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I grew up across the street from a golf course where, from the ages of eight to twelve, my older brother and I ran a nice little used golf ball business. We'd hunt through the course in the evenings, sifting through the roughs and the woods that always sucked up errant balls. We'd take them home, wash them and polish them. And then we'd head back out to the course, often to peddle the balls to the same golfers who'd lost them the week before. Every now and then we'd get caught by golf course workers who would take us to the clubhouse and call our parents. (Our parents, in turn, would say they were shocked! shocked! to hear about our exploits.)
Our business effectively ground to a halt on the day my brother convinced me to wade into the swamp near the 18th hole. He was sure there were thousands of well-preserved balls just waiting to be scooped up. It's possible, but to this day I don't know. I stepped on a three-inch shard of glass before I found them.
In fact, even before the puncture wound, I wasn't really an entrepreneur. If I could meet my meager needs — ie, earn enough change to buy baseball cards and candy bars — I was satisfied. It never occurred to me to expand my black market golf course business to include drinks, say, or plaid pants. I bet a young Fred Meyer would have been savvier.
All of this came to mind when I read today's Oregonian article about the great lemonade standoff of 2010. At issue was whether or not a seven-year-old's lemonade stand — which didn't have a permit, because which seven-year-old's lemonade stand has ever had a permit? — should have been kicked out of a recent Last Thursday event on Portland's Alberta Street.
We'll talk about the health issues involved, and we'll ask if there should be a carveout in Multnomah County's regulations that would treat lemonade stands and more robust food stands differently. (In fact, the county now says that they might look into possible changes to the regulations.)
And we'll focus more broadly on what exactly lemonade stands and other kid-run commerce should be teaching these budding capitalists. Is it the workings of the market? The mathematics of profit? Is it that lemonade is old technology and kids should be focusing on the future? What about fun, or the pleasure of giving free thirst-quenchers to parched neighbors?
What did you learn from your childhood or adolescent businesses? What lessons are you passing on right now?
UPDATE: As usual, The Simpsons was here first (hat-tip to a commenter to this Oregonian article):
Tagged as: entrepreneurship · lemonade · parenting
Photo credit: rochelle, et. al. / Creative Commons
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I agree. Its the mom's fault. Many of news stories omit the fact that this lemonade stand was not the nostalgic picture of a little kid setting on the corner in front of her house. The media neglects to note that they don't even live in the neighborhood - the mother drove her daughter 12-15 miles from their home in Oregon City to the Alberta Street Fair (not exactly a family friendly place). The media also conveniently omits that the health inspectors were there to check all food vendors. The media makes the story sound like they singled her out. County Chair Jeff Cogen should be apologizing to the inspectors that were just doing their job, not the mother who was exploiting her daughter. What would he be saying if the story was about people got sick from a lemonade stand and county inspectors looked the other way - the County would be facing millions of dollars in lawsuits.
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Interesting. Where did you learn of this part of the story?
email me at mr-arens@hotmail.com
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Lemonade lessons. I too had a lemonade stand, I don’t know what my motivation was, or what the lesson of the entrepreneurial venture is meant to teach young people. I suppose I wanted things, and money was a way to get those things, but, is that a good lesson? Really is entrepreneurship a virtue at all? There are some creative principles and determination that can be learned, but it is also fueled with competitiveness and greed. Yes, lemonade stands teach kids that you must work hard for what you want, but don’t they equally teach kids to want and desire those things? To seek rewards for actions? The problems of consumption are not really with the actual things being consumed, but with a love for the process and the acquisition itself. Most entrepreneurs are generally not successful through excess creativity and intelligence, but really through persistence---the smartest minds could never love the kill enough, to try hard enough, to succeed at business.
