Go figure eh? No accounting for some peoples tastes. The brownies and cookies were probably made from mixes too.

I would have bought yours Loves2cook4six.

Ann

Isn't that the way it always goes. After you went to all of that trouble. Sorry it worked out that way. Next time you may as well take a boxed brownie mix and make it easy on yourself.

Beverly

What a shame! I am always amazed at some of the things people buy and what they pass up.

No matter if it is a bake sale, a garage sale, farmer's market, craft show, etc.

Some of the weirdest stuff goes and the quality items just sit.

Linda

Well, in a way it makes sense, people are going to buy what they are familiar with, especially at a bake sale at a school. We are not talking gourmet taste here, especially among kids. Most people never eat outside of their comfort zone.

I'm always shocked by the reaction when I bring something "new" into work. It's only new to my coworkers, who have never had brie, or unsliced bread with real butter and cheese sliced off a block, or red, yellow and orange peppers, sliced and dipped into ranch dressing!

Barb

Do you think that Cheeta witches poop would've sold?

There were over 1000 people at the dance performance last night and they made $25 on the bake sale - for shame.

Honestly though, I get why hardly anyone volunteers to bake for these things.

I want to be in charge of it next year.

First think I will do is BRING A TABLECLOTH and not serve on clear platters on a dirty white plastic table that looked like it came out of the school cafeteria.

Everything will be on cake platters with glass domes and TONGS for serving. Little paper plates and napkins. I am going to make it look like Starbucks or Panera or die trying LOL (And I could probably pull it off just with things from my own house - OMG, I LOVE this stuff)

Wait, I need to make that chocolate bacon treat from the other thread - bet that would sell...or not :)

That's why when asked to contribute to a bake sale...I just hand them five bucks.
I can't do the cake mix brownies, home made bread doesn't sell to most of the crowds...
Adn I won't go to cookie exchanges either! Too many jello jigglers brought and butter short breads taken home.
Linda C,,,,for curmudgeon

I am so sorry because I know how much work you put into the two scrumptious treats. It is so disappointing and frustrating. I'd wonder why did I try so hard?

I make dessert for kids attending an at-risk after school program. Was told don't make anything the kids don't recognize. They won't eat it. One lady made homemade baked mac and cheese for their supper. The kids wouldn't eat it; it didn't taste like the blue-box stuff they eat at home.

Linda, right on! I made cookies for a bake sale that they priced at less than the cost of the ingredients. Organic butter, eggs and flour and gourmet chocolate. Last time I did that!

I would have snatched up your Almond Roca! I come from Brown & Haley country!

I'm sorry you put all that work in for a small result. The lesson to be learned is "Play to your audience or find somewhere else to play." For a school fundraiser, cupcakes, brownies, cookies with chocolate chips or M&M's sell best so if you want the organization to make money, that's what to provide.

I'll be baking for a bake sale for a historical society event in February - mostly all women, lots of good cooks, no kids - so that's the time to make something special that the attendees will appreciate and buy.

I've also learned that the price point matters big time.

No matter what you make, no matter how expensive the ingredients, or how time consuming the treat, it needs to be priced with the boxed brownies. Also agree with others it has to be something most people recognize. So go with the flow.

Bake sales are what they are.....

This was the dance performance and the audience certainly had enough grandparents, aunts, uncles and other adults to offset the kids.

Last week the Theater performance had cookies, chocolate croissants and cakes at their bake sale and it was beautifully presented. They made over $500!! All in the presentation I tell ya ;-)

Ruthanna, need any popcorn or Almond Roca?

Hey, Lindac, we should do a cookie exchange on THIS board. I would LOVE to do that. Any guidelines?

I'd be grumbling, loves2cook ... I have to tell you that I wouldn't have bought stuff that was sitting out, smudged/fingerprinted, etc. just on principle. Reminds me of the receptionist reaching under her desk and handing my kid a pretzel rod at the pediatrician's office when we're leaving. Be in charge next year -- your ideas sound spot on!

Cotehele -- laughing at the "blue box" comment.

