smileysbookstore.com is not a Book fair. The offer an affiliate % deal on your school's purchases through the website. The affiliate concept could be an interesting idea for fundraising, though. I'll start a new thread on the subject and see where it goes....
I am sure that Scholastic has built into the price of the books those that they anticipate disappearing. When I worked my first book fair last year I, too, was amazed that we were not given inventory lists at the beginning and end.
As for receipts - we only gave receipts for books that we had to reorder as we only ordered them if we had payment in advance.
All that said, working with the Scholastic people was much easier than some other vendors we work with!
I just booked a warehouse sale for December, and here's what I know:
Scholastic Book Fairs have 2 different programs for book fairs:
The standard fair, which is available throughout the school year at the regular commission schedule. Most items are newly released titles and/or tailored to the season; All the small items and cardboard displays are included. I'm sure that this is the fair we're most familiar with. Commissions are scalable with regard to the books/cash mix offered.
Second, there is the warehouse sale. This sale is generally available only at certain times of year in our area; usually late Nov to Dec., and May/June. It may include any books that Scholastic has in inventory at the time (both old and new release, closeouts), and some items may not be able to be restocked. Our sale will include 9-10 of the large metal book transporters that open into bookcases, but no displays or boxed product. A restock of general titles will appear on the third day of the sale. You can ask for a restock of a title, but again it may be out of stock. Commission on these sales is as follows: Although Scholastic recommends that you sell these books as "buy one, get one free" at no profit, you can also sell this sale at cover price and receive 50% cash or 100% in books at cover price (no other discounts apply, including at the warehouse sale) from the instructional guide or the warehouse. No other commissions apply to this type of sale (no cash/book mix, etc.)
We will be advertising this as "buy one book and The school gets one FREE", as we are taking 100% in books from the sale. If successful, we'll give a free book of their choice to each student as a Winter Break or summer reading gift.
(NOTE: NOT ALL SCHOLASTIC REPS LOCALLY PROMOTE THIS PROGRAM; OTHERS CLAIM NOT TO KNOW ABOUT IT. KEEP CALLING UNTIL YOU FIND A REP THAT'S ENTHUSIASTIC AND AWARE ABOUT THE WAREHOUSE SALE PROGRAM.)
Hope this helps; perhaps some of the more knowledgable members here have more details.
We've gone to the Scholastic Warehouse sales where it's open to the public and everything is 50% off. Is that what you're talking about? Or, do you mean that they have a warehouse sale where everything is full price and the school receives 50%? Thanks.
