General_Marketplace

Unless they have some sort of process for buying from you and picking up locally, the cost is going to be prohibitive. I just sent you a donation via Paypal. Good luck.

Thanks @Tony, most appreciated!!

Yah the fact that you have to hit $65 for "free" shipping is just f'ing absurd! At these prices, all shipping should be free.

Looks like there is a donate section on the link. From what I was told (I question it), donations are 100% recognized for the local scouts.

Some stuff looks good until I look at the price. >$10/oz for jerky? $2.50/oz for chocolate pretzels? $85 for 4 bags of popcorn?!? These prices make the local gourmet chocolate shop look cheap!

Anyway, good luck.

I bought a $15 small bag off a scout outside Fred Meyer last night. I felt bad and I remember having to sell this overpriced crap. I can’t believe the scouts are still hawking this crap while the Girl Scouts get decently priced delicious cookies.

dunno001 wrote:

It's legit a joke/scam, I can't believe it. Our first year doing it and makes me not want to enroll him next year.

beavis wrote:

Exactly! Even though girl scout cookies are slightly pricey, wayyyyy better of a deal. Ten bucks gets ya two boxes of cookies, whereas ten bucks with boy scouts get you nothing.

MrBean wrote:

The Girl Scout cookies may be a better deal for the consumer, but the GS get less of the profit than the manufacturer.

Both are a giant scam... It's a shame that something with the goals that they have, is ultimately just a business. I mean, I get it, and fault on me for never knowing this.

I also just recently learned there are alternatives to both.

Technically couldn't your son sell pretty much anything for a fundraiser? The popcorn is BSA branded but are there rules stopping him from getting popcorn or candy at Costco or something and selling that instead to earn money?

If the intent (outside of the fundraising aspect) is to teach the kids some hustle skills, business sense, and money management , then almost anything else seems like it would be a better option than passing around a sign up sheet and just fulfilling orders.

Even straight up asking for donations is a better skill to learn for fundraising because outside of scouts, if your kids want to do non-profit work in the future that's what a lot of them have to do. (And then send thank you letters for even small donations)

benstylus wrote:

I couldn't agree with this more. I've spoken a bit on this matter, and sadly, I think most are just "go with the flow" type people and blindly follow the BSA rules --- aka, every organization/employee ever. I've never been good at keeping my mouth shut, and I really like some of your ideas here. Gonna push this if my kid stays in it by this time next year. For now, the boat has sailed, and we gotta get this done within the next month.

I just got done signing him up for multiple child labor shifts to hawk the crap at local events. None of this sits well with me.

Plan with him so next year he asks if he can be sent to work in the salt mines instead. He can even mention he already has shackles that he can use, as you bought them for Halloween decorating

benstylus wrote:

Hahaha. I just sent a message to the leaders about this. Legit, makes 100% more sense for all of us to pool funds and buy crap from Costco. Pay ourselves back (as applicable, or not at all) and have all money recognized for the local pack. Use that money for the $150 annual bsa BS fees, pay for uniforms, pay for events.

The trails end thing feels so shady.

I seem to recall a comedian explaining how Girl Scouts selling cookies skirts child labor laws.

I recall selling tons of stuff as a kid in the 60s and 70s to help fund Boy Scouts, church Youth Groups, and school groups. On one hand, it gave us kids a certain amount of pride in the fact that we worked for what we received. I though the stuff was overpriced, and I never knew how much the group got from each sale. In those days, all of the money went into the pot and there were no rewards for individual achievement. Kids that didn't do anything, benefited the same as those who did all the work.

When my daughter was in Girl Scouts in the 90s, each girl was given a minimum amount of cookies to sell with personal incentives like shirts to sell more. She loved going door to door (I went with her) and earning the extras. One of the more well off families simply looked at the cookies, said their daughter would not be participating, and bought them all themselves.

I don’t think they do it anymore, but did you guys sell…..well I don’t even remember what it was we sold. I seem to recall wrapping paper being one of the items in the catalogue. Anyways some sales dude would come to our elementary school (would have been around 94/95) and would hype the kids up by showing all the cool crap you could get if you sold such and such volume (bikes, small tvs, Super Nintendo).