Cathy in SWPA

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. I've had similar situations & it left me feeling "bah humbug".

Over the years, I've learned that if I make regular cut-out cookies...people won't pay enough to cover the costs of the organic butter, eggs, & KA flour that I use no matter how time-consuming & pretty the decorations (hand-painted, etc.). So, I refuse to make them anymore for fund-raisers.

If, however, I make those SAME EXACT cookies & use the large 6" fancy cutters & wrap them individually...people will pay $3.25/cookie even with simplier decorations. Go figure! If I make molded cookies, they will pay $3.75. There's some type of "perceived" value, I guess, in "bigger is better" no matter the reality of what you are actually getting?

I agree that presentation is very important!

/tricia

My DD loves to bake. She was asked to contribute items to a bake sale a few months ago, and was planning to make some of her really good homemade treats. I told her then that her time and trouble would not be worth it, that it would be best to make things which were quick and easy. I did make homemade PNB bars while she stirred up brownies, as the PNB bar recipe is so little trouble, and they could bake together in the oven.

Sure enough, the brownies flew off the table while the PNB bars languished, even though they were homemade. (They did sell eventually, when the other stuff was gone.) I don't think DD had really believed me, but she found out first-hand it was so.

DD said one woman actually went into Kroger (they were selling outside the store), bought cupcakes from the bakery, then re-packaged them and sold them out front! I'm sure the Kroger employees were unaware of that.

I've been told by a number of moms that anything made at home, even if it is made from a boxed mix, is considered "homemade" these days -- that "nobody" bakes from scratch anymore. I guess it's a sign of the [very busy] times.

Guidelines for a cookie exchange? Yeah....no jello jigglers, no pretzel rods dipped into cheap melted chocolate, no pretzel wreaths, no flourescent popcorn balls made with jello, no rice crispie or any other cereal based bars, even if they do have crushed peppermint in them, no haystacks made from chow mein noodles and melted almond bark.
I am sure there are more but I can't think of them right now!

And yeah...it IS all about presentation. As I learned from funeral lunches (well really I knew ti way before that!) Put a table cloth on the table and some sort of centerpiece,e ven if it's only a pumpkin and some fall leaves and people think it's fabulous!
many years ago, a friend and I particiated in a Christmas bazaar where the cost of the space went to charity and the entrance fee from the buyers, and what you sold you got to keep. We were not really into tiny painted birdhouses or dressed dolls etc... what we sold was really pretty lame...
On the day of the sale I got there about an hour before Liz and set up the booth...had a frame so I could raise a checked table cloth high so it could be seen....and we were swamped. Liz said when she came all she could see was this great mob around one booth....and lo and behold it was our booth.
Presentation...pricing and product.
Linda C

And I have to admit brownies and chocolate chip cookies are the only things I have ever bought at a bake sale. My kids get the choice and this is why. I wouldn't buy otherwise as I usually make it myself. BTW, I've yet to buy a brownie or chocolate chip cookie from a bake sale that I actually like. Go figure, the kids really like them.

Hmmm, must be different here. We just had a charity bakesale for a co-worker whose husband is in Hospice and I made Sol's honey rolls. Packaged 6 to a package they sold like crazy for $3 a bag, and every single jar of my homemade jam and salsa went so fast they couldn't put it on the table.

The surprise best seller was Chex Mix. Just plain old Chex Mix, go figure. The item that never sold was a plate full of homemade turtles, with expensive caramel and Godiva chocolate. At $7 for 6, no one wanted them. I understand the ingredients were expensive, but people wanted a snack for work or a treat for their kids or dinner rolls for supper. No audience for the fancy chocolates here, I guess.

Annie

"Play to your audience or find somewhere else to play" - ruthanna, that is great advice. I wish I had heard it and taken it to heart when I joined DH's family decades ago.

I used to spend hours making homemade dips and appetizers taking care to present them nicley, only to find them passed over for potato chips served in the bag next to a plastic tub of store-bought onion dip.

I spent years thinking I could entice them to try new foods and finally figured out that they like what they know and that's that.