2024, Business, education, Kids, Uncategorized

Sidewalk Sales

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Photo credit: Ames History Museum

On Sunday, my little neighbors Minnie and Marie came home from errands with their folks and decided to have an “Icee” stand down on the boulevard.  I was weeding in my yard so I got a front row seat to all the proceedings.  First off, “icee” was a misnomer, since they were actually selling those Fla-vor ice pops but they had their signs made so I wasn’t going to quibble.  They also were giving out dog treats free and borrowed one of Guinevere’s bowls so they could have water for dogs as well.

Most of the work for setting this up was done by their folks and then Dad sat up on the driveway with his laptop as they got going.  They were selling the ice pops for $1.00 – a long cry from the 5 cents that was the going rate for a cup of Kool-aid when I was a kid – but that didn’t seem to stop anybody (including yours truly).  Of course, there was also some sampling of their own product as well.  Even on a busy street like ours, a few people actually stopped as they were driving by.  A third neighbor child, Lindsay, joined them for the last hour, although it was clear they were all flagging by then.

Minnie told me that they made $18 and then confided that it was really boring.  They were open for 3 hours total (they took a break for lunch), so that’s 6 ice pops per hour… not terribly rigorous traffic. 

I had several Kool-aid stands when I was a kid.  The house we lived on when I was Minnie’s age was on a corner lot of a fairly busy street.  Like most kid-run stands, my folks paid for the Kool-aid, the sugar, the cups and any other supplies that were used.  One time my father suggested that we kids split the profit with him since he had paid for everything.  Unfortunately this lead to graft and a second set of “books”. He never asked again.

Did you ever sell stuff as a kid?

40 thoughts on “Sidewalk Sales”

  1. We were the only house at the end of a one-mile dirt road. Very low traffic. It still is at the end, but there are many houses on it and it is paved most of the mile but not to the end. My mother and then later my sister and I did make Kool-aid made with water pumped by hand directly from the well. Then one day when we were maybe 12 and 10 we realized how terrible it tasted.
    The one-armed typer.

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  2. There were Kool-Aid stands. Our mothers provided the Kool-Aid, the sugar, the pitcher and the cups. It was a small price to pay to keep us occupied for a couple of hours.

    I remember various fundraising schemes for cub scouts, school, etc. that entailed going from door to door and trying to sell overpriced commodity items like chocolate bars or light bulbs—light bulbs!—to the neighbors. Selling something door to door was the default idea for unimaginative adults organizing a fundraiser. I was hopeless at it. The primary beneficiary was the company providing the product.

    Then there were the selling opportunities offered in the back of comic books, none of which tempted me in the least. The promise was, you could “Make big money!” selling greeting cards, or Grit!—America’s number one family newspaper—or Cloverine brand salve, whatever that was.

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  3. What are the ages of all these kids, VS? Minnie and Marie sounds like a great title for a story!

    I think we had just one lemonade stand, and this would have been on a quiet street in Storm Lake, IA. Same parameters as above… My sister may have had one later, in Marshalltown…

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    1. Minnie is nine and just had her fifth grade graduation yesterday. Marie is five and just finished Kindergarten. And I know you didn’t ask, but Lindsay is seven or eight.

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  5. My friends and I might have had a lemonade stand as young kids but I really don’t remember. I did have to sell some stuff in high school. The band members sold candy bars as a fundraiser (can’t remember the brand but were billed as the world’s greatest chocolate and they were big). We sold them during lunch at school – no door to door selling. The traditional senior class trip was a long weekend in Chicago – taking the train and staying at the Palmer House Hotel. As juniors, we were “required” to sell magazines in order to defray our individual costs. I lived in a town of about 650 people and there were about 10 kids in my class living in town plus a bunch of others living in the surrounding countryside. We had to hustle our butts to be the first one knocking on the doors. Looking back, I’m sure the town families dreaded the annual Spring magazine sale. And I hated it, too.

