Have youth organizations given up direct sales?

It seems to me back in my day we sold candy bars to pay for baseball. Other kids did the same for other sports or activities.

But I dont see that as often now. Other than girl scouts selling their cookies the practice seems to have gone away. I know as a parent I’m glad to pay and extra $50 or so instead of having to push my kid to sell stuff. The only thing he has sold are tickets to his Boy Scout troops annual pancake breakfast and that was only to neighbors.

What are you seeing in your neighborhoods? Have kids quit selling stuff?

They still sell things, but I think the door-to-door thing has pretty much gone away due to safety fears and inconvenience. Most of the selling is done by parents in their workplaces.

I still regularly see Boy Scouts selling popcorn (that seems to be the Boy Scout equivalent of the Girl Scout cookies), though it’s often on a card table outside of the grocery store or a restaurant. Same with youth sports teams selling candy bars.

In the past couple of years, I’ve been (relatively) inundated with magazine sales from my nieces and nephews, which appear to be a school fundraiser. I’d like to help, but by the sixth or seventh one of those in a year, it’s a little much.

But, yes, the door-to-door sales are largely a thing of the past around here, too.

Youth groups selling stuff are a regular fixture just outside of our local grocery store. And I often see them outside of our local WallyWorld as well.

Thank goodness I’ve missed out on this. Do people read magazines anymore?

Generally when a youth group is selling something, I don’t buy (the only thing they’re ever selling that I want is junk food, and we’ve already got enough at home, thanks) but I’ll contribute a few bucks. If they’re selling a box of a dozen donuts for $5, I figure they only get a buck or two of each box sold, so we’re both coming out ahead.

And thank goodness for that.

Our high school athletics hire a telemarketing group to call up people in the school district and sell us cookie dough and trash bags. I think it’s actually popular - people like the cookie dough and trash bags.

The high school band still does “tag day” where they go door-to-door and ask for donations of cash (this is how it was for dozens of years). However, now they will also sell you a special card for $10 which gives you discounts at several local businesses. And if you’re not home they leave a nice flyer on the door with info on how to donate and how to get a card by mail.

I had a kid come by asking for money for the choir too. No special card I don’t think. The football team also sells special cards door-to-door.

I know the football team and band do other fundraisers (band has a mattress sale, football team sells mulch installation)

I was going to say I don’t see younger kids going door-to-door anymore but I remembered some kid came by last year on a big-kids BigWheel and asked for money. I forget what it was for or what I got - like **RTFirefly **I generally just give money, I don’t buy stuff.

I just bought two boxes of Girl Guide cookies directly from a kid.

Likewise, I’ve seen plenty of kids selling candy outside of grocery stores. I bet it’s a tough racket these days since, with debit cards, I often don’t even have two bucks cash in my pocket.

I had a girl scout hit my house for cookies this year. I also saw some who had a kiosk at the mall and were selling them there.

With my grandkids it’s wrapping paper. We are stocked up until He returns. I actually bought Hanukkah paper, which confused them.

I’m basically inner-city so any place else may be way different.

Most groups will have the kids set up near the local grocery store or their parents will shout across the street at you or corner you at work. Products can be anything from food (hotdogs and baked goods and candy being the common ones) to the old reliable magazine subscriptions.

If a kid knocks on your door and asks you to buy something, it’s a scam.

The kids around here occasionally still sell stuff for fundraising, or have car washes. But more often they hang around the doors at stores and just ask for donations while the adults sit under a canopy a few feet away to “oversee”, I guess. What is that teaching the kids? No, you don’t have to actually do anything to score money, just…panhandle, basically.
I do declare, it kind of reminds me of drumming up $4,000 for a trip to Europe…

That depends. The organization may come out ahead, but the kid doing the selling is probably in line for winning a competition for selling the largest amount.

~ CairoCarol, who once came in second, dammit, for selling the most Girl Scout cookies.

The x-marts have shaved costs so much that there isn’t any margin left for door-to-door sales.

It used to be that, if you weren’t taking a wage out ot it, you could compete on price. That’s not true any more.