Last weekend the girls were inspired to set up a lemonade and cookie stand. The one from last year stands out positively in their memory (at least Josie’s). This year Celia needed to earn some money to buy herself a princess dress (because Mommy doesn’t buy those). I’m sure you’ll be seeing some more photos of that coming. She had most of the money but needed another $10. Josie is always interested in making more money, although isn’t one to spend it. She bought herself a dress too, but she had enough money already, this was just icing on the cake.

This year unlike last year, we bought the lemonade (Costco organic, well reviewed for those curious) instead of making it ourselves, but Celia and I got cracking early in the morning to make the cookies from scratch. We calculated we’d need to sell more than one batch of cookies if we sold them two for 50 cents, or we could try to charge more and might not sell enough. Celia opted for selling larger quantities at a lower price point. The weather was good, so after spending several hours baking, we headed down to our primo sales spot right on the bike path, near the dog park, and the soccer players. The girls agreed in advance they’d split the profits (once they paid me back for the supplies).

Lemonade was also 50 cents a (10oz) cup. Apparently the market supports a price point of $1 per cup because probably 75% of people buying paid us that much. The lemonade sold well, although not quite as fast as last year because it wasn’t quite so hot outside. We spent about two hours and in the end they made $34. The cookies were a tougher sell as a lot of people on the bike path are rather health conscious (they are out exercising after all!). Celia did well though making sure people knew we had homemade cookies and we sold about two thirds of them.

Then in the afternoon we moved our sale to my parents driveway in Lexington for an hour. We were all set up and had more goods to sell, so they invited us there. They promised thirsty bikers stop in front of their house regularly as it is at the top of the hill. Sales were drastically slower here but we discovered a different demographic that was very susceptible to ours sales tactics: guys out biking with girls they were looking to impress. What better way to show you’re a kind and family guy by stopping at some kids lemonade stand to support them! We also had one car even pull a u-turn to support the girls. Celia lost interest really quickly into the efforts in Lexington and went to play in the pool and Josie joined her before too long but overall they made out really well, even if they did squeeze their grandparents for money for their goods. I insisted that as the prime worker I deserved some free refreshments.

In the end they spent $27 on ingredients and made a profit of $34.25. Celia learned a lot about sales tactics and both practiced their customer service (like not putting your finger on the inside of the cup or spilling the drink on your customer). I remember why I only agree to do this once a year. Maybe next year we should sell pretzels instead, salty not sweet.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2015 at 4:09 pm by Jen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.