Popcorn How To
Hi Scout Families,
We’ve started our fundraising for the 2023-2024 year strong with our popcorn sales, and we need all Scout to participate to reach our goal to help cover the Pack costs and save up for a special Scouting adventure trip.
Character, Skills Development, and other Rewards
We want our Cub Scouts to build their communication and presentation skills during this popcorn selling adventure.
This is also a good time for Scouts to show that they live by some of the tenets of the Scout Law: Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave
Besides skill and character development, Scouts can earn prizes too based on how much they sell. See below.
Getting Started
Create a Trails End account for your Scout at this link:
During account creation select: CT Rivers Council, Charter Oak District, and Pack 135
Install the Trails End app on your phone.
Sign up for at least 2 hours worth of shifts through the Trails End App. Choose days on or after 9/23 as that is when we'll have more popcorn to sell.
When selecting shifts, start with the best sales times (according to Google), which would be:
Ace: Sat 10am-1pm, Sun 9am-1pm.
Tractor Supply: Sat 11am-3pm, Sun 11am-3pm
If someone else has selected a shift on that day already please try to choose an adjacent shift so setup and pack up doesn't need to occur multiple times.
Attend a short training session so the Scouts can develop their sales pitch and you can learn how to process orders and take donations. Contact us if you haven't attended one yet.
Show up 10 minutes early for your shift so you can get oriented and start selling popcorn.
Proven Successful Selling Model - Donation then Popcorn
The Scout are actually selling the opportunity for people to donate to our Pack and the local Pack Council.
That is what very successful Packs lead with in their sales pitches.
With this strategy, we immediately experienced high selling success as well.
The popcorn price points are high, so it is extremely difficult to sell someone at $15 bag of popcorn.
View it like a $10 to $20 donation + $5 for a bag or box of popcorn. Much more reasonable.
The Trails End Facebook group has many success stories of this strategy. You can check it out. Great place to quickly get help and questions answered too.
Simple pitches for our young Scouts to do this (Please Read):
Have them ask everyone they see. We got at least 75% of the people we asked to come to the table.
"Would you like to support Cub Scouts? We are selling popcorn to raise money for Cub Scouts."
Usually it is followed by the customer asking what kind we have. When they see the prices, their eyes will widen.
At that point the Scout or parent can say that it is really a donation and they get popcorn for it. 90% of the people are immediately convinced at that point.
Shy Scout? Great!
This is a wonderful adventure for shy Scouts and all the others to build confidence.
Have the start slow. They can say "Hi", and then the parent chimes in. Or The parent can start the pitch and have their Scout talk about the popcorn types. Experiment with which part they can start saying. Help them when needed. Most customers will think it is great watching them be challenged and struggle a little.
It may take most of an hour but if you keep with it, you'll get your Scout to open up and be more comfortable and confident.
A Scout Tale about a popcorn adventure
A really cute video a Pack put together to help them remember their sales pitch. Worth watching with your kids: https://youtu.be/VNSERZeU2dM
Storefront Donation / Popcorn Options and Price Points
$1 to $50 or more Donate to Heroes and Helpers (i.e. Popcorn for the 1st Responders and Military Troops)
$15 Kettle Corn - Our Best Seller
$20 White Cheddar - 2nd Best Seller but tied with the Microwave Butter
$25 Salted Carmel
$25 Butter (Microwave) - Best Value as it is 12 bags
Logistics
Our Pack will get between 37 to 40% of the sales, depending on how much we sell. This is actually one of the highest returns in the country. Another 30% goes to the CT Rivers Council.
Be prepared for your shift
Bring a chair, drink, snacks, and weather protection. Please remember to have your Scout use the bathroom before they come. It would be helpful if you could bring a folding table as well.
Please show up 15 minutes early to your shift to get oriented and complete the shift popcorn and cash inventory sheet.
The Pack will provide advertising signage.
How To use Trails End App to Sell
Sales at the storefronts will be done using the Trails End App.
This app simplifies many of the logistics. Review the options below. Once you do one the first time, it will all make sense. Please makes sure to try out the app beforehand and remember your username and password. The storefront screen will show up on days you have signed up.
Directly tell customers that credit or electronic payment is actually preferred over cash. Managing cash gets messy so our Pack, Council, and Trails End want to stick with credit, Apple, or Google Pay.
Scouts get 1.25 reward points per dollar this way. Cash sales only get 1 reward point per dollar.
Credit cards will be processed with our Square devices plugged into your phone.
We have lightning, USB-C, and headphone jack connectors depending on the phone you have.
They are swipe Square devices and you typically need to swipe a few times to get it to go. There is also an option you'll see in the app to enter the card number manually if needed.
Customers can pay with Apple or Google Pay as well, but you need to be careful how you do this. See below.
Share a QR code from the checkout screen of the app. It will display on your phone.
The customer scans the QR code with their phone which directs them to a page where they pay.
IMPORTANT! Before you give them the popcorn, the customer must show you on their phone that the payment was processed or you need to wait till the order show up as completed on your phone. If there are network / app hiccups and the customer leaves there isn't anything that can be done.
If they pay with cash, it is preferred that you process the order with your credit card and take the cash. This is legit and is very helpful in that we don't have to manage a bunch of cash. This is the process:
Start to process the customer's order with the app plugging in their selection.
Customer pays with cash which will go in the cash box. If needed, make change using the cash box. It will have change in it already.
Give the customer their popcorn and change.
Process the order as a credit payment and swipe your credit card.
Pay yourself back with cash from the cash box.
There are a few more steps doing this so take your time.
At the end of the shift their should be the same amount of money in the cash box as was started with.
Online Orders
You can start selling online right away.
There are various links at the top of your Scout's account dashboard that you can send to people or post on your social media accounts.
Shipping seems to range from $11 to $14. Orders over $65 ship for free.
Rewards & Prizes
A Scout that sells enough popcorn can get the prizes below from both Trails End and the CT Rivers Council.
Trail End Gift Card Prizes
There are Amazon gift card prizes based on how much an individual Scout sells. See table below.
$1 in sales is 1.25 reward points for credit, Apple, or Google pay and 1.0 reward points for cash.
For example, assuming non-cash sales, if a Scout sells around $450 in popcorn, a $10 gift card is awarded. If they sell about $4500, they get $250.
CT Rivers Council Prizes
Scouts get these prizes in addition to the Trails End prizes based on the dollar amount in sales.
A Scout's Sales: That Scout gets:
$1,000 4 Movie Tickets
$1,250 2 Tickets to Arcade (e.g. Nomads, Spare Time)
$1,500 Go to a pizza party and get a prize toy (~$100) by spinning a wheel
$3,500 Free Scout Summer Camp
Scout in Council w/ most sales Weekend Trip to Heshey's Park: 4 Tickets + Accommodations
