Boy Scout Popcorn Time

We were lounging around watching football yesterday when the doorbell rings. It's a cub scout, maybe 9 years old, with an all too familiar sign-up sheet in hand. I'm normally pretty good at turning away door to door peddlers, but I bought from this kid. Call it a shared miserable experience.

What we got was a tin of chocolate covered caramel corn. Cost: $16. It's a good quality product, but for that price it ought to be.


The regular box of microwave popcorn, what went for an overpriced $5 when I was forced to sell it as a kid, is now priced at an insane $13. The traditional non-microwave popping corn is no longer offered. Instead, they sling a variety of gift tins, the most expensive of which was $50.


Whoever these Trails End people are, they've got a good thing going. They inflate their product prices to up to 400% or regular retail value. Then, they get armys of cute kids (and their parents) to go door to door making sales in exchange for maybe 40% of the take. Can you say slave labor?