For those with experience, what does better - the grocery scrip, the retail scrip or the ones for gas? How long does it usually take before the parents catch on to the program?

I'm just starting to research this for our school, but I haven't seen anyone here mention credit cards. Can your parents pay for their scrip with a credit card? I know that would require us to set up the PTO with a credit card merchant account, which is fine. But is there any reason NOT to accept credit cards for payment? In our community, I think people would buy more if they could use their credit cards. Plus, it would greatly reduce the risk of accepting a bad check. Any advice?

Hang on....I think I just thought of my own reason not to use creidt cards. The processing fee would we pay to the credit card company would nearly consume the profit we make. I'll have to think about this further.

[ 10-13-2003, 01:12 PM: Message edited by: Critter ]

We also offer scrip and our routine is basically the same. Just wanted to offer my support for anyone wanting to try scrip. It is a great program and we also moved from National to Great Lakes and they are great to work with. We also pick up from local merchants in our city that are not offered on GL's list. We never had anyone decline us. They are grateful to have us buying from them. This is our 3rd year and I just know we will eventually make $15,000 profit!!! That is great. Keep up the hard work. It is definitely paying off for parents and students! [img]smile.gif[/img]

We also use Great Lakes. Look on their website and see if any of these merchants are in your area. Even if you're rural, I'm sure you have some of the larger stores, gas stations, etc. that are on the list.

Also, you do not have to use one of these companies if the stores listed above do not benefit you. Locally, we've approached our local grocery stores, local restaurants and any stores within your area that offer gift certificates. We have contracts with them. We buy the grocery stores certificates at a 5% discount and the restaurants usually give us a 10% discount. We then sell their certificates at face value.

I LOVE SCRIP!!! I am very involved with the Scrip Program at our small parochial school (250 kids). In our school, you either participate in Scrip and other fundraisers, or you opt out. We have about 1/2 participate in scrip. We used to use National Scrip Center, but their turn around time recently changed, so we changed to Great Lakes Scrip center ( www.glscrip.com ) This company is wonderful. For grocery we deal directly with our local grocery stores, who provide certificates to us at a 5% discount. I think that it pretty typical. Most people buy grocery, but around holidays, a lot of people buy for other stores too. Macys, Toys R us, etc. Those are the vendors we use Great Lakes for. We are looking for a $2.50 profit, per family, with their scrip order each week. So, our list is comprised of lots of merchants, and the minimum purchase you would make if you chose that vendor. After you make your minimum, you could then buy whatever amount of any other vendor. For example, everyone eats, right? So buy Grocery certificates. Your minimum is $50. That gives the school the 2.50 required from you. Then you can buy (if you want) a $10 Toys R Us for htat birthday party next week. Hopefully that's not confusing. We do it weekly, ordering on Friday, filling the orders on a Tuesday ngiht. The envelopes go home iwth the oldest child on Wednesday, and new orders come back in by Friday morning for the Friday order. It's been very successful for us, and las tyear we earned $15,0000. If you have any other questions, or I can help you in any way, let me know.

After reading about scrip programs on this board and hearing rave reviews from friends on the west coast, I'm very curious about this program. Exactly how does it work and what is the key to making it a success? We are in a rural fishing village with the nearest significant retail shopping 45 minutes away. Is the key in grocery stores or in retail? Looking at several of the scrip programs, they don't include grocery chains that are in our area. We are a k-3 school with approx 600 students. Does anyone have advice for having a successful program?