The Camp Thunder Virtual Country Store - On Line Route 1 Box 518 Thundering Springs Road Molena, GA 30258 BSAStore@aol.com Greetings Cub Resident Camp Directors! I am Ed Henderson, the Business Manager for the Thunder Scout Reservation in the Flint River Council during the summer & a volunteer leader the rest of the time that has served on summer camp staffs at BSA camps around Georgia for the past 16 years. I was asked to share with you some of the tips & techniques which I have found help make your Camp Trading Post a successful part of your overall camp operation. Here are some timeless tips to help: * Find out how your Resident Camp fits into the overall plan for your summer camping program. Is your Resident Camp the only Cub Scout event at your camp or will Cuborees, Parent & Pal weekends, and Day Camps also be in the mix? Many camps tend to focus on their Boy Scout age population when considering merchandise for the Camp Store, remind these people of your needs. Tell your Trading Post purchaser what your Resident Camp theme is. This person is usually very familiar with many sources for program supplies as well as retail items and can even suggest craft items for your Resident Camp. It is quite possible that there may be more Cub Scouts visiting your camp during the course of a summer than Boy Scouts. Have they considered your population in selecting their retail mix? * Find out several month before camp who does the Trading Post ordering for camp. In some council's it is the Scout Shop Manager at the Scout Service Center, in some camps the Summer Camp Director or Business Manager does it. Some will allow the Trading Post Manager to do this, very often this is an older staff member hired for the summer. INTRODUCE YOURSELF to that person. Share ideas, and give them feedback on items you would like to see carried and other items you would prefer not be available (matches, sling shots, etc.) * Every council has a specified way of making orders and purchases for camp. DO NOT SURPRISE YOUR COUNCIL with orders for things for your Trading Post that have not been approved. Find out who is responsible for Purchase Orders, who makes the decisions about items to be sold. Remember that most camps do not want to keep a year round inventory of merchandise and not every items may be purchased in the quantity you would desire. At the same time be ready to make your case for items you know will be needed at your camp store. * Some councils don't fully consider the potential of their Trading Posts. All too often only one or two sources are used, and when an item is sold out, it is not reordered. Has your council considered making a real commitment to Cub Scout Merchandising? Our Council has a "Trading Post on Wheels" from our summer camp that will make a visit at the end of the week to reach of our five District Day Camps during the summer. We also have our Merchandise in before camp to accommodate other council wide events in late Spring. Thus we have our Trading Post open at everything from Day Camps, Resident Camp, Cub-O-Rees, Spook-O-Ree, and Parent & Pal weekends to going on site for the fall Cub Pow-Wow conference, Council Scout Shows, OA and other council events. This becomes an important source of revenue for the council and makes the task parents have of getting merchandise easier, especially when the scouts live far from the nearest scout shop. * Have a plan in place to monitor supply levels. See if your Scout Executive is willing to approve transfers of stock from the Scout Service Center Trading Post to the Camp Trading Post (either way) so that neither site runs out of merchandise during the summer. * No Camp Director wants Parents & Leaders fleeing camp to get provisions. Many parents attending events with their cubs are...well...less than experienced campers. Does your Trading Post stock Sundries like Toothpaste, Soap, Travel Size Shampoo? You can find a local Convenience Store Distributor or even make purchases at a Sam's to stock your needs for the summer. Batteries are a must. If Coffee is not offered all day free of charge, see to it that the Trading Post has cups of Coffee for sell. * Make use of your Resources. Supply Division prints suggested items they recommend every summer camp Trading Post stock. They have special lists for Cub Scout Events. I have heard of stories where camps placed orders only using the Boy Scout list and the Cubs found a void of Cub Camping equipment in the camp store! Hey stuff like than can happen in the Spring, especially if someone new is handling that part of the job. * Talk to your Program Director about the Trading Post. What are the opportunities and potential obstacles to avoid. What hours do you want the Trading Post open? If you don't communicate this, it might be open at times which could disrupt your program. What fun kinds of programs can be done involving the Trading Post? Consider a "Treasure Trash" or Mystery Coke Can" as part of an overall liter control program for camp. Stress Recycling! * Is your Resident Camp running at your council's summer camp during staff week or at the tail end of camp? In both cases there are pitfalls to avoid. This Resident Camp experience is very important to the boys who will be there, they deserve the same opportunity to be able to purchase items from the camp store. PLAN AHEAD to insure that staffing and merchandise are available during your Resident Program to the greatest extent possible. * Supply Division is a great source for filling your Trading Post shelves with Merchandise. Ever items they supply helps the movement, and your council can take advantage of a very generous credit policy that allows a camp to delay payment of Trading Post items until the end of the summer. This is a