When I see a kid selling lemonade it is heart-wrenching, of course I buy it even if I don’t want it. Why? Because children are special, not in themselves, but in that they remind us, of us. The fragility of their desire for success, or simply to be liked and accepted, is so palpable that it is almost unbearable. It is not their innocence we admire, but their lack of complexity, they are a minimal, universal, us. To reject them is to reject the essence of all of us. As we turn into adults we pick up ideologies, and baggage---those traits make it easier to reject the adult, because we feel we have justification to deny them entry---it is not the person we claim to dislike but perhaps their characteristics, such as their politics or choice of hairstyle. With a child, their vulnerability is exposed, it isn’t masked behind layers of variables that we could reject. It is easy to confuse the half-baked-ness of a child with something uncommon in itself, but children are no more special then older people, and they will surely become them without effort. >>>
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<<< Any success a lemonade stand might have is a ruse, because it is earned through some work and a lot of gimmick or sympathy. It is a kind of Hooters for kids, where innocence and feeling-sorry-for are the tits. Isn’t there enough time, later in life, to teach the harsh truths of the inequities of economics? The lessons learned from a lemonade stand are bittersweet and illusory, some kids may grow determined, but equally they can become disillusioned if things go pear-shaped. Adults are really the people who learn from lemonade stands and can feel proud of themselves for the great virtues they are allegedly instilling in their children, that one day, my little darlings, you too will have to enter this rat race for yourselves.
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I suppose a lemonade stand is a good lesson in how to be successful, I am sure the children have no idea about how much lemonade actually costs as an enterprise.
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I had a lemonade stand with my sister and two friends. I realized even then, and now looking back, that if my mother had not stopped her work and gone to the store to buy more frozen lemonade, we wouldn't have finished the day. And if one of the girls hadn't promised her aunt to attend church with her, we wouldn't have sold as much. So behind most kids' endeavors are indulgent, helpful adults.
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Second comment: I live in NW Portland and found a young girl, with her mother sitting behind her, selling lemonade on the hot August evening. I bought some; it might not have been the best but I had to support and admire the girl for wanting to do it and the mother for supporting her.
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As budding capitalists children should learn, government is your silent partner. It is a partner that will always take. It never gives. Your silent partner will do all it can to control you under the guise of helping. When things go bad, your partner will tally your debt, hold out their hand and say, "Pay up. Good luck. I have to go find a new partner.".
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oh please.
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Are you serious? the government never gives, I suppose the hard work and success of President Obama to make health care available for all, extending unemployment and offering grants to new small green business Just doesn't count.
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"cfbednarek"
Well, you're certainly wrong. "We The People" give and give and give to businesses. We build the roads, educate the workers and managers, give property and business tax breaks, pay for the police and courts to enforce contracts, on and on.
And when have business people ever given so much as a "thank you" in return?
Ingrate!
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One of the underlying problems here is the "one-size-fits-all" model of regulations we have. "Food safety"rules don't just inhibit lemonade stands. Here in rural Eastern Oregon, many young people in 4-H and FFA would like to be selling the meat they raise by the cut or by the pound, but we don't have access to the required USDA-certified slaughter and meat processing so they can't. As a kid in rural Eastern Oregon I sold produce I grew at the Farmers Market. But this enterprise is also in jeopardy because current food safety legislation in congress threatens to make Farmers Markets (and the kids who participate in them) subject to the same rules as corporate mega-processors. None of this is fair. Not for the young or entrepreneurs of any age!
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It's fun to make the lemonade and pretend like you have your own business.
-Wrigley, 8 years old
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This is a typical mistake make by government employees. They fail to supplement the regulations with common sense.
Example: On the Ottawa National Forest in Michigan, a life guard stubbed her toe. Regulations said that injured employees must receive a letter of reprimand and an explanation of how they can avoid that injury in the future.
So the Forest Supervisor sent her a letter of reprimand, stating that in the future she needs to wear steel toed boots.
She's a lifeguard!! That would be like wearing anchors.
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Please don't make this a smiley circus! This is a serious matter. We are looking at adult bullies, with no common sense, who are going after children. Those who say they were just doing their job are just like the Nazis who were just following orders. Let's discuss this with the seriousness is it due, and express our concerns of our country being turned into a tyrannical Gestapo society.
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First they came for my lemonade and I said nothing...
