So I get home from work yesterday to find the entire family in a state of excitement (well, everyone except my 11 year old who is spending the next couple of weeks at his grandparents out of town). My oldest daughter (10) has decided that she wants to open a candy stand. My wife adores the idea. Her younger sisters (8 and 6) are practically shaking with anticipation. They want to help! So, while I make dinner (hotdogs and tatertots), the rest of the family gets busy making a stand and signs for the business.
After dinner we all hop in the van and head to a few grocery and super stores looking for good deals. What did we end up with you ask (all paid for with my 10 year old’s savings)? Well, I’ll tell you:
24 cans of pop ($2.80)
50 pixie sticks ($1.50)
12 pop rocks ($2.00)
20 tootsie roll pops ($1.00)
81 individually wrapped pieces of gum ($1.50)
10 individually wrapped Reeses sticks ($1.00)
10 individually wrapped Kit Kats (1.00)
24 atomic fireballs (.88)
Me and the wife donate a half opened bag of Creme Lifesavers, approximately another half pound of root beer barrels (they’re a hard candy with rootbeer flavoring), and a bag (unpopped) of microwave popcorn (which she’ll pop and individually package into 4 smaller bags). I also empty an old multi-compartmented box full of knickknacks and donate it as her cashbox.
We decided to set the prices as follows:
Ice cold can of pop (.35)
Pixie stick (.05)
Pop rock (.25)
Tootsie roll pops (.10)
Pieces of gum (.05)
1 Reeses stick (.20)
1 Kit Kat (.20)
Atomic fireball (.10)
Rootbeer barrel (.05)
Creme Lifesaver (.05)
One bag popcorn ($.25)
The “Snack Shack” opened today with great fanfare! My 6 year old snitched some coins from my change jar for her purchases (hmm… I’ll have to talk to her about her Robinhood ways) and some business was generated from kids who live on the street (a few cans of pop were sold as well as a handful of candy). The highlight of the day so far was a cute teenage girl who decided to stop for a purchase or two whilst driving by. That really pscyhed my daughter up. I can’t really see my daughter really emptying her entire inventory in any reasonable amount of time, but she’s having fun and I think it’ll be a learning experience.
So. I’ve related a tale of a childs quest for money. What did you do to earn a few shillings whilst in your formative years?
Lemonade stand. We did nice business and often got some cars to pull over and buy some.
My big money was during the dog show at the local community college. In August. It was about a ten minute walk from my house. I would load up my wagon with a big cooler of ice cold water and another one of ice cold homemade lemonade (we had a lemon tree in the backyard). Water for the doggies and lemonade for the people.
I set up a lemonade stand for a couple weeks one summer when I was a kid. The mailman was my only regular customer. And then one day there was that creepy guy who kept driving by every ten minutes one day and buying another cup of lemonade. Weeeeird.
I sold Coke at high school. We bought slabs from the supermarket and undercut the school’s canteen. We didn’t make much profit, mostly because we drunk all our stock, but it did give us a good excuse to talk to the cute girls a couple of years younger than us.
The school eventually found out, and cut us a deal. We quit the dealing, they don’t mention it again. We saw the light and shut down. It was fun while it lasted though.
Our biggest day of business was the annual Cross Country run. We set up shop half way through the track and sold Coke to thirsty kids who’ve run over a k and still have another k to go. We got rid of an esky full in 20 minutes.
If anyone’s looking at starting their own business, Mountain Dew is by far the best seller.
My brother and his friends used to mow lawns and clean gutters for money. I’ve still got a picture of him at age 9 trying to ride his bike down the street with the lawnmower roped behind it. They also took all the gourds out of my mother’s garden one fall and hauled them around door to door in a wagon trying to sell them. I think they actually did sell a couple.
I had a paper route when I was about 14. Also my sibs and I had a lemonade stand one summer. Mostly I mowed neighbors’ lawns. When I started I got 25 cents per lawn (this was in the fifties). AND I NEVER PAID TAXES ON IT. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Well, once I was at my grandmother’s, and I tried to sell Apple Blossums from her tree. The only person who bought one was my gramma’s neighbor and best friend. Oh well, I wasn’t doing it for money so much as I was really, really bored.
My sister and the kids next door once had a Kool-Aid stand. It just happened to be at the same time as some major repair work being done on the street below. A bunch of the work men came up and would buy some.
I think we still have a picture of them (the kids) with their mouths all red).
I sold grapefruit and oranges from our trees. Fifty cents or so a bag, but it was all profit. A couple of years later we had chickens and I helped get the extra eggs to the co-op, just like a regular grown-up, since the chickens were my responsibility. I did so with great reluctance since I am not comfortable in sales at all. Good to find out early I suppose.