hey pals.. I am curious to know how you got a Fun Express account.. did you say you were a retail business? I tried to sign up on thier website, as a school, and I got an email back saying that my " business" did not meet their criteria, and they wouldn't give me a password, or access to the account.. do I need to say we have a school store?? ( which we do)....
We have a pretty extensive school store that is open every day. We sell all kinds of school supplies, including fun ones (gel pens, markers, cute folders, journals), wallets, and chips. We are located in a closet (literally) with a table in front of the door, for about 20 minutes before and after school. On 'Fun Fridays' we will sell a toy at the end of the day (lizard eggs, squishy things), but mostly it's related to school. We actually do pretty well, bringing in between $200 & $250 most weeks. We get the items from various sources, including the catalogs and wholesale dollar store providers. The kids love variety, and they love new items, so as long as we keep a steady supply of different things each week, they seem to have the money somehow.
Oriental trading has some good stuff, but you can also obtain some cute school supplies from some of the school supply vendors as well. We actually find more of a variety from them rather than Oriental trading. Our store runs every other Tuesday during the lunch hours so after the kids have finished their lunch & snack, the aides send them over table by table. It doesn't take away from any class time and kids can always just browse!
Our profit is minimal, we only expect to break even although we do end up making some profit at the end of the year. It's more of a fun diviation for the kids than a fundraiser. If you price it too high, parents won't send them in with money. So look at it as if you were a parent--not a PTO member. How much would you let your child spend on an eraser?
Our store only sells school-related items as well. It's not a place for toys. Although, they can purchase our car magnets, school note pads and activewear through the store as well.
You could actually do Fun Express which is a side company of Oriental Trading but they tend to sell in quanities with discounts...that is what we do. There are other places like Geddes, Student Supply, Discount School Supply. We do ours for coupons so we have to keep our cost down, Geddes has alot fo neat stuff but when you give it away it can be costly.
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