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In the 80's we lived near the Eastmoreland Golf Course. All three of our children and their friends earned their summer money selling lemonade, collecting and selling lost golf balls. Our youngest bought himself a bike. He was very business savvy and was the only 1st grader that could make change from a five dollar bill. He still hasn't forgiven me for charging him 25 cents per delivery when I had to use my VW van. He was very serious about his business. He decided that after 2nd grade he was going to quit the business because we had lost the "cute" little kid factor to younger entrepreneurs.
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We are the greatest capitalistic society in history. The Lemonade Stand is the trial lab where the basic skills are honed. Entrepreneurship is a skill that needs to be learned and cultivated. IT is like computer skills, you learn something everyday. Or cooking, you learn something new throughout your entire career.
Ironically only 2% of American graduate to owning a business where they hire at least one employee(not a relative). Despite being nominally capitalist, we are by far more socialist, wanting employment, benefits, health care and avoiding the risk of entrepreneurship.
In China, a worker comes home from the factory, and takes off his coveralls and puts on his entrepreneur apron. They start their own street business in the evening selling snacks like fried spicy squid in Beijing, trinkets or doing at home manufacturing. In China, EVERYONE wants to get rich. A average American would just bowling and beer drinking after a union job and complain about his day job and low pay. Ironically the Communists Chinese are more Entrepreurial than Americans.
We need MORE lemonade stands in America. Selling not just lemonade but Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies, Backyard Heirloom Tomatoes and Zuchini, Lattes, Cafe Americano, Biscotti, and even fresh caught Salmon. Children under 18 should be free of onerous regulation just like the fishing license exception.
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bunk!
not even on one level do you have an idea worth considering, except as an example gone wrong - sorry
there should be reasonable regulation befitting known risk, acknowledging potential risk, and open to newfound risk, or the diminishment thereof- that is a better lesson than learning how to 'make money'
your ideas simply lead to the worship, and fear, of money.
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Yep, 7 year-olds should first hire a lawyer and learn to do due diligence document review before squeezing one lemon.
"there should be reasonable regulation befitting known risk, acknowledging potential risk, and open to newfound risk, or the diminishment thereof"
---Are you a lawyer by chance? You speak a good legalese bunk. People are expected to pay $500 /billable hour for this nonsensical CR*P?
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The reason this story resonates nationwide (it's on msn.com this morning) is that it highlights in a clear and simple way how government has intruded into areas where it clearly doesn't belong. Government doesn't have a clue about common sense.
It also eloquently shows that Oregon counties don't understand how to encourage small business.
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Right, small business gets a raw deal in Oregon while the big corporations and developers get all the breaks.
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When this story circulated on the news it seemed to be about the big meany government oppressing the sweet little darling girl.
Then we learn that she was not at a stand in front of her house, but trying to sell lemonade in a venue where everyone else was required by law to hold a permit.
Let's not try to make this into a simple allegory of good against evil. The same people who claim the little girl had her freedoms violated would be screaming and blaming government for not doing its job if someone had been harmed.
We cannot have it both ways. In the current climate, nobody wins when we so demonize government that a little girl who is breaking the law becomes a national heroine.
She's a tool for people whose agenda is to cause disruption, namely the anarchists. She's being used. That's the sad part of this story.
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?Why isn't the fact that the child and parent went 15 to 20 miles from home to sell their lemonade mentioned. How far would you go to sell lemonade?
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We did talk about it at the beginning of the interview, and Maria Fife was very clear about the reason: she went where the customers were.
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This is a perfect example of our misplaced priorities when it comes to food safety. Instead of busting an innocent girl for selling lemonade, our health officials should stop giant corporations from putting high-fructose corn syrup and unnecessary (and unsafe) food additives in those nasty little packets of lemonade mix. Let children be children and get the additives, chemicals and carcinogens out of our food.
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Its already a media circus. Offers to promote self serving organizations and radio stations. Politicians who give cookie cutter crap and evasive responses. Her mom is a puppet, well trained to respond like a Miss America first grader!
Make a statement-this audience is a bunch of well read, well educated OPB supporters, not dopes and drugged out coach potatoes. Get moving!
You're on NPR, not Z100!
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I think a major problem with Health Inspectors is that they all apply the rules differently. One inspector will come in and take points away for something another inspector doesn't care about. I think they play a very important roll, but as a restaurant worker I need to know what i'm supposed to do to meet the health department requirements, the problem is the requirements change every time a different inspector steps into your place. I've see this first hand many times.
