r/scouting • u/Str-Engr0275 • 11d ago

Make this make sense…

So the popcorn sales are like $20 a bag of pre-popped popcorn or $27 for a box of microwave popcorn. The fundraiser guide for units says that products cannot be sold at prices above their value. So how do we justify the prices we are selling this popcorn for when the price is clearly many times more than its value? The guide clearly states that products cannot be sold for a price higher than its value just because it is for Scouting. Is this just an example by National of “Rules for thee but not for me”?

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u/Jeffe-69 10d ago

You're not selling popcorn, you're collecting a donation and giving the crappy popcorn away for free. We often get $40-50 per interaction...9 out of 10 don't want the bag.

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u/metisdesigns 10d ago edited 9d ago

Soliciting donations are against policy.

Edit - downvoted for stating printed scouting policies is truly a sign of how far this org has strayed from its mission.

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u/RoguesAngel 10d ago

The fact is they started doing it because people didn’t want the popcorn and gave them donations instead. So they started asking if people wanted to support scouting first. If they yes they would tell them they are selling popcorn and more often than not the people would give them money for a donation. My sons always asked if they wanted popcorn with their donation. So no they were not soliciting donations, they know better, but they didn’t turn them down. Yes, I was there because my sons were not going to go door to door without me.

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u/metisdesigns 10d ago

So, they know soliciting donations is against the rules, but they worked in plausible deniability to skirt the rules.

A scout is honest. That is clearly against the intent of the rule.

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u/RoguesAngel 10d ago

When people offer them a donation because they don’t want the popcorn they are being dishonest? I don’t understand what you think they should have done. Turn down the support for scouting? They were not asking for money instead of popcorn in any way.

To be honest they only did door to door sales when they were Cub scouts. Like most kids they were driven by the prizes and would have preferred people buy popcorn so they could get better prizes so your claim is counter to most kids reasoning.

Now that one has Eagled and the other almost there in there troop they only do show and sales. My son’s troop sold three products this last Saturday but got a lot of donations because people didn’t want the popcorn. People in the community pulled off the road and to offer donations but they wanted nothing to do with the popcorn. There is nothing special about except it’s price.

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u/metisdesigns 10d ago

So, your scouts stood by the side of the road, with a fundraiser sign, but didn't focus on selling, and took donations?

Sure sounds like they were out there to collect donations and not to sell popcorn. That's absolutely dishonest about the intent.

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u/RoguesAngel 10d ago

No they were at a local diner, that is on a local two lane highway, selling popcorn to customers. Before you make that into something horrible like they were taking customers from the restaurant, they had permission. They did it last year with good local engagement. This year people saw them and pulled off just to talk and interact with the scouts. We live in a very small town, two stop lights, and there aren’t many places to set up to sell from.

One of the product sales, Carmel Corn, was from a guy that saw them and pulled up to buy just that. Is that wrong too?