School Sales??

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Ya know, it's been quite a while since I was last hit for a school sale. (I dunno why)

I hear this teeny knock at the front door all but drowned out by the dogs barking. Open it to find a little boy about 9, his hands overflowing with catalogues ect. Poor thing stutters through trying to explain he's selling this for school ect.

Now my policy has always been that I buy from the first child who knocks on my door. Even if I don't have much money, I at least will buy something cheap. After that, other children are gently turned down.

Even while thumbing thru the catalogues looking for something inexpensive I was starting to worry a bit. I didn't see a parent. And while we're a small town........I still don't like the idea of a young kid going door to door alone. I was his first customer. Just as I was about to ask where his parents were, his older sister showed up to make sure he'd made the sale right. whew

So I splurged on a 7.00 microwave dinner plate cover that will come in handy for warming up Nichole's suppers. :D

Up in Dayton when my kids were small the kids weren't allowed to go door to door unless a parent was with them, even in their own neighborhoods as a safety precaution. I'm sort of surprised they don't do it here.

So I'm done already with the school sale. But I've been waiting for the little boy on the corner to come knocking for me to buy cub scout popcorn. And dreading it. My friend at school showed me how much it is this year. EEK!:surprise:

So what's your policy with school sales? And do your schools require parents to go along or not?
 

klmno

Active Member
yeah, this is becoming an issue with me. It was a hard deal when I was taking difficult child all over the place to sell his scout popcorn, but we survived. then, it was all the school fundraisers hitting at once. I think we've gotten to a point where he goes alone right around our house, not far away, and if he sells it's fine, if he doesn't it's fine. Sometimes I'll see something in there that I can use or want so I'll buy it. Other than that, it's "I'm sorry, I can't do it right now".

The only substantial thing I can offer is that if I hear of something the school really needs or the PTA is trying to put together, I will try to donate that. for instance, the PTA puts together gift baskets with different themes- actually it is parents who donate them- and then they auction them off as a fundraiser. I have no problem doing that because it is normally people associated with the school buying them so I know the school is getting a relatively good donation. Plus, it's fun.
 

Andy

Active Member
Stupid computer - just stole my huge long response and sent it into cyber space never to be seen again! GRRRR

That means you probably get a shorter version. LOL!

Schools and organizations do promote safe selling - go in pairs, with an adult, no going into a house, no after dark selling. However, what the families do are beyond the school's control. Sometimes kids will even sell without their parent's knowing they have something.

I made the mistake of purchasing from a kid one year just to find out that the neighbor kids were waiting until their parents came home to start. The kids I bought from got off the bus and started selling. They were not even from our neighborhood and purposely came to "steal" the neighbor's sales.

So, I make sure I know who and what I am purchasing for. If I believe a neighbor kid may be involved in the sales, I will decline the big expensive products (like $15 coupon books - can only afford one of those).

I no longer respect "Top Seller" competitions. They are not based on each kid's sales but on the family sales. One year my easy child sold 150 boxes of cookies - every single box she made the sale. The girl who won only sold 75 boxes directly and her mom sent the order blank to a relative in another town. The relative gathered the sales and the mom did all the work in delivering, ect. The relative sold 100 boxes so the girl got the credit for 175 boxes. I didn't think that was fair to my daughter to not get recognition for the work she put into it.

I also will not have my kids belong to anything that has a mandatory sales policy. Either sell $40 worth of merchandise in our fundraiser or donate $40. We do not join anything to sell anything. (Well, my difficult child does love selling anything and loves to earn the prizes involved in the different levels of sales).

Those catalog sales are great to look through when you can actualy sit and enjoy looking through them but are cruel to have to do so on the doorstep while the poor kids uncomfortably stands watching you. Door to door sales need to be short and sweet.

And a word of advise to all from someone who has been on the selling end for a long time - If at all possible, please pay for the product when you choose it. It makes deliveries so much faster when almost everyone has paid - you don't have to wait until the funds are found and for some people, you can leave the product with whoever is home or at the home if you have advanced permission. But of course, I have no trouble with you waiting for the product to be delivered - especially if you don't know the seller and feel more comfortable waiting.
 

trinityroyal

Well-Known Member
Many years ago, husband spoke to the coordinator for difficult child's school sales. He would ask, "If I buy this $20 giftwrap/chocolate/whatever, how much does the school get?" When he heard the answer ($5 out of every 20), he said, "Well, how about if I donate $20 to the WhateverItIs Fund, and I skip buying the product?"

The school got the equivalent to $100 worth of sales, husband was out of pocket $20, and we didn't have any extra stuff that we didn't need.

Now that Little easy child's getting to the age where school fund raisers will be coming up, I think we'll handle them the same way too.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
If at all possible, please pay for the product when you choose it.

You know, I was going to do just that. But neither the sister or the little boy had an envelope for the money. They're coming back on friday, which is fine. I was just hesitant to have them carrying money with nothing to put it into.