tremendous advantage that generally a camp won't find from any other vendor. At the same time, a Camp that considers Supply Division to be the only source for supplies and equipment might be missing out on great opportunities. Also consider some non traditional Summer Camp supply items. Consider experimenting with Uniform items, you would be surprised how fast Tiger Cub Shirts can move at a Parent & Pal weekend! * Some of my hottest selling books are "Scouting Books" not available from Supply Division. Cub Leader's went wild buying such hot titles as "All the Applause We Could Find" which is a Cub Scout Cheer Book privately produced by Thorne Publishers or the "Canyon Campfire Companion" produced by a Scout Council in Illinois which is by far the best skit, song, and cheer book produced for scouts. It too is not offered from Supply Division. Try selling (and playing inside the Trading Post) some of the awesome Cassette Tapes from BSA Audio Visual Services like "Cub Scout Songtime" which your Trading Post person must order separately from BSA Audio Visual Services in Texas, it is just one of several very marketable items for a camp store. Consider some hot trendy items like POGS (they flew all summer, we are even considering developing a Scouting POG game to market to other councils). Kids love Rabbit Skins, but you will need to check with suppliers like Tandy or my favorite, the Leather Factory. I have dozens of these kind of sources to share! * Be aggressive in your purchasing, collect catalogs or send out lists and ask for Bids. S & S Worldwide, a supplier to the BSA was able to give me unbelievable prices and service all last summer. Ask someone at the Scout Office what do they do with equipment, arts & craft, and merchandise catalogs that come in from Vendors. Usually they are deposited in one place for DE's and others to look at and peruse. I have a printout of all of our favorite vendors & what we purchase from them that I would be happy to E-Mail anyone. Additionally Thunder Scout Reservation orders in huge bulk quantities and ships wholesale to other camps & councils many hard to find items not available through supply division.. The address for our Camp Trading Post is BSAstore@aol.com * Consider the little tykes in purchasing. One year our camp did a fine job of ordering T-Shirts for every event imaginable AND THEY WERE ALL IN ADULT SIZES!!! Make sure your T-Shirt supplier knows your target audience, very often they can suggest a size mix that works. * Is your camp junk food central? Your Trading Post should meet the needs of what folks want but be sure to offer health conscious alternatives. Want to know some amazing things: Overpriced Evian or Naya type plain water sells extremely well in hot weather, even when there are free water faucets all over camp. Premium drinks like Arizona teas or Mystic also move well. In any hot Southern Region camp make sure you sell an isotonic beverage like Gatoraide or Coca-Cola's Poweraide line. As you set up deliveries for these folks don't hesitate to hit them up for freebies like Watercoolers, Banners, etc. They view these as product advertising costs and it gives you some free items for program prizes. * If the task of purchasing falls on you, ask your Scout Executive if there are local vendors who are Friends of Scouting. One of their jobs is to make contacts in the community and you, as Trading Post Purchaser, are in a driver's seat to award some heavy business to those businesses that support the council! It will make their jobs easier when FOS time comes around. * Consider making your Trading Post a lost & found center. Ask what functions it can provide to support the overall program in camp. What are some of the things we can do to make every camper happy. Have you considered allowing campers to prepay their spending money at the Trading Post and then charging against it in an effort to prevent kids from loosing money? Can scouts get stamps & postcards there? * Did your council sell Scout Show tickets or Trails End Popcorn? Did they award Scout Show Bucks for scouts to purchase items at the Scout Shop? Is your Trading Post set up to receive these bucks? * Who will staff the Trading Post? Someone from your staff, or will the person who runs it for the summer camp be there during Webelo Resident Camp. Kids will be asking that person a lot of questions. Is he briefed to be able to answer basic questions about your program? Can he help scouts make selections that are appropriate to your goals as Directors? * You want to plug your Resident Camp to other Cub Scouters in the council. How many imprinted items do you sell that scouts are apt to wear. Remember every time a kid wears a Resident Camp T-Shirt for the next year it is a free billboard at the Elementary School for your program. Are they attractive, are they value priced? Your goal should be to really push these items, even if you make less money on them, the goal here is maximum use! I hope I have given you some good ideas to follow. A few years ago our Camp Trading Post was the typical uninspired snack shack. In the last two years we have blown the doors off of our Trading Post to the point that this year we expect to hit the $100,000 sells mark. Leader's now bring their unit checkbooks, and parents have phoned, fax, and E-Mailed Credit Card orders because we have what they want. Your Trading Post operation should not be an afterthought, but part of an overall plan to present to your camp community a great summer experience while providing important revenue for your council coffers that will be recycled back into even better programs, equipment, and camping facilities for your scouts. YIS (Yours in Scouting as we say on the Internet), Ed Henderson BigEdBSA@aol.com