Story by Rebecca Neumann

Video by Roshni Patel and Diana Abou-saleh

Selling popcorn is not just about raising money for the students in DECA club. Along with raising money for competitions, it helps them develop important marketing skills.

Marketing teacher Brandi LeBlanc said the selling began promisingly.

“It’s going really well,” she said. “The first day we had 42 boxes of popcorn and the next day we were out so we had to order more.”

LeBlanc said students in DECA have been selling popcorn since before she even started teaching at Coppell High School and she just continued the tradition because it was so popular. The popcorn comes in a variety of flavors, ranging from vanilla to cheddar, and goes over very well with the student population at CHS. Costing only two dollars per bag, or three dollars for two, it is perfect for a mid-day snack.

Coach Mike Dormady also teaches a marketing class and believes that selling popcorn is a great way to teach important lessons and raise money at the same time.

“What we’re asking students to do work on their salesmen skills,” he said. “Obviously it’s one of our biggest fundraisers every year and it helps send students to leadership competitions through DECA”

Not only do the students learn the value of salesmanship, but they also use an inventory control system to keep track of the popcorn each students sells. This way, they are trained in several aspects of marketing.

Junior Andrea Baker enjoyed her experience selling the popcorn because she had always wondered about it.

“It was really interesting,” she said. “I’ve always seen people doing it, like freshman and sophomore year and I wanted to try it for myself.”

Even though she did not win the competition of who would sell the most bags of popcorn, she still felt like she gained a lot of the valuable skills her teacher had hoped she would.

 “I did great,” she said. “I got lazy towards the end and started selling just the bare minimum. I ended up selling just 66 bags, but it was fun and I liked it.”