The lemonade was a powdered mix but it was more than offset by the awesome cupcakes and brownies that Mom made. I also added a few things I thought I could unload easily if I put them at the table (some toy cars, a few books, the children).
Pricing was a problem because they wanted to sell the brownies for $10. When I asked them (stupidly) if they would spend $10 for a brownie, I received a resounding, "YES!" Well, the going rate at other stands seems to be a dollar for lemonade and a dollar for brownies, but I always felt that was overpriced. So we went out with $0.50 for a brownie and $0.50 for a drink, i.e. $1 for a drink and a snack - that seemed reasonable.
I made the signage, Mom made the food with Daniel's help, and Lev made the pricetags. Molloy would be our sexy eye-candy to spur sales.
We carted a table and chairs and all of our wares down to the bottom of the street by the mailboxes and set up shop. Unfortunately, it was Saturday July 4 and most everyone was away for the weekend. When the occasional car did drive by, the boys were disappointed that every one of them did not stop. But eventually our neighbors drove by and made some purchases, which prompted other cars to stop. At one point, they were serving 3 cars and the shop was pretty busy (can you say, "franchising"?).
Lev is quite the salesman, trying to encourage extra purchasing. No one cared much about any of the toys so they started giving them away if someone spent a reasonable amount of money (about $3.00).
It is nice to see strangers stop and buy a brownie or ask for a drink. They clearly don't give a hoot about the brownie; they just want to support the enterprising effort and I thanked them all separately.
The kids made $10.75 each in about 3 hours and I convinced them to each give Mom $1.00 for her efforts, which they did without complaint.
But now Lev is ready to buy his Lego Republic Gunship and is very excited. He has filled out his withdrawal slip for the bank and he will get his hard-earned money and experience the excitement of buying something he chose and earned.
