Reply #41: First of all, you're wrong on principle. Refreshment stands are set up fr many reasons. [View All]

[Maru Kitteh]

The Red Cross and other charities set them up in stressed and distressed areas and give food and refreshment away.

Charities set up refreshment stands at parks and fairs and other places as a form of community service.

School organizations sometimes do the same.

Neighborhood associations in my town sometimes show up at local parks and hand out free bottled water.

Our town is about to have an enormous classic car festival and any number or organizations will be there, handing out free cold water to sun-baked attendees. Some will offer free hard candies and such too. Most people who receive these free items will never know what group was handing it out or come into contact with them again, unless by chance they receive them again next year.

So the premise that all refreshment stands are intended to generate revenue is total bunk - but there are many more reasons why this woman who wrote the article was way, WAY out of line, even if we set aside for the moment the fact that she was yelling at little kids - for doing something nice.

How in the ever-loving-hell does she KNOW that the children did not buy the cups, the candy and the lemonade with their own money? She doesn't. They could have earned that money washing cars, throwing papers or doing chores. The stupid assed author made assumptions about the situation she had no right or cause to make.

Even if the cups and lemonade DID come from the parents, it is THEIRS to give to the children, and once they give it freely, it then BELONGS to the children. Does she grill other lemonade stand havin' children and interview their parents to make sure the children are paying them back for their cups and Kool-Aid?

The other reasons why the children may have been out there giving away lemonade are many, but let me take a stab at a couple that come to mind.

They were recently the recipients of some small kindness and decided to "pass it on."
They read about some similar act somewhere and were inspired.
They were bored.
They like their community and wanted to do something nice.
They've recently had a little trouble at home with the concept of sharing, and this stand was their parents idea.


Lemonade stands don't "encourage entrepreneurial thinking" unless the parents are complete jackwagons who force the kids to pay them back for the supplies. What should they do if the kids don't make enough to cover the cups and lemons? Foreclose on little Johnnie and Ashley's rooms? Run a repo on their bikes?

No. Stands don't encourage entrepreneurial thinking, they give kids something to do.