It's Girl Scout Cookie Time!

The BBQ Pit
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Disclaimer: I spent 4 years as a Girl Scout and sold many boxes of cookies. As such, I am always a sucker for them and look forward to buying them.

Daily surfing of Scout’s Employer, Inc.'s internal BBS reveals that Girl Scout cookies are upon us. Gee, Scout, how might you know that it’s that time of year already???

Post #1 - “Girl Scout Cookies” from Employee L.F. Includes list of types available

Post #2 - “It’s Girl Scouts COOKIE TIME!!!” from Employee V.R. Includes list of types available

Post #3 - “It’s Girl Scout Cookie Time!” from Employee M.H. Includes list of types available

and the coup de grace [sp?]

Post #4 - “It’s Girl Scout Cookie Time! - Read the Girl Scout Law” from Employee R.Y. Includes list of types available, and the following quote: “Today, there are over 300 Girl Scout councils in the United States. Every one of them sells Girl Scout Cookies as a way to raise funds and, at the same time, provide a valuable learning and developmental experience for girls. Not every Girl Scout sells cookies; participation is strictly voluntary and requires the consent of parents and guardians. However, most Girl Scouts do take part in the sale because they want to be part of the tradition and because it’s fun to sell Girl Scout Cookies.”

Okay, I get it. All of you have kids that are selling cookies. Every time I walk down the hall, I also SEE your order forms hanging outside of your cubes/offices.

So…if it’s so fun to sell the cookies and if it provides a valuable learning and developmental experiences…WHERE ARE YOUR STINKIN’ KIDS WALKING AROUND ASKING ME IF I WANT TO BUY SOME? What exactly are they learning by having mom & dad post the forms at work? [okay smartasses, I know, it teaches delegation, right?]

I confess. As a child, in addition to selling door to door, my mom DID take my form to work. I have no issue with that. Besides, as stated above, I LOVE the cookies, and am a sucker to buy them. But don’t try and make me think that your daughter is learning anything from this process. Feh.

And really. Do I need to have 4 different posts, all made on different days (so they had to see the post when they went to make their own), all with the list of cookie types? Had I done that on these message boards, I’d probably have a little note from a fellow member telling me that the topic had already been discussed “here” with a nice link to the thread.

Okay, okay. It’s probably just PMS. But it’s driving me crazy.

::off to find some chocolate - where are those damn Thin Mints when you need 'em::

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Well, they might be sitting at one of those tables they set up outside the supermarket. They certainly aren’t going door-to-door, I hope.

And selling cookies is fun? On what planet? (Former Girl Scout speaking.)

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In some of my classes, the teacher passes around a seating chart with our names on it; we initial our seat, and ta da! attendance for the day is taken. The other day, a Girl Scout Cookie order form came around with the attendance sheet.

I can’t even fathom the thought process here; like I’d want to tune out class for a few minutes so that I can buy Thin Mints from someone who I not only don’t know, but is also too lazy to approach people directly? I thought the point of the whole selling-cookies enterprise was teaching “salesmanship”, which, one would hope, would be a lesson for the Girl Scouts and not their parents…

4

I have a half dozen people at work who bring in Girl Scout cookie order forms. I buy mine from my brother’s girlfriend’s daughter, who calls me herself and asks if I want to buy cookies. Sure, I have to wait until they get a chance to come down for a weekend for delivery, but I prefer to support the girls who actually sell.

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Now that you mention it, my daughters troop is selling, so if you’d kindly tell me what kind you would like, just sent $2.50 per box to… I’M KIDDING!!!
Hey, the kidlett, some of her fellow troopies, and I did go hit the streets and we managed to sell quite a few. The girls did their own presentations and I’ll