Our neighbors have what they advertise as an "estate sale" a couple times each summer. It's definitely "just a garage sale." Apparently using the fancy term "estate sale" lures in a better crowd. Anyways, the kids are always asking if and when we can have a garage sale. I always answer, "maybe some other time" but I really mean, "Never!" I have let them set up a garage sale of their own before but Nate got quite disgruntled only 20 minutes after he put up his sign at the end of our drive and no one had come to purchase his goods. And, I was admittedly relieved that no one actually came! While I support the idea of recycling and reusing, this was a good lesson in garage sales are a lot of work for little profit! We happened to be home and in town on one of the days our neighbors were having one of their sales. And, lucky for the kids, I was on board for a lemonade stand. So, we called our buddy Allie and asked her to come help us host because she lives in a traditional neighborhood in the city, has some experience in lemonade stands and we needed her to bring the lemonade! Seriously. Allie's mom, Naomi, only had fancy PINK raspberry Crystal Light Lemonade and it sold like hot cakes. That is, for a "country lane" lemonade stand.
The kids were bonkers and pretty good sales folks too. They worked diligently on signs and set up. They used their mini jeep and tractor to haul all the items out to the driveway split. I did realize after a couple of sales though that Nate was advertising $1 per glass! We had to have a little talk about appropriate pricing and marketing and more or less taking whatever people want to give to you and your cause.
Each kiddo walked away with a few dollars each and they were thrilled!
Absolute Rule of Thumb: ALWAYS stop at a Lemonade stand. Even if it means scraping sticky pennies out of your ashtray or trading for a piece of gum. The disappointment of a few cars not stopping or acknowledging their efforts was so disheartening!
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