn – Door-to-Door or Show and Sells

[CNYScouter]

After a couple of years of not doing popcorn my son’s Troop is selling it again this year.

I am wondering which way does better.

Having product and selling Door-to-Door or setting up a table and selling in front of a business?

What does your experience show?

[Stosh]

Or get a small wagon and show-and-sell door-to-door. Customer gets their product immediately. Take orders if one doesn't have the product in the wagon, or have a way to contact a base of operation that does.

 

Stosh

[DuctTape]

Depends on the boys. As a scout, I did what Stosh suggests (although it was candy). Sold a ton!

[CNYScouter]

We have both of these types scheduled

 

Some weekends we are taking popcorn and selling door-to-door.

Other weekends we are sitting in front of a business selling it.

 

I was wondering which way sells more popcorn (or any product)

[AKdenldr]

Around here door to door after dinner with product makes about $ 200 / hr scout and parent or 2 scouts. Best if it is after dinner and raining in full uniform with the little red wagon. Restock from parent's car down the block if necessary. I suspect it is best if boy does his own neighborhood.

 

Show and sell, depends on location and when it is during the popcorn season. As low as one bag in a 2 hour shift to sky's the limit. First year scout with an older scout the best combo.

 

Boys find the store thing the easiest until they have experience then they tend to sell on their own.

 

Sending a patrol out in a neighborhood on the meeting night near the charter organization has a very poor result, in my humble opinion.

[Daped01]

This year is the first year our council has done the show and sell. We are able to purchase up to 50% of last years dollar value. No refunds, no returns. However we have to travel to our council office (4 hours away for our unit) to pick up the product. We will be skipping this and selling our traditional door to door way.

[meschen]

Did popcorn with my son and was our Pack's Popcorn Kernal for five years. In my experience, your first time at a store-front is the most productive use of your time. Saturdays and Sundays from 10 - 1 in front of a grocery with a good volume of traffic is usually the best time to sell. If you return to the same spot in the next week or two, you'll see a big drop in sales.

 

Selling at work is the next best option. If work rules allow it, bring your kid in to do the sales or deliver.

 

Door to door is were you start working hard to earn your sales. Sunday afternoons between 4 and 7 seemed the best (we're west coast so most NFL games were over) in our neighborhood. I do highly recommend keeping your order forms from one year to the next. Don't bother trying to go back the next year to people who said no the year before. You save a lot of time just knocking on doors where you had success and then spend the rest of your time in new territory.

 

Red wagon method is better for sales than take-order, but is a lot more work for the leader running the sale if your whole unit is involved.

 

Draped01: The no return policy is abusive, and IMHO, a non-starter. Councils should be able to accept returns any time before take-order forms are due and not get stuck with product.

[Daped01]

bingo, between that and having to travel to pick up the product we said thanks, but no thanks. we will continue to take orders, and then deliver.

[Mom2a]

We do both. Show and sell is easier on the boys.

[Daped01]

been a while since i peeked at this thread.  Somehow between then and now, I was convinced otherwise regarding show and sell and we did particpate.  We placed an initial order of half of what our total take order sales were last year, and went through nearly all of it at our first show and sell at a local hardware store.  We placed a 2nd order just slightly smaller than the first, and sold almost half of that.

 

 

our scouts also did take order sales and our total sales increased by over $2000.  Pretty good for a small pack.

 

 

 

Our affiliated troop doubled their sales from last year because of show and sell.