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It looks to me like the mother owes her child and the people of Portland an apology for not doing due diligence as a parent about a child or anyone else setting up a food business and food safety matters.
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Inspectors could be teachers in cases like this, explaining why some practices, like wearing plastic gloves in food prep., or like one other said handing out the ingredients to customers, ice from the local supermarket loaded with a scoop, etc. A child might welcome the attention, especially if done in a friendly manner, i.e. while buying a glass of of whatever. Surely this is a common enough situation where temporary (FREE!) permits could be handed out to a children's lemonade stand after the observation that sanitary conditions were being met.
A cute little comic book would be a plus, if such a thing exists. Like, lighten up already!
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AS A PERSON WHO BUYS FOOD AND DRINK AT PUBLIC EVENTS, I'M GLAD THE HEALTH DEPT. WAS ENFORCING HEALTH REGULATIONS. I'VE BEEN INVOLVED WITH FARMERS MARKETS IN THIS STATE AND THE YOUTH (UNDER 18) VENDORS ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLY WITH ALL THE HEALTH REGULATIONS AND GET TEMPORARY RESTAURANT LICENSES. SELLING AT A PUBLIC EVENT IS DIFFERENT THAN SELLING LEMONADE IN FRONT OF ONE'S HOUSE. THE MOTHER OF THE 7 YR OLD SHOULD HAVE DONE MORE CHECKING BEFORE SHE DECIDED TO HELP HER DAUGHTER SELL LEMONADE AT A PUBLIC EVENT INSTEAD OF HER OWN NEIGHBORHOOD.
PERHAPS, THERE SHOULD BE A CHEAPER LICENSE FEE FOR YOUTH VENDORS TO ENCOURAGE YOUNG PEOPLE TO TRY TO RUNNING THEIR OWN BUSINESS? PART OF RUNNING YOUR OWN BUSINESS IS LEARNING ABOUT LAWS THAT APPLY TO YOUR BUSINESS. I'M SORRY THIS WAS SUCH AN UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE FOR THE 7 YR OLD. THE HEALTH DEPT PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE ISSUED JUST A WARNING AND A REQUEST TO SHUT DOWN AND PROVIDED SOME WRITTEN INFO FOR THE MOM SO SHE COULD DECIDE ABOUT HER OPTIONS.
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I like this idea of a different youth license that would allow children to sell low-risk foods (such as lemonade) at public events. Sounds like a win-win to me — helps youths learn about the realities of running a business but makes it much more accessible to them than it would be otherwise.
But, of course, it might also be unfair to adults running businesses. At the McMinnville Farmers Market, for example, there is a woman who actually makes and sells lemonade as a living (she attends many markets in the summer). So, should she have to do more work and spend more money on a license than a child down the row? These are complex questions.
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Katie,
Isn't it unfair to the youth currently as they cannot vote, and Adults can?
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I called earlier sounding a bit like a grinch about this particular issue, but I wanted to point out here that the girl DID learn an essential lesson about business with her shut-down lemonade stand -- namely, that things don't always work out the way you intend.
The real success in business is accepting your failures and saying, "What should I do differently next time?" You get back up and try again -- maybe it's a different venture next time, or maybe you go through the existing hoops and get licensed, whatever. But you do NOT give up. That's real life.
Part of why I think kids in public should "play by the rules" is because that's how they learn the reality of business. I don't personally think all the existing regulations are ideal in all situations, but they exist. To deny that is to shelter our children and limit their learning potential.
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Also, we as parents can help facilitate our children's failures. If we give them the message that it's "not fair" that they failed, then we give them a victim mentality, which gets them nowhere in life.
Again, instead, maybe the message in such a situation should be: "Ok, now what? Perhaps we should sell lemonade in a less public venue. Or, perhaps we shell something different?" Etc. We can rage against the "unfairness" of the situation with our adult peers, but children need to be taught how to learn from mistakes rather than wallow in them. Just my two cents.
