Secrets of a Great Cub Pack Popcorn Sale

[SeattlePioneer 144]

What are they?

[Fehler 118]

For the Pack:

 

Sell two things: Popcorn and Christmas Wreaths. People will often choose one or the other.

 

Have buy-in from the parents/leaders who've been there before. If the returners don't want to do it, the new recruits won't, either.

 

Some parents question the amount going towards Council/District. So make sure they see/know what the Council/District does directly to support your Pack, and how they serve the community, too.

 

And don't forget the prizes. Have the boys who earned prizes last year tell what they got (and what they spent their Gift Cards on).

 

Make your presentation include all activities and events that the money made went towards. If you say it's just "Pack Expenses", people won't know what that covers. But if you can spell it out on a per-Cub basis what the Pack spends, and how much Popcorn needs to be sold to make that goal, and remind the scouts how much fun those events were last year. Bonus if you can preview events/activities that the money is going towards this year.

 

For the Cub and Parent:

Have popcorn in hand if going door-to-door.

 

Yes, go door-to-door with your Cub Scout. Best times are the hour before dinner or weekend afternoons. Have them hit the doorbell, give the "Hi, my name is ***, and we are selling *** to support Cub Scout Pack **. Would you like to buy some today?" And have them hand over the requested flyer. Parent pulls the wagon, answers questions, and carries the money. Cub Scout says "Thank You", and hands over any popcorn bought right there.

 

Bring pre-printed receipts with the delivery date and your phone#, a blank for the amount and a check-box if they paid or owe on delivery.

 

Keep the door-to-door sessions short, don't gruel out the whole neighborhood in one step, otherwise the Cub will get tired/bored and not want to do it again. Keep it to 1 hour, with the promise of some "fun time" or a treat at the end of the session.

 

Parks are bad places to try to sell, people don't have money and/or don't want to be bothered.

 

Count the money with your Cub Scout. They love seeing money, especially if its more then they'll ever get to hold on their own.

[Jeffrey H 25]

You need a sales goal and an incentive for the scouts to reach their goal. Our Pack covers will cover the cost of the pack annual dues if the sales goal is reached. If the sales goal is not reached, then the dues are reduced based on the percentage of the goal sold. In both cases, there is an incentive to sell. The scouts are not too impressed but Mom and Dad love it.

 

The "toys" offered by Trails End are not enough of an incentive to sell especially on the low end of sales.

 

A family can opt out of the fundrasier and simply pay the annual dues. I really prefer this because there will be less popcorn to deal with and distribute when the order comes in.

[Polaris 32]

We are a relatively new Pack. We worked with a written budget for the first time last year. We also created a spreadsheet for the families with a breakdown of dues titled "The Cost of Scouting."

 

We gave families 3 choices in order to pay dues:

1) Pay total dues, choose not to sell popcorn and add a $30 donation to Council

2) Pay total dues, sell popcorn, excess funds goes into a "Council summer camp account" and the rest goes to the Pack

3) Pay 25% down, sell popcorn, excess funds above dues goes into a "Council summer camp account" and the rest goes to the Pack and the 25% deposit is refunded; if not enough popcorn is sold, the remainder of dues are paid by the Blue and Gold Banquet

 

The families enjoy the options and the dues payment structure works well for our Pack.

 

Here are our keys to popcorn success:

 

We sell Campmasters popcorn. The popcorn is very tasty. Our families decided to keep the Council's prizes rather than fill them with Walmart stuff. We do augment the prizes with gift cards for the top sellers, best sales pitch, most eager seller, or any other reason a scout stands out.

 

We decided to not participate with the Campmasters online sales this year because the shipping costed as much or more than the popcorn itself. We got a lot of grief from the families' out-of-town relatives.

 

Last year we sold $17,865 in popcorn and received an additional $537 in donations. We start early in the summer by contacting local stores for show-n-sale table space. Early bird gets the worm. We like Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and our local Lowe's (national Lowe's does not allow outside table sales.) Council provides Popcorn Kernel training in early August and table sales start Aug 25. This is why we start early reserving our stores so we can secure the busiest locations. This year we plan to hit the first several weekends hard by scheduling multiple locations during the same weekend. We found as the weeks drag on, the consumer has already supported scouting and they are less likely to buy again.

