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
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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
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