Trinity, that's a really good idea. But I'm waiting for the chocolate bar sale. ;) I love the carmel ones, usually buy a good amount and they last me forever. lol
 
F

flutterbee

Guest
I, for one, have hated school fundraisers since my kids were in school and wouldn't let my kids participate.

Here's why: First, they had an assembly (missing that all important class time) to get the kids motivated and tell them what prizes they would win if they sold this much or that much. Then, the school gets very little of the proceeds. Third, it's just a lot of junk. Then you have kids getting ramped up to sell, sell, sell to get this gizmo that is so far out of their reach. They'd have to sell to over 1,000 people to qualify for the prize and it's ridiculous. If I saw something I liked, I'd buy from my kids. But, I did not let them go out in the neighborhood banging on doors that every other kid in the neighborhood has already banged on.

The one thing our school had that I did like was Market Day. Order forms would go home and parents could order and then they would go to the school to pick it up. It was food items. You could buy them in bulk, it was cheaper than at the grocery store and the school made money. Plus, no kids knocking on doors. Then Market Day items became more expensive than buying at the store, so I'm not sure if they still do it or not.

Like Trinity said...I'd rather donate the money or needed items directly then send the kids out to sell junk that nobody wants or needs with the enticement of some stupid gizmo.

Ugh!
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
Let's see...
Duckie sells nuts/magazines in the fall for Brownies
She sells cookies in late winter for Brownies
She participates in a readathon for Sunday School
She also fills an advent calendar as a fundraiser
She saves our refundable bottles and cans for Sunday School
She receives an order blank for school spirit items
She sells chocolate in spring for the school
She sells raffle tickets for cheer before the season starts
She sells discount cards for cheer as well

This is off the top of my head... there may be more! Ugh!!!
 

Lothlorien

Active Member
Door to door sales are not permissable. A boy was murdered here, doing that several years ago. He was in his own neighborhood when it happened. I won't buy from kids unless a parent is there and if they aren't, I simply tell them they need to get their parent, because they aren't allowed to sell without them.

I buy certain things from my own kids. I limit it to those certain things. My kids are being bombarded with everything right now. It ticks me off, because I think the PTA should spread it out a little over the course of the year.
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
Our schools have always encouraged the children to solicit family and friends only - no door to door sales. However, most parents of children 12 and under will go around with them to sell. We've met a lot of our neighbors over the years, some nice and some not so nice. I never encouraged my girls to sell a thing, which on the surface sounds mean. Instead, I would make a monetary donation to the general PTO fund and call it a day. Sometimes, I would buy the gift wrap and get some familiy to do so as well, but I have no use for frozen, stale or moldy cheesecakes and cookie dough. It's just gross.

About a month ago, some boyscout wandered into our place of business selling the popcorn. I bought some but I was truly annoyed about this. We're in a large office building, typically solicitation is discouraged and some solicitors are asked to leave. We bought a "No Soliciting" sign for our front door the very next day. I know it sounds mean, but it really isn't right to have people traipsing in and out of our offices selling stuff. We had a guy come in (AFTER the sign was up) selling paintings?? I mean, wth, do people sitting at work dream of buying paintings from a stranger going door to door all day?

Anyway, I buy girlscout cookies and boyscout popcorn. And if a kid came selling the wrapping paper, I would probably buy that. I used to cringe when my girls came home with their sales packet - especially when I saw the lame prizes for most items sold. There difficult child would be hankering for some stupid fake microphone that echoed. Or easy child silently hoping she'd sell enough wrap to win the bubble gum making toy. Puh-leez. All they every won was the stupid cartoon patch or the plastic flashlilght that didn't even come with a battery! LOL>
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I hated the selling. It was always a fiasco here because it was mostly candy bars and attempting to keep my boys out of candy bars was like...well...keeping boys out of candy! So I ended up buying a case of candy. One year we got smart and sent the entire case with Tony out of town to sell on the job...that worked well. The guys were in a motel and when they wanted a candy bar they would go to his room...lol.
 

jal

Member
I hated selling door to door as a kid. I have bought things on occasion from co-workers kids, but we are set so far off the road we get minimal foot traffic (not even trick or treaters). The one thing I detest and do not agree on is FUNDRAISING FOR DAYCARE! I already pay enough and ever since difficult child has been in daycares they do fundraising. I raise funds every week when I PAY YOU!

Sorry - had to vent-difficult child's daycare is in the middle of a fundraiser now!
 

house of cards

New Member
We aren't allowed to let out kids go door to door and I don't want to blackmail friends and family into buying over priced things, my family wouldn't do it anyway so I just donate cash like Trinity said. I get annoyed that my kids don't get the prizes...I use to buy 1 small thing so they would get the little prize but now they know when it comes home they can look at it but I don't even buy anything.
 
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