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I was once a Girl Scout, so I felt the pain of the youth who recently solicited my doorstep, toting miserable little items some wholesaler had signed off on. The details of his pitch were lost in the miasma of pity I was projecting out to him. I begged off by taking one of his pamphlets, but what I didn’t know at the time was that his presence was in fact illegal according to the U.S. Department of Labor. For-profit door-to-door sales by minors are handled thusly in CA:
California (1994) - Prohibited for minors under age 16 except the sale of newspaper subscriptions by minors 12 to 16 years of age is permitted if certain conditions are met.
He wasn’t selling newspapers, and I couldn’t even safely say he was at least 12. The following states don’t permit any kind of door-to-door solicitation by minors:
- Alaska (1989) - Prohibited for minors under age 18
- Florida (1991) -
Prohibited for minors under age 16
- Maine (2001) - Prohibited for minors under age 16
- Missouri (1989/2002) - Prohibited for minors under age 16
- North Dakota (1993) - Prohibited for minors under age 16
I grew up in Michigan, and from what I can tell it’s still kosher for youngsters to darken doorsteps and peddle goods there. Selling Girl Scout cookies to strangers in the lobbies of sepulchral apartment buildings was bad enough. But playing collections agent six weeks later was way worse. I had a man tell me he’d given up yeast for lent, take the cookies from my hands, crumble them, and scatter them all over his front lawn. Let’s just say it had a formative impact on my “closing” ability. Were any of you encouraged to canvass neighborhoods as young entrepreneurs?
Comments (10)
Comment
I sold seeds door to door as a child. This was a time, early 60’s, when people had gardens. It also turned out to be my first horticultural job, I later worked in the field for 25 years in three states.
posted by gus on 12-6-2007 at 8:04 pm
I sold Girl scout cookies, oranges, magazines, turkey dinner tickets, and begged for items for the bands annual auction.
Makes me a sucker for the poor kids selling door to door.
posted by veetie on 12-6-2007 at 10:36 pm
i was the worst girl scout cookie saleswoman EVER. my best friend and I once tried to sell them on Super Bowl Sunday, just so we’d actually catch people at home. Needless to say, our presence on the doorstep wasn’t appreciated.
My little sister, however, was amazing. That girl could sell ice to Eskimos. Once, when she was maybe 7 years old, she stood outside of WalMart with her girl scout troop–and when a large, tattooed, muscle head sort of man stopped by in his pick up truck and tried to lumber past her table, she ran right up to him, and, with a charming, “Mister, would you like to buy some girl scout cookies?” she managed to sell him two boxes.
posted by kay on 12-7-2007 at 6:18 am
One youthful year, I sold the most Girl Scout cookies in Nebraska!
You get a bike for that.
I also tried my hand at our yearly grade school fundraisers (mostly chocolates and wrapping paper).
Then, there was the cookie dough and assorted cheeses we sold for our high school German club.
High school kids really garner a lot less enthusiasm from the door-to-door buyers…
posted by Kelly on 12-7-2007 at 9:05 am
Besides Girl Scout cookies, I helped raise money for the school marching band for years. Every year we sold the same item.
Fruitcakes.
I don’t know why so many people bought them; they must’ve felt sorry for us.
posted by Miss Cellania on 12-7-2007 at 9:34 am
I sold Pest Control door-to-door for two Summers (as an adult).
posted by Bob on 12-7-2007 at 9:49 am
Our elementry school made us compete for crappy plastic prizes by selling wrapping paper and gift baskets to people in a town where you had to walk a mile to get to the next house.
No ones parents were nice enough to drive us around.
Which might explain why everyone in our class was rail thin.
posted by Diane on 12-7-2007 at 9:58 am
The worst thing to have to sell door-to-door–and you Catholic school refugees of the ’70s will agree with me–are Holy Childhood Stamps. No, they are not actual postage. They are decorative, religious stick-ons. We had to sell them every year in Catholic school to raise money. I was also a girl scout. The misery of those experiences has kept me out of sales for the rest of my life.
posted by Lori L. on 12-7-2007 at 11:30 am
I was a girl scout for many, many years, and lived on the same block for that whole time. As such, I started as a cute 6 year-old, gained customers, and managed to maintain those same customers until we moved when I was 14. My best friend (who was also a girl scout) and I divided up the block, she got the even numbers, I got the odd. It worked well, and as we lived in suburban NJ, all the houses were close together.
The strangest thing that I had to sell was for this county orchestra that I was involved in in middle school. We had to sell ad space for the programs that we would give out at all of our concerts. This was nerve-wracking to sell, and I hated doing it. I think part of the problem was that I had NO idea how to sell it, or really, what it was that we were selling. (I never was very good at Economics- or sales.)
posted by greenstrawberries on 12-10-2007 at 2:04 am
We had to sell candy for fundraising for our school’s choir trip one year. We each got a big box chock full of GOOD candy, like Snickers and Skittles. They were $1 each, and once I got the box home I tore through about 1/4 of it myself… then sold the candy to my neighbors for $2 a pop. I’m bad.
But karma got me in the end- I’ve just had 15 cavities filled.
posted by Molly W. on 12-10-2007 at 12:39 pm