Your unit certainly does make money from the sale of popcorn. I've been a scout leader on a Pack and Troop level for several years. We used to sell Trail's End, but over the years, it became less popular due to the cost. It's simply not a good value, and many people buy it simply to support the scouting program. The same really holds true for GS cookies. You don't get a lot of bang for your buck, but people buy them to support the cause once a year. A strong unit can raise thousands selling popcorn, but you have to have motivated kids/parnts to go out and make the sales. A lot of units which have individual scout accounts set up, use this sale to send the kids to resident camp, which here is now over $200 for a week. The issue we have with Trail's End is that most of the money goes to the local Council and not the individual unit or scout. Councils are supposed to use this revenue for the betterment of camping programs, operational costs, etc.. As I recall, the unit keeps about a third of the profit. Our pack and troop are strong and the council is always after us to sell Trail's End simply because they'd make a lot off of us. We opt instead to do our own fundraising and keep all of the profits which we use for our program, including funding for camp, trips, awards, etc..
My sense is that as the economy tightens, a lot of fundraisers are going to take a hit, in spite of the cause. Why buy something from a scout for 15 bucks that you can buy in a store for about half that.