Lemonade: $.50 (or $.25 if you prefer)
Decatur Metro | July 1, 2009
Suzanne points us over to a great post she wrote for Playborhood.com, about two young Decaturites who decided they wanted participate in a great American past-time this summer: making money!
Here’s a taste of Suzanne’s post, entitled “An Old Fashioned Capitalist Summer”, to wet your appetite…
Today, my 9 y.o. and her friend put together a lemonade stand. Each cup was “$.50.” However, the sign had very small writing in parentheses in the bottom corner saying “Or $.25 if you prefer.” They hoped that no one would notice the fine print in the bottom corner. They were equipped with my crystal pitcher (which I reluctantly donated b/c my daughter wanted a “classy operation”) and the usual cups and napkins.
Click over to finish the story and see how the kids made a whopping 15 bucks!
Suzanne also suggests we use this post to alert the greater Decatur area of lemonade stands in the city throughout the summer so “none of our residents have to go without cheap lemonade on demand.”
So feel free, though I’m sure there’s an iPhone app for that. 
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I would love to know where lemonade stands are being held. Hubs and I drove all around Decatur and Avondale a few Sundays ago in search of a lemonade stand – did not see a single one. I was afraid it was a lost art. Any happening this evening? I could use a cold glass about now.
Enron accounting: They probably drank the bulk of their profits.
I’m all for lemonade stands, but the last time I patronized one, they were pushing some Crystal Light crap. First lesson of running a lemonade stand is to use real lemons and real sugar, kids, preferably in the right proportions.
No, I don’t care that you’re only 8.
Let me explain something about your drive-by lemonade stand. If the “real thing” is being served with fresh squeezed lemons, then the amount of labor that goes into going out and buying 30-40 lemons, washing and squeezing the lemons, adding the sugar, water, and ice, cleaning the incredible, sticky mess left in the kitchen, setting up the stand down at the road, and hauling batches up and down the driveway to replenish the stand, not to mention the cost of paper cups and the surveillance from the living room window to make sure no one runs off with the kids, means that your 25 – 50 cent cup of lemonade is really worth about $4.50/cup like what they charge at the festivals in downtown Decatur. I can do this about twice a summer. The rest of the time, it’s frozen lemonade reconstituted or no lemonade at all. I’m not a fan of Crystal Light but it’s about what you deserve for 25 cents per cup and is probably better for you than the real thing.
Lemonade stands are wonderful things, a lot better than graffiti and other things kids do in the summer. I buy at every roadside lemonade stand I can safely stop at. Behind every great lemonade stand is a great mother!
But we consumers demand quality!
Not to re-start the great “Free-Range Kids War of Spring 09″, but is “surveillance from the living room window to make sure no one runs off with the kids” really necessary? Sure, I’d be keeping an eye on the stand, but my bigger concern would be that no one started throwing lemonade at each other in the down times.
I will confess that I leave the surveillance post to go to the bathroom. And if necessary, I can eliminate that cost element for lemonade stands that are not on busy streets or near recent shootings. It’s $4.30/cup now. Still a deal for anyone paying 50 cents.
Suzanne can correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure playborhood.com is a free-range site (note how the kids just take off down the street), which makes Snowflake’s comment all the more interesting.
Free range play outside is a parenting choice. Free range fresh-squeezed lemony, sugary play in my kitchen is a big, sticky mess!!!
Glad concentrate is ok because the fresh-squeezed is better, but not better enough to do frequently for just 25-50 cents per cup. And the 25-50 cents is a critical part of the experience–little ones learn to count by quarters up to a dollar. Taking credit cards for $4.30 latte-quality lemonade just wouldn’t be as good a math experience.
Honestly, I’d happily pay $1 for fresh-squeezed than .25 or .50 for powder. But I might be in the minority.
When we were kids I seem to recall mixing everything outside, so the kitchen didn’t get messy. But I think we were a little older (like 10?) so had greater dexterity and focus (and understanding that making a mess made the whole thing less pleasant and would not help sales). Honestly don’t remember if Mom pre-cut the lemons for us or not. I guess she probably did.
Didn’t mean to start a lemonade war!
Back in my day, we ran our lemonade stands in the old-fashioned way: by playing Lemonade Stand on the Apple IIE.
Memories!!! I hadn’t thought about that game in years!
WOW! I used to dominate that game. At least until the ‘lightning’ would come along. Memories indeed – thanks for bringing that up.
Was just playing it on my iPhone this weekend, actually. The game stands the test of time.
Ok with the concentrate…Crystal Light not so much.
I can remember trolling around the neighborhood looking for bottles which I could return for deposit, or asking for any work so that I could earn money for Six Flags, or skating trips to the Igloo on Roswell Road with the church group, fireworks (illegaly secured across the Alabama border), or just movie money.
THere was even a grocery store we could take coupons to and turn in for cash…we didn’t have to buy anything.
Those were the days my friends, we thought they would never end!
I sold Blow Pops on the school bus for 50 cents each. I made a fortune.
A young entrepreneur in my school ran a sports book.
And he was the son of a police captain.
Hey, I knew a minister’s son that did the same thing AND distributed, er, uhm, prurient periodicals.
Are you from Florida too?
Hah! yes, WGibbets, I am from the Sunshine State, as well. South Florida.
FYI, as of now… my “capitalist pig daughter” and her friends do have a small streak of philanthropy. They will be donating half their cash at the end of the summer to Animal Action Rescue.
BTW, they are willing to offer franchise opportunities to anyone interested – for a fee of course.
Playborhood is a great website. If you have kids and haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend it.
Also, yes… if your kids are selling lemonade… pls post here. We need to check out the competition!… just kidding.. we want to support all lemonade efforts this summer!