Lemonade stand

A lemonade stand is a business that is commonly owned and operated by a child or children, to sell lemonade. The concept has become iconic of youthful summertime Americana to the degree that parodies and variations on the concept exist across media. The term may also be used to refer to stands that sell similar beverages like iced tea.

The archetypical version is made out of plywood or cardboard boxes; a paper sign on front advertises the lemonade stand.

Simulations

The computer game Lemonade Stand was produced for the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium in 1973; it later popularized on the Apple II platform in 1979.

A similar game, Lemonade Tycoon, revolves around being a child selling lemonade during the summer and trying to make revenue. The game was made by Hexacto in 2003.

Controversy

In some areas, Lemonade stands are usually in technical violation of several laws, including operation without a business license, lack of adherence to health codes, and sometimes child labor laws. Prosecutions of lemonade stand operations are extremely rare, but have been known to occur, typically to public outcry.

Illinois

Illinois (ⁱ/ˌɪlᵻˈnɔɪ/ IL-i-NOY) is a state in the midwestern region of the United States. It is the 5th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, and is often noted as a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base and is a major transportation hub. The Port of Chicago connects the state to other global ports from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois River. For decades, O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics.

Although today the state's largest population center is around Chicago in the northern part of the state, the state's European population grew first in the west, with French Canadians who settled along the Mississippi River, and gave the area the name, Illinois. After the American Revolutionary War established the United States, American settlers began arriving from Kentucky in the 1810s via the Ohio River, and the population grew from south to north. In 1818, Illinois achieved statehood. After construction of the Erie Canal increased traffic and trade through the Great Lakes, Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, at one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan.John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow turned Illinois' rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmlands, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. Railroads carried immigrants to new homes, as well as being used to ship their commodity crops out to markets.

Lemonade Stand

Lemonade Stand is a business simulation game created by Bob Jamison of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium. Charlie Kellner ported the game to the Apple II platform in February 1979. Throughout the 1980s Apple Computer included Lemonade Stand (along with other software) with the purchase of their systems.

Gameplay

The game simulates a child's lemonade stand, where choices made by the player regarding prices, advertising, etc. will determine the success or failure of the enterprise. The game owed its success to offering just enough variables to make a complex challenge for users, but still providing a simply-grasped addictive introduction to the offsetting priorities facing a business. The choice of the right prices and quantities on the day of a heat-wave could instill the satisfaction unique to a greatly profitable private enterprise.

The player is first given a weather report for the day (sunny, cloudy or hot and dry, each accompanied by a color drawing) and is prompted for three values: the number of glasses of lemonade to make, the number of advertising signs, and the cost of lemonade per glass. The program then gives a report of the earnings for that day. A thunderstorm, sometimes occurring on cloudy days and accompanied by a color animation, will void any profits and cause the player to lose any investment for the day. The game can be played either single-player or with up to 30 players (each player is independent and the sales of one do not affect another). The Apple II version included music, with bars from "Singin' in the Rain," "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," and "Summertime" played at appropriate moments.