Cub Scouts was when I learned to love sales. I’d go knock all the neighborhood doors with my catalog of popcorn and ask if anyone wanted to buy some. The sales weren’t great, but I had a few customers who were consistent, and it was always fun to see who repeated their orders verbatim and who mixed it up. We also had some family friends who ordered, and of course, my family always got a good buy in as well.
But my favorite part of popcorn selling was when we were in front of the stores.1 We’d sit out with our table in front of Ace Hardware, and that was okay. Depending on the heat of the day, it was slightly less or more than okay, and the sales numbers varied by the day. My favorite spots were the ones in the busier shopping malls, and I drove out many a sale from those afraid of Cub Scouts.
In one instance, I spotted a person walk into the street to try and avoid our table, but I spotted them and ran out and asked if they wanted to buy popcorn. They did. (Or perhaps they didn’t want to say no to third grade me.) Another time, our prospective customer didn’t have any cash. Helpful as ever, I noted that there was an ATM just around the corner, so they could come back once they’d grabbed the money they needed. Suffice to say, I was unwilling to let people avoid an ask that I made of them by dodging out of the way. I was in it to win the sales, and sell those 16 oz. bags of caramel corn.2 I’d take no for an answer, but they darn well had to say it before I gave up on finding increasingly cockamamie solutions to problems that they’d claim.
Man, I miss when my highest aspiration was to become a cabinet salesman. (Yes, that did actually happen.)
Footnotes
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When I typed this originally, for some reason, I typed it as “stoors.” Unfortunately, I am not discussing Hobbits. ↩
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I really don’t get caramel corn. It’s so sticky. Sure it tastes good, but for the prices you’re paying for Cub Scout popcorn, it isn’t worth it unless you’re trying to support the scouts, which to be fair, you are, to a much greater degree than when you buy girl scout cookies too. Cub Scouts are raking in 70% of earnings, while girl scouts are way less. ↩