Jack Links Fundraiser Partnership with BSA

[Pale Horse]

18 hours ago, mrkstvns said:

Well, Mr. Horse, if it's profit margin you seek, your troop might want to look into selling Krispy Kreme donuts (45% margin to troop) or Country Meats meat sticks (again, 45% to the troop).  

The disadvantage to these, from the council perspective, is that all the profit is retained by the troop, whereas, overpriced lame popcorn nets the council a cut of the take. Never mind that, while the margin might be good, the volume is HORRIBLE because everybody knows the popcorn isn't a very good product, it's obscenely overpriced, and it's complicated to sell with too many products at too many price points. Girl Scouts might only be seeing a 15-20% margin, but when girls routinely sell $1K+ of product that net sure is a bigger pile of $$$ than the Boy Scouts with their 35% from scouts routinely selling ZERO.

Nope, net is important to me for both Unit and Council. Unless something can compete with the ~75% combined to council and unit, we'll stick w/ popcorn.

We have no problem with volume. Pick any neighborhood and door-to-door sales will gross at least $125/hr. (sometimes as much as $300/hr.). All it takes is Scouts actually getting out there and asking, instead of sitting at a cookie booth where the cookies sell themselves.  

Trails-End has done studies and the #1 reason why people don't buy popcorn is because nobody has ever asked them to. Show up on someone's doorstep in a neat uniform and ask politely: "Hi, I'm X, would you like to help fund my Scouting adventures by buying some popcorn?" 8 out of 10 times you're walking away with a sale averaging $20-$30.

 

[walk in the woods]

10 minutes ago, Pale Horse said:

Show up on someone's doorstep in a neat uniform and ask politely: "Hi, I'm X, would you like to help fund my Scouting adventures by buying some popcorn?" 8 out of 10 times you're walking away with a sale averaging $20-$30.

Depends a lot on your neighborhood.  I walked a lot of rural/blue collar community with my son, he asked a lot of people, and we never, never had that experience.  We had way more $1 to $5 donations to the unit than popcorn sales.  Even true at our table sales.  People looked at a small bag of popcorn for $20 and laughed.  A single person can get a weeks worth of groceries at Aldi for $20 if they shop well.  Our best fundraiser by far was Christmas greens.  People were going to buy them anyway from the local nursery that supported us, so it was easy for them to support scouting, and the business, in the community.

[Eagle94-A1]

28 minutes ago, Pale Horse said:

We have no problem with volume. Pick any neighborhood and door-to-door sales will gross at least $125/hr. (sometimes as much as $300/hr.). All it takes is Scouts actually getting out there and asking, instead of sitting at a cookie booth where the cookies sell themselves.  

Where are you at so I can share the wealth?  Seriously my two oldest did the door to door and got $0

[SteveMM]

Our troop's best fundraiser is selling mulch in the early spring.  We found a supplier that sells us several pallets.  We mark them up, sell them, and deliver them.  People love getting their mulch delivered to them.  ALL of the profits go into the boys' Scout accounts.

Edited August 1, 2019 by SteveMM
spelling

[yknot]

People either love, hate or endure popcorn season. We typically have a scout or two who has luck selling it but most of the time it doesn't move. We can no longer even get relatives or neighbors to buy the product. It does not sell in front of grocery stores, and in my area, people resent door to door sales.  If they don't know your car, they don't want it driving down their driveway lol.

 

[Saltface]

49 minutes ago, yknot said:

People either love, hate or endure popcorn season.

Or just shun.

[SteveMM]

3 minutes ago, Saltface said:

Or just shun.

That's our troop.  We stopped all popcorn sales several years ago.  It was a waste of time.

[Jameson76]

1 hour ago, yknot said:

People either love, hate or endure popcorn season.

Don't forget ignore.  There is ALWAYS the option to ignore. 

[Jackdaws]

Its no secret in my district that I am not a fan of popcorn.   This year our council added selling nuts.  My son has a nut allergy so its a definite "NO!" for us.    Our troop doesn't sell popcorn anymore.  Just for giggles I opened up the order form that the council mailed to me.  Holy moly!    We live in what could be called one of the poorer sides of town so finding someone to be willing to drop $60 for a can of nuts and popcorn probably isn't going to happen.    Now  for camp cards I am your girl.   Love those things.  They just sell themselves.  Our council says you have to sell so much popcorn or camp cards to qualify to camp at council camps for free for the year.  Our small troop sold enough camp cards last  year to cover that.   I don't think they actually enforce it but its not that hard to sell 100 cards.

[mrkstvns]

As if having a bad quality, overpriced product weren't bad enough, our council is enforcing a rule that scouts selling popcorn need to have a smartphone on which they download a commercial app.

Is *NOBODY* in scouting looking out for the interests of parents and scouts?

It's hard enough to monitor our kids' electronics usage without adult scouters stepping over their boundaries by intruding into parental oversight territory.  Whether or not my kid has a smart phone should have NO impact on what scouting activities he can do. And NOBODY in scouting has any right to dictate to parents what software they load on their kids' phones.

Cybersecurity and digital privacy are HUGE issues these days.  

Forcing kids to adopt electronics usage puts scouting on the wrong side of the parent-child relationship. It's bad policy. 

(As if any of us really needed "yet one more reason NOT to support el-lame-o popcorn sales"...)

[T2Eagle]

10 minutes ago, mrkstvns said:

As if having a bad quality, overpriced product weren't bad enough, our council is enforcing a rule that scouts selling popcorn need to have a smartphone on which they download a commercial app.

 

It's not that I doubt you, but is that really true?  Popcorn sales around here are mostly Cub Scouts and it is thankfully still true that most Cubs don't have their own smart phone.  How in the world do they intend to enforce that?

My own council has a form/contract they want everyone to sign saying they're on the hook for popcorn that is ordered by a donor/customer but then refused when it's delivered.  I pointed this out to someone who said well we don't really intend to enforce it that way, to which I replied that they then really shouldn't write it that way.  Complaint fell on deaf ears.  My suggestion to anybody who asks --- sell the popcorn, don't sign the form.

[Pale Horse]

5 hours ago, T2Eagle said:

It's not that I doubt you, but is that really true? 

If they're selling Trails-End popcorn, then No, it is not.  Someone either misheard the message or was given incorrect information.

Trails-End has developed an app that will significantly help Popcorn Kernels in their work. However it is completely optional. You can use the whole thing, parts of it, or none of it at all.  If you choose to use it to take credit card orders, Trails-End and Council are covering all transaction costs.  However you are free to not use it and use Square to process CC orders, either absorbing the cost or passing it on to the customer.

 

Edited August 10, 2019 by Pale Horse