This is an occasional plot element in American films and TV shows, but it’s non-existent in Europe (at least where I live), so please pardon my ignorance and explain the whole thing to me. I know what Girl Scouts are, and of course I know what cookies are, but the concept of Girl Scout cookies is mysterious to me. It’s a fundraising scheme for the Girl Scout organisation, right? And it’s supposed to give young girls some first experience in the business world in the form of finding buyers for a product, right? But if that’s the case, I don’t get why the girls don’t just sell the cookies themselves but also enlist the help of parents and other relatives who guilt-trip friends and co-workers into placing an order. Or is that only a sitcom trope and not actually a thing?
And: Where do the cookies actually come from? Do the girls bake them themselves? That would be a food safety hazard, I suppose. Then again, children just selling an industrial product would be rather dull.
Because they wouldn’t be able to sell nearly as many if they had to do it by themselves. And, it’s not a trope that people will sell the to co-workers, but they’re really good, there’s not all that much guilt tripping involved.
And, no, they don’t make them themselves. They go through (checks wiki) 200 million boxes in a few months.
This Wiki, Girl Scout Cookies - Wikipedia explains which companies make which cookies, the different types of cookies, and the goals: "According to the GSUSA, the program is the largest girl-run and girl-led financial literacy program in the world, teaching girls skills like goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics. These skills are reinforced with Girl Scout badges, such as “Cookie CEO”.
I’ll admit that, until I was about 16, I thought Girl Scout Cookies were made by Girl Scouts. Like, in my head I pictured a big industrial bakery in Minneapolis, with a bunch of little girls working there.
By the way, the joke is a decade old by now, but every GSC season you’ll see photos on social media of a Girl Scout and her inventory set up outside the pot dispensary. Yes, yes, so very clever of her, much lulz.
In the past, GSC were objectively better quality than most mass-market cookies you can buy at the store. This heavily drove their popularity. IMO that is no longer the case, the quality has gone down, but inertia and a broad desire to support the Girl Scouts keeps sales up.
Although meant to be a funny meme, it does point to where the real challenge is. It’s not so much in the actual selling of the cookies. It’s in learning how to make and build contacts with local businesses, and negotiating with those businesses, to be allowed to set up shop on their premises. At least that’s what I remember from when my daughter was in scouts some 15 or so years ago.
It’s not JUST “finding buyers” it’s some bookkeeping, talking to others, handling money, being part of a team, setting and realizing goals, all that stuff.
Lots of organizations have kids selling stuff as fundraisers, such as Girl/Boy Scouts, churches, and schools. Generally, the fundraising is a hassle for all involved. The kids don’t really want to be selling stuff and people don’t really want to buy the stuff. But we do it to support the kids and whatever they are raising money for. As a parent, I pretty much always buy something because I know how much the process sucked and I really appreciated all the people who bought the stuff my kids were selling so they’d reach their goal as soon as possible. But as for Girl Scout cookies, they are at 10x the level of any other fundraiser. It’s a huge cottage industry. I don’t buy cookies from everyone selling them because I’d end up buying 10 boxes a day from all the people selling them at work and in front of stores.
What makes them kind of special is that they’re not always available. Plus, you order them and wait weeks to get them, so you get that anticipation and excitement.
As cookies, they’re not really good, and their ingredients list is from the 80s – lots of the bad stuff that other bakers have taken out. But, Thin Mints out of the freezer? Pretty special.
That, IMO, is their secret. If you could buy them anytime, you probably wouldn’t. Not at what, seven bucks a box? A friend clued me in on something, though. Dollar Tree stores in our area sell knock-off Thin Mints and the peanut butter cookies for a buck and and a quarter during GSC season. Same size boxes, same inner sleeves/trays, but with more generic graphics on the boxes themselves.
I just donate cash now. Even to the Girl Scouts selling cookies at a booth. I don’t want any stuff they’re selling and I assume they make more profit on cash donation than a purchase.
Yes, but it probably won’t help little Grace reach her goal of selling 200 boxes so she can get her toy or geegaw or whatever premium she would get for selling boxes.
The end of ski season overlaps with the beginning of GSC season, and one enterprising GS (and presumably a parent) used to set up a table on the access road from my local hill to the highway on busy weekends. The cars creeping by were a captive audience, and I’m sure they sold tons of cookies.
FWIW, they did used to make them at home. But that’s no way to scale up to volume.
I do buy them from time to time, and I try to use cash, because part of the lesson is not only the sales part but also doing the arithmetic on figuring out how much is owed and making change. The better parents/troop leaders will encourage them to figure that part out for themselves
Society moves on - girl scouts could sell a lot of cookies door-to-door when there were people home after school, but before the evening. Those people are not around very much any more (women working has also moved trick-or-treating time from mid-afternoon (3:30-5, say), which is was when I was a kid, to evening (6-8, say)). So parents take an order form to work and post it on their office door or nearby notice-board, instead, and the kids shift from door-to-door selling to selling from a table near a grocery store or library or church. These days, the local scout who supplies my cookie needs has my email address…