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  7. I was a Girl Scout and participated in the cookie sales, although I was terrible at it. I’ve never liked trying to sell things to people. It feels like such an imposition to me. It’s uncomfortable and makes me unhappy. The accounting part bores me to tears. I’m not a salesperson.

    My childhood best friend, Mickey, and I tried to sell Kool-aid once. We lived on a fairly busy residential street in Owatonna – Grove Avenue. Of course, the Kool-aid, sugar, pitcher and cups came out of my mom’s pantry. Mom had lots of card tables for her bridge club, so we used one of those too. I don’t remember how much we made but I’m pretty sure it was less than a dollar. Neither of us were very focused on it. People did stop and we made some sales, but I don’t think either of us enjoyed it very much.

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  8. OT: Ben, if you have eggs and if folks want them, I can come to Rochester and pick some up. Jacque and PJ want some, I’ll take some too. Anyone else? VS?

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    2. Lou and I are headed back to Rochester next Thursday for a small procedure. Let me know if I can pick them up, but Krista if you want to pick them up before that it is fine with me.

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        1. I can swing down to Northfield to pick up eggs if you’re picking them up from the farm. I can deliver in the Twin Cities..,, two dozen for me if there enough….

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        2. VS: Let’s wait. I think Jacque and Lou will pick them up next Thursday. Ben’s busy until next week so waiting is good.

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  9. RIse and Shine Baboons, from JacAnon,

    I sold lots of stuff as a kid as fundraisers for girl scouts (cookies), 4H (Bake Sales and fair food stands), and band (chocolate bars). Then there were magazines for something or the other which was my least favorite thing to sell. I was a pretty good salesperson, but I sure did not want to choose sales as a career! I don’t remember any Kool Aid stands, but my mom’s Kool aid was so watered down and weak, no one would have ever bought it.

    Ben, we need to set up an egg stand for you.

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  10. My sister’s lemonade stand did well. I got my beak wet. “Nice lemonade stand you’ve got there. It’d be a shame if anything happened to it.”

    About that last part…I never said that.

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  11. When I was five or six years old, I liked to play grocery store with the two grandsons of the elderly couple that lived across the street from us. Mrs. Carlsen provided the card table, and the various nuts, berries, sugar, individually wrapped candies, and whatever else we could think of selling. As our “butik” was inside their garden, which was surrounded by a tall hedge, there was no traffic, so Mrs. Carlson was also our only customer. This was at a time when you were waited on by the grocer when you went grocery shopping; the concept of picking your own groceries off the shelf and putting them in a basket hadn’t yet reached Stubbekøbing. The boys and I would take turns waiting on Mrs. Carlsen with a solicitous “Hva’ sku’ det være?” We’d play this game till each of us had earned 25 øre, enough for a popsicle at the local ice cream store. Then we’d be off on our next adventure.

    Fortunately I have never had to sell anything to raise funds for anything. If I needed money for something, I’d have to earn it my mowing lawns, babysitting, or whatever else I could figure out. Just as well, I’m a seriously poor salesperson.

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        1. She truly was a wonderful old lady. Her two grandsons lived in Copenhagen, but would come to Stubbekøbing for a couple of weeks each summer, and we made the most of it.

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  12. I did sell Girl Scout cookies when I was younger but I don’t remember anything else (except the lemonade stand).

    YA, on the other hand, is fabulous at “kid selling”. For four years running, she raised the most money for her school’s read-a-thon and she was also the top cookie seller in her girl scout region for two years. I can still hear her saying “can we call…..?” For the girl scout cookies, she would come into my work and sit in the lunchroom (by herself) for half a day. So so many cookies!!!

    And once, she was determined to have a cotton candy machine at our annual national night out festivities. I told her that I just couldn’t afford it. She said “if I can raise the money, can we ?” Twenty minutes later she was home with an envelope full of cash ($50) from various neighbors. If I’m remembering she was in 4th grade.

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