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I just heard the last caller use the word "balance," and I think this lemonade stand issue is an example of how our society and the american culture seems to be a bit out of balance. I believe that having some regulation is good, but it seems like regulation in this country has gotten a bit out of balance, and one has to ask "is this going to take us to where we want to go?" I would have to say that i think we have a bit too much regulation, a bit too much red tape these days, and that accessing the regulations, for those that do want to follow the rules is difficult. We have a farm in Clark County WA. and I would love to build a commercial kitchen to sell value-added products but cannot find out from anyone (health dept or county) what the steps are and have sent numerous emails trying to find out information on what that would entail, again, the red tape and regulation is a bit out of balance.
The questions above is something we all need to ask: "Is this taking us to where we want to go?"
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The thing I think sticks out about this is the quasi-official status of events like Last Thursday and how that impacts what happens at those events. The health inspectors shouldn't have demanded the lemonade stand be shut down on the spot (in the absence of any evidence that something like this was a health risk), but they should have clear guidelines about what rules apply at these kinds of events. It doesn't sound like anyone has a very clear idea about this.
Cogen is right that this is an opportunity for all of us to decide what kinds of community events we want and how much control over them we are willing to concede to government authorities. Last Thursday has had significant growing pains, but is still valued by most attendees and participants. Do we want it to be controlled more tightly, or do we want it to be more free-form? Do we want more of these types of events around town, or do we want tighter rules that make sure these kinds of events won't create too much chaos? Until we figure out these kinds of questions, it's going to be difficult to create and enforce clear and consistent guidelines for participants.
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You're making this SO CUTE-It's a good thing Daniel Schorr doesn't have to hear this insult to the OPB audience! What do think of us?
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I can appreciate all the comments about how "cute" it is but how cute would it have been if someone had gotten very sick from this unlicensed and uninspected stand?
I was working building a movie theatre in Las Vegas when someone was selling lunch burritos out of the trunk of his car and a bunch of our workers got very sick and lost days of work from those burritos.
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This about lemonade stands being fined $500, while Goldman Sachs slowly destroys the Constitution and Washington destroys America. You can't stop illness when you allow fuel corn producers to make E-Coli that is so dangerous and immune to drugs! We all got here without rubber gloves! We climbed jungle gyms and we had strong immune systems. AIDS and other pharma created killers are money makers, as are fines and excessive fees for lemonade stands and in the future it will be Organic farmer's produce. Look at how milk has now become poison. Come on! Let the cows eat grass and not the pharma-grain sludge!
Serious matters deserve better converage than these cutesy, stupid 'shows' rather than well covered news stories that we get from the rest of OPB thru out the day. You wanna laugh, watch Jay Leno! Laws don't stop corruption, people do!
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Qu'ils mangent de l'herbe
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This story has already reached not only Morning Edition on NPR, but it was even addressed in Jay Leno's monologue last night. He quipped that the little girl in this case might now qualify for a government bail-out. (Why not...if we can bail out corporate entities like GM and Citibank, then surely a bail-out for this little girl to get her education with is a worthy use of funds.)
It also remind me of an episode of The Simpsons wherein Bart and Lisa were selling lemonade in front of their house, but had the stand broken up a la Prohibition.
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You can see the Simpsons clip at the bottom of our post.
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Yes, I remember it...this was the one where Lisa became obsessed with cruciverbalism.
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I feel strongly that this has mostly missed the question of worth, and focused on money as the sole worth-
instead it seems like a 'how to' indoctrinate a child about money, accept the status quo, and reduce the human condition to things of monied value - and yet they miss the larger question (in this case of public health), which is invaluable. The human as economic widget - who should be born to that? No wonder we have so many who do not know what to do with life, and so many who have given up and aspire to 'middle management'.
it's a lot like 'wave the flag, send the boys (and girls now too) off to war, don't pay taxes, complain about the conditions of roads et cetera, and keep the fantasy but give up the soul -
how artless is that?
blame the child, mother, health inspector, big government?
so much easier than finding something valuable in life and sharing it
and what a horrible way to treat a child - "make money dear, or you are worth nothing"
ah, capitalism - eating its own, and everyone else's, and leaving the cr*p for someone else to deal with-
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Very good points.
