Table of Contents  |   Trail's End Home  |   Scouts  |   Families  |   Councils  |   Leaders

Our Fall 2005 popcorn sales were disappointing. We sold about $6,900 of popcorn, and only 50% of our scouts participated. Our pack is growing, and we knew sales had to increase to fund the pack. We appointed two popcorn kernels, Christine Norris and me. Christine did it last year and was very familiar with the online ordering process. We received the popcorn guidebook at the Pawnee roundtable and had a few questions, which Bob Headley was able to answer. During a pack meeting we had a popcorn kickoff, and we heavily promoted the blitz weekend. I also entered every Scout in the Trails End website, so they could have friends and family buy online with their Order Keys. We only sold about $350 this way. I spoke to the people about it. They were unhappy with the selection of popcorn and would have been willing to pay shipping for smaller items. On the plus side, they found ordering easy, and they received their popcorn quickly in great condition.    We elected to participate in the Show & Sell. We felt that the parents and Scouts who were not excited about roaming the neighborhood selling popcorn might find the idea of manning a booth for two hours at Wal-Mart more palatable. We ordered about $4,600 of Show & Sell popcorn, which was 100% of the $9 - $16 popcorn we sold last year. We felt that if we did not sell all of the popcorn from the date we received it to the time we had to turn our final orders, we could use the left over popcorn to fill part of the final order.    The pick-up of the popcorn out of Salina was well organized and quick. We spoke with Wal-Mart, and reserved a Sunday in front of their store at both entrances. We had parents sign up for booth times at the pack meeting four days prior to the sale. We sold $2,200 of popcorn in seven hours. The committee then left it up to the Den leaders to sell the rest of the popcorn. The Den leaders told me when they wanted to sell popcorn at Wal-Mart, and I reserved the time. The Den leaders picked up the popcorn, tables, cash box, etc. at my house. We sold about $3,600 of popcorn, with $1,000 left over. I reduced our final order by the amount of popcorn we had left. Our final order was surprisingly high, about $11,000. We attribute this to the popcorn kickoff and the blitz weekend promotion. What also made a difference is that 90% of the kids sold at least $100 of popcorn. Compare that to 2005 with only 50% of scouts selling popcorn. The final order popcorn pickup for the Pawnee District was very well organized and efficient. What would we like to change?    We would restrict the Scouts to two hours of selling popcorn in front of Wal-Mart. We had some Scouts that were there for the entire seven hours. They were there for

two reasons. First, his Scouts wanted to get a lot of sales credit, and second, we had a few cases of the dreaded “dump the Scout & Run.” The Scouts were ineffective after about two or three hours of selling. The Tigers and Wolves got tired and the Bears and Webelos became restless.    Next year, we are going to do the Show & Sell again, but we will hand receipt popcorn to Scouts to do Show & Deliver in their neighborhood. For consumers, the purchase of popcorn symbolizes a contribution to Scouting, but it is also an impulse purchase -- if the Scout has the popcorn with him, he might make a sale where he ordinarily would leave empty handed. This also makes it easier for the parents, because the money is collected at that time. What went well?    The popcorn guide was great. We had very few questions. Both Brett and Joan were very knowledgeable about the popcorn sale and went out of their way to help us make this a successful sale.    The organization from the council and district was excellent. We needed a few extra tins and had to replace a damaged tin. Bob Headley was able to quickly accommodate this out of his district secret stash.    Christine Norris and I read the popcorn guide several times and made ourselves available to the parents to answer questions. This made it easy for the parents to help their scout sell popcorn. As the committee chair, I always drop into every Den meeting for a few minutes to see if the parents have any questions.    And finally, we sold about $15,000 of popcorn this year, doubling last year’s total of $6,900. Thanks, Dustin Taylor Committee Chair Pack 273 Manhattan, Kansas [ Download a printable PDF of this story ]

Table of Contents  |   Trail's End Home  |   Scouts  |   Families  |   Councils  |   Leaders