Blueberry Salesman?

M and I went out picking blueberries this morning. Not ours, though we do have a few bushes, but from the U-pick place a few miles away. M is always wanting more money and I had suggested that he could pick blueberries and sell them for some extra cash. It's not easy to earn money at 11. So we went and picked. After a bit, M was tired so he went to sit in the shade. I told him that was fine, but that we were picking a whole bucket full (combined) and that the more he picked the sooner we'd be done. Then I really shocked him - I told him that the more berries he picked the more he'd have to sell. Somehow he'd missed that point - he thought he was going to be able to sell all the berries we both picked. Nothing doing, buster. I wanted berries for us too! After that, he started picking again, though still a bit slower than at the beginning. M ended up picking about 1/3 of the total we picked, so I told him his cost basis would be roughly 1/3 of the $8 I paid. I made this a no-risk venture (at least for now). He would only have to pay me after the berries sold, and any unsold ones he wouldn't have to pay for.

M and I packaged up the berries in 5 oz baggies, for $1. I figured this was more than a fair price as Aldi had blueberries 8 oz for $2, so we were selling cheaper as well as having fresh, local product. M ended up with 9 baggies of berries and sold 7 of them at swim practice this morning. One mom promised to buy another bag tomorrow if he had any left (she only had one dollar on her at practice). So, for roughly an hour of hot berry picking this morning, so far M has netted $4.90 (7 bags at $1 minus 30 cents per bag cost). Not a bad rate for an 11 yo!

If M (and maybe A as well) want to go pick more, he could try to sell more berries at church Sunday morning. We'll see if they are interested...