Death of a (kid) salesman

Recently a local junior high school kid from the neighborhood knocked on our door.  He was selling something for glee club and asked if I would help support them.  Sure thing kid, I watch Glee, I’m down with your creative vocal talents, let’s see this catalogue of nuts, food or chocolate.

Either this club had huge overhead or the school hadn’t shopped around for efficient fundraisers because the lowest price item was $13. Yup, the items peaked at $45 and started at a Stromboli that our budding vocalist assured me was very good. 

Memo to budding school programs trying to earn money:  How much will overpriced Stromboli, pasta and $25 chocolate cakes really make for the program in the long run?   Next year we’ll remember that this was the youth who was selling the expensive stuff and either not order or perhaps not answer the door.  Ironically enough, our door bell is broken and were it not for the dogs barking wouldn’t have known somebody was there at all.

I was caught off guard by the high prices. Instead of looking for what I wanted, I looked for what was the cheapest.  We want to support the kids in our neighborhood with their extracurricular activities; but more than a dozen kids in our area doing this could add up very quickly.

After this experience my wife told me that many more kids will come to the door now.  Like blood in the water for sharks, we were now easy marks for the tween Willy Loman set.

Sure enough, the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and another school activity came knocking within the next month.   That tapping sound that you hear is my wife’s foot, letting me know that she was right.

So now we have an unofficial policy in the Mojo house.  If we know the child and the item is under $10, then we can purchase.  If the item is a known favorite, Samoa’s or Thin Mints, then we can order a couple of them.    

 At the risk of sounding like the grumpy middle aged man who had to walk uphill to school; when I was a kid we didn’t sell $13 Stromboli’s.   I remember selling America’s Finest Chocolates.  It was a nice experience where I learned the basics of work and reward.  But they were also only $1 and our customer base was the students, in addition to anybody in our neighborhoods. 

I’d love to know how other dads and stay at home parents handle kids selling stuff for school.  We like our current policy, but are always open to amending it, especially if it comes with a box of cookies.

Note:  No children were sold or died during the writing of “Death of a (kid) Salesman”.  The title is a subtle pun at Death of a Salesman.  The closest anybody came to death during this piece was Daddy Mojo at the hands of his wife; when he purchased the initial food from the neighborhood glee club kid.