Things I Learned at the Bake Sale

We -- meaning Dawn, Leslie and I -- actually debriefed for a bit after the main part of the bake sale on Saturday. What we decided is below, and I added some of my own.

1. Start out early on a hot day. I think we picked the right day (Saturday), but we could've started out earlier. As it got warmer, the sales dried up.

2. Have morning baked goods for sale in the morning. The muffins did much better the earlier it was. Cookies and cakes did better later.

3. If you're going to sell cake, don't slice it up. Sell the whole thing for a good price.

4. Don't wrap cookies in saran wrap, as people can't see them. What we found worked better was to have individual cookies unwrapped so people could see them. If they wanted to buy them, we had prepackaged bags of 3 each. Oh -- and don't have those naked cookies in front so people can touch them. Because they will.

5. Best selling cookies: peanut butter and chocolate chip.

6. It was a good thing to have utensils so that you didn't have to touch the items -- plastic gloves, tongs, paper bags.

7. Price everything in dollar increments. Nothing was for 25 cents. Group things together to reach the dollar price.

8. When you group things together, group like things. I originally thought a package of one molasses spice cookie, one sugar cookie and one peanut butter cookie was going to be popular. Most people wanted all of one thing.

9. Feature variety: poppyseed cake, cookies, cake, brownies, cupcakes. Also, adding other things for sale that you can buy cheap and sell high was a good idea (in our case, water and flowers).

10. A smile went a long way. So did, "Good morning."

One additional thing in regards to the voter registration process. Ken sent us an email at the end saying that 20 people had registered to vote. 20??! I only got one! I think in retrospect I should have shadowed Ken, because I suspect he is very good. And I suspect that an approach of coming up to one person, making eye contact, and asking if they're registered to vote (rather than my approach of just yelling it out) invites discussion and, if they say no, an offer. I still don't think the ballpark was a great place for this activity, especially on a day when the first 10,000 in the park get jerseys, but, hey, we still got 20, so *someone was doing the right thing!

Hungry for Change: The Bake Sale

I got up early this morning. After all, Dawn was due at 8:30 am. She showed up early, and Ruth and I had already consolidated the cookies and muffins. It was so hot last night that I placed them in the 'fridge so that the chocolate chips wouldn't melt. They could wait for that for Saturday -- it was forecast to be another hot one.

We picked a spot outside of Safeway, in the shade, of course, and hoped that Safeway management wouldn't mind if we camped there temporarily, for about four hours or so. Safeway at Washington Square in San Leandro, I thought, was a perfect spot because of the walk-by traffic, the fact that cold drinks were inside, and there was a restroom (albeit not marked) inside. As we found out throughout our day, their employees were very friendly, a fact that really added to our day.

We spent about half an hour setting up the two tables, wiping them clean, then loading them up with the goodies. We pasted the colorful red-white-and-blue MoveOn.org signs around the tables. It was about 9:15 when we were set-up, and people began to cluster immediately. In fact, we sold about $5 worth of goods within 5 minutes. I was beginning to be encouraged!


Ruth took off after that, and Leslie and her friends (Monica and Chanda) helped her set up. Her Mom, Bonnie, even came by later and chatted with some of the people passing by. I really liked the fact that they had starkly different things than we had, including: macadamia nut tart, toffee blonde brownies, lemon basil shortbread (sorry I didn't get a chance to try that!), and slices of cake. Leslie reported that she had also dropped by the Farmer's Market that morning and bought bouquets of flowers. She put out about 10 of those for sale. She also had bottles of water for sale.


Our tables had the items Dawn and I (and her friend Beth) had baked -- cookies (molasses, peanut butter, sugar, oatmeal, chocolate chip), plus some non-fat muffins donated by Rosemary. Our volunteers showed up one by one to bring their donated baked goods -- lots and lots! Susan, Kathleen, Casey and Sam, Brenda, Julia, Danyele, Barbara, Joanie, and Neusa. Plus Laurel and Reisa came by to help out.