 

In order to make the system "fair," we divide total table sales by the number of show-n-sale hours offered. Each scout receives credit based upon the number of hours worked. We have scouts work as few as one hour to as many as 16 hours.

 

The pitch is important as mentioned earlier. We encourage our parents to stand behind the table with the scouts out front. The scout sells the popcorn--"Would you like to support scouting and buy some DEEEE-LI-CIOUS popcorn?" The Pack encourages them to ham it up. We have scripted responses for the "no thank yous" which will get a sale or cash donation 50% of the time. The scouts also memorize the prices--which is fairly simple--it's based upon the number of popcorn packs in each box.

 

 

 

 

 

[Basementdweller 608]

A parent who is a business owner who uses scouting popcorn as christmas gifts for his clients.

 

 

[5yearscouter 52]

Separate the popcorn sale from the recruiting if at all possible. So parents don't see hey you want me to pay this much to join and then go buy a uniform and all the bling,

and then you are doing this overpriced fundraiser and expect me to buy popcorn and knock on doors and sell a bunch to fund the pack. Where the heck did all the money I just paid go to?

 

yes we've tried explaining where the money does go(we charge just a teeny bit over what you have to pay to register with BSA) but that doesn't seem to make a difference in parent's attitudes.

 

Do something fun and interesting that parents that just joined can see the value of before the fundraising season starts. they'll be more likely to participate.

 

Give incentives but don't get carried away. Each kid doesn't need a pile of stuff, especially if it's junk. Buy some cheap camping gear types things (roll up sleeping pad, sleeping bag liner, mess kit, battery powered flashlight, maybe a folding chair) and give those things out to the top sellers--to link the whole idea of the fundraiser to concrete--we get to go camping. Or put every kid who sells popcorn's name into a hat--or their name in hat multiple times if they sold a lot of popcorn. draw the names out and give those kids the choice of prizes (in that instance, throw in some candy bars, free popcorn and such to make more chances). explain that cubs help the pack go, and even if you only sold 1 or 2 things of popcorn you did your part.

 

We do not have a minimum amount each scout has to sell. WE MIGHT do that this year, since we are trying to lower fees to everyone again. But I have always hated that. We have families from poor areas where mom and dad alternate shifts at the quickie mart or walmart so they can't go sell at work, and don't have a lot of time on the weekends to sell or live in tough neighborhoods where we don't want them going door to door. we get them in front of a grocery store to sell, but depending on the time of their shift, they may only sell 1 thing. but that's ok, cause each kid's effort is what makes the pack go.

 

We do tie in you sell popcorn you get $x off of your registration for next year. If you sell over $y amount of popcorn you get $z off of summer camp next year.

 

Don't let the sale drag on too long.

We know that for take order sales, that popcorn won't be available until November 15th for delivery. working backwards from there, the deadline for the pack to order all the popcorn we need is Nov 1st ish. if popcorn sales start much before Oct 1st you will have parents and families and popcorn kernels totally burned out on the idea. Of course we also have to work around fall break the 2nd week in October, so if the flyers and such aren't out to the scouts before then, we are toast and sales will be light.

 

 

[SeattlePioneer 144]

Hello 5 year,

 

 

 

[ScoutNut 147]

Personally, I agree with separating recruitment and unit popcorn kickoff.

 

They are two separate events.

 

Nothing wrong with mentioning at your beginning of the school year Scout signup night (recruitment is done year round not just for one night) that the Pack sells popcorn to fund it's program. However to hit them with all the popcorn info at that time is over kill. It also means that you have to do it all over again, and they have to sit thru it all over again, when it is presented to the entire Pack.

 

On a side note - Make sure that before you go and set up a booth sale at any location (especially a government location) that you get permission from the site owner/manager. It will not make a very good impression on the Scout families (old or new), or the general public, if you are kicked out or fined.

 

[ScoutNut 147]

>>"Our recruiting night is also our first pack meeting/activity of the new school year. We have a snappy recruiting event which is just as good at involving existing Scouts in the program as it is at recruiting new boys.">"The availability of the popcorn sale was mostly just mentioned as part of the recruiting night. It was presented in more detail at the first den meetings."