I've heard it called "crapitalism".
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This may be an unpopular stance, I have held for some time - that being said:
If you require anyone under the age of 18 to purchase a license, pay a fee to the government or give a penny out of pocket to agencies of government at any level - you are being taxed.
I contend STRONGLY that anyone who pays taxes should be allowed to vote - I first paid taxes when I was 14 in 1993, I should have been allowed to register to vote.
Anything less is TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.
So if that Kiddo needs to pay 120 to the Government, he also has the RIGHT to have his voice heard by his Representatives, and to elect who they are.
Think back to the song Summertime Blues "I'd like to help you son but you're too young to vote"
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Last Thursday is RACISM
I am a neighbor here in Portland and must say the press got the story completely WRONG.
I am a neighbor of almost 50 years nearby to where this happened, just a few blocks off NE Alberta Portland. I am a pro-life, like fishing and hunting, and distain all the changes to our neighborhood. I am NOO Bloody obama liberal. The only reason we have this dumb festival is because Obama and his liberals. I am sad at how much the press is trying to divide our community. As a conservative and a minority, the biggest thing they should be covering about this hippie festival in the middle of our street, is the lack of respect for our neighborhoods. The kid selling lemonade was at an illegal slacker festival thrown up in our neighborhood with no permits, no rules, and NO RESPECT-- that goes to 3 Am each Thursday at the end of the months. My kids have tried to sell cookies in the past and had a dirty hippie couple park their VW bus right in front of their little stand. They sold exactly 3 cookies as a result. The hippies drove from two hours away to OUR neighborhood.
I have no problem with the health peoples doing their job. I saw them go to many booth this month and ask to see permits. 25,000 people in your backyard with no damn permits says to me that we need the damn thing shut down.
If anyone wants to pay for a permit for these two kids, will you pay for a permit for two children who are not WHITE, not from some suburban white community 30 minutes away? When do we get our neighborhood back?MR Commissioner Chair Cogen. MR Mayor Sam. If 100 black folks had a gospel singing event with no stages and no electricity on our street just ten years ago the whole thing would have been shut down. LAST THURSDAY IS RACIST IN MY OPINION.
The real story is not tattooed anti god kids defending a suburban housewife and her kids. The real story is the racism behind Portland Oregon's Last Thursday event.No one in the press is likely to cover that , just cute white kids pushing our kids out of neighborhood jobs.
I say "welcome to our neighborhood, now get the hell out and go back to your neighborhood for your hippie party"
Terrance "Hunterman" -
I heard the start of this while in the car and from the mother's description, they brought ice, lemonade packets, and bottled water (and presumably cups). What would be the source of possible contamination that would concern the health inspector?
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Wow. Some of these comments are truly sad. It's amazing how little responsibility people take in their lives. Fear seems to rule a lot of these commentors lives as they need their "Big Brother" to provide a safe place for them. They need protection from these evil lemonade standers or anyone seeking profit.
How freaking ridiculous you sound. Green jobs? What a joke, read about Spain. Obamacare, OMG please. Government has screwed up the medical care industry and some people just want more.
Most commentors probably have good intentions but do not realize the unintended consequences or the fact that they feel that it's OK to use violence against others to enforce some arbritrary opinion.
Oh, it's "democracy" yeah right. Do any of you have the right to take from your neighbor or force your neighbor to follow your whims at the barrel of a gun? or visa versa?
If yes, you are truly sick. If no, then neither of you have that right. And neither of you can delegate a right you don't have to a bunch of men and women called government.
Take responsibility for yourself. Stop employing, consenting to, violence.
From an Anti War, Anti Violence, Anti Crony Capitalism, Voluntaryist...
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Comments are now closed.
I saw another report on this on the news last night, right after a report on the latest case of E. coli.
A child's sidewalk lemonade stand in front of her house is cute. A real effort to sell a food product at a large public event is a completely different thing.
While the child probably learned a much more realistic lesson about commerce, this was clearly inappropriate. The parent should have known better and should be apologizing to the county health official for putting her in a situation where she had no choice but to make a little girl cry.