Of course no one would get close to that volume, but the school got a kick back (probably around 5-10%) while the company made out like bandits. THAT I can’t believe wasn’t child labor, what a great con those dudes were pulling

I don't recall what we sold for Boy Scouts. I don't recall the brand, but for church Youth Group we sold those large, white wrapper, foil wrapped candy bars you couldn't buy in a store (milk chocolate and a few almond pieces) for $1 (at that time I think full size candy bars sold for $0.10). For school Chess Club, we sold car window decals of the school mascot for $1.

When I started working, suddenly every parent brought the overpriced stuff to work to sell for their kids to help them reach the sales incentive goal. It was no longer the kid learning to work for what they received. I have to admit, when my daughter was in that situation, it was my turn to guilt my co-workers for some payback.

About 20 years ago our church Youth Group had what I felt was one of the best fund raising programs. They had a deal to supply gift cards for major restaurants and other businesses at face value. Most vendors that sell gift cards give you an incentive to buy the gift card. In this deal, the buyer got a gift card at full value of what they paid, and the Youth Group got a portion of the incentive value. With this program, they weren't trying to sell people overpriced stuff they didn't really want or need. They took orders every month throughout the year.

As soon as my daughter is old enough to do Girl Scouts (or Brownies?) we'll trade off on this stuff, lol.

beavis wrote:

We did sales for EVERYTHING in high school, but the school matched us dollar for dollar and our rewards would go the Senior Trip. So we had specially marked Hershey's candy bars which came in these ridiculously heavy cardboard suitcases. Most of the time i would eat all the Caramello's myself and end up owing myself like $12. They were 2 for $1 Freshman year (1999) and then the prices were raised to a $1 each Soph year and beyond. $1 for a full sized candy bar where some of the money goes to a good cause isn't so bad. We also sold soft pretzels, drinks and bottles of water on the "Pretzel Cart" like 3 times a week and the sales would go to school events. It was a neat gig, skip my 2 hour long study hall to hang out with my friends and interrupt every class/shop in session to sell them food and drinks, lol. Some of the more uptight teachers would lock their doors and pull the door shade down.
Man i miss the pretzel cart. Also, i miss 5 soft pretzels for $1. I entered high school a chunky though tall 180 lbs and graduated a fat as fudge 260 lbs lol hahahah.

Mike Birbiglia does a really good bit about going door to door with a cardboard suitcase full of trinkets to sell for his church youth group, so in return he can get a pair of aviator sunglasses as a reward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT3lUrVrcPY
https://open.spotify.com/track/1Ip5aWmBPoDliye13GG...

Over in Evansville, we have the Fall Festival every October - it's a week long event which has tons of food booths all from various churches, charities, scout troops, and other nonprofit organizations.

It's typical fair food... from funnel cakes to burgers to deep fried everything.

Our church has a booth, we take shifts and run it for that one (admittedly grueling) week and that takes care of our youth program fundraising for the year.

dunno001 wrote:


Not to crap on your sales, but the bags of popcorn are a gigantic rip off. $20+ per bag ($3-4 bag equivalent in stores), and they are full of hulls making it difficult to enjoy. The flavors were decent though. So consider it a donation and not buying premium product, but as you said you're better off donating directly as the manufacturer takes a cut as does corporate BSA.

It's a lot of work and is frowned upon, but it is possible to break away from the national fundraisers. My kids pack has a few side hustles going that parents fund out of pocket, get reimbursed and 100% of the extra goes to the pack account. It pays for the majority of scout activities, but as I said it's a lot of work and has lead to more than one squabble.

Lastly BSA isn't just for boys. We have quite a few girls in our troop. They seem to enjoy it much more than what I imagine they'd get out of girl scouts.

It's a great program to expose kids to new experiences and to get them outdoors, especially for kids that don't have parents that do that stuff. I'd rather do the activities with my kids and cut out the corporate, fundraising and meetings, but I guess the interaction with other scouts and group activities make it worthwhile if you have a decent pack.

Logan is #3 in his local cubscouts pack, #98 in the Lake Erie Region! The sales help to provide the local scouts with activities throughout the year. Any and all support is most appreciated!

Jerky, peanuts, and chocolate salted caramel recently added.

Thanks!

https://www.trails-end.com/store/scout/2HY9CICY?sh...

They added more stuff again if anyone is interested.

We had a great local outing today at a farmers market. We're down to $180 to make top 50 in the whole region which gets Logan into a special prize opportunity (spins a wheel, not sure what they can win, yet).

Down to $48 to go.

Gets him into this fancy spin the wheel opportunity.

https://youtu.be/FPyjv4wAcpc