Here's the bottom line: We completely sold out of baked goods!! (Thanks to Leslie and her friends for taking what was left over at 3 pm and taking it to a new site, where they stayed until it was gone.) I will be recounting the money when I receive the additional from Leslie, but the unofficial total right now is $610. Wow ! Oh, plus 4 cents. I have no idea where that came from.

The people we met were interesting, to be sure, including:


Several Republican men, usually older. One said, over his shoulder as he passed by, "How did they let you radicals sit there?" Another wanted to talk about how he was once a Democrat in Boston some 50 years ago, but times have changed. One told us that if Obama won, we'd be speaking, "Arab." (I don't really know if he was a Republican, but I can come to no other conclusion.)

One woman, African-American, came up cautiously and spat at us, "You'll be sorry!" and muttered something about not being able to trust Obama. That one I can't explain at all.

And we had one woman come up to the table to have a lengthy conversation (well, mostly she just talked), about how she supported Hillary Clinton but now she's going to vote for McCain. And she thought there had been a conspiracy to remove her from the primary race.

There were also a couple of people who seemed friendly to the cause but who said "he has enough money." I think that perception is something our candidate will face in the future.

None of the above donated...oh, wait...one of the Republicans relented and bought some goods! I think he liked Leslie and how she listened to him.

Most of the people we met, however, were charged by seeing our signs regarding Barack Obama, and wanted to wish us well. Many, many people gave us an extra dollar, and extra five dollars, an extra 25 dollars, just as a donation. There were at least two women who told me they were diabetics and couldn't eat sugar but, here, take a couple of dollars as a donation.



And, of course, there were those -- many of them -- who like cookies and wanted to buy fresh, homemade muffins or cake.

We got to know some of the friendly Safeway clerks on their way to collect the stray carts, or those just looking for a spot to sit and enjoy their break. I think they even sent some people our way. One of them said hello to me as I went into Safeway in search of air conditioning.

We had a wonderful time. I am so thankful to those who helped out. Everyone put in their hard effort to bake on what was probably the hottest day of the year in the Bay Area. And then to come down and deliver the goods and/or their time. I really appreciate all the help.

It was an amazing day. Just meeting all those incredible people -- helpers and visitors and customers -- I would say it's a special day. But we raised over $600 for the fight to put Barack Obama in the White House. That just raised the bar on amazing days. Wow.

Cookies for Obama

My hands are filthy, all from handling money. I'm cleaning out an old tea jar that I use to collect coins. I'm separating out silver from copper so that I can provide change. I'm getting ready for Cookies for Obama.

I'd like to say that I am jumping in wholeheartedly to the We-Must-Elect-a-Democrat-this-Time! issue by going door-to-door, working on phone banks, etc., but that's just not me. Instead, I'm organizing a bake sale for MoveOn.org, who will use the money to help Barack Obama in his quest for the White House.

MoveOn.org has made it pretty simple. They sent out a request, and 8 people have signed on to help us. We have never heard of these people before, but their enthusiasm seems boundless. I think we're going to need it.

I've been emailing furiously over the past 2 days, answering questions, figuring how much everybody is going to bring, who's coming, etc. I limited the group to 8 people (plus Dawn and me) in order to make it manageable. I didn't picture, however, that some people would come to help at the table but not bring anything, some would bring something but not help, all kinds of permutations. I actually think it's all going to work out just fine.


I have to take with me on Saturday morning:
Signs
Tape
Table
Change
Forms to sign if someone gives more than $50
Clipboard with tablet
Jar
and, last but not least, cookies.

Dawn and I will have a bake-in this Friday. And then Saturday morning, June 21st, we'll descend upon Washington Square in San Leandro, pick a desirable spot (in the shade), and set up.

And, hopefully, we'll have people bringing us cookies, brownies, cupcakes and coffee cakes so that we can sell them for Obama.

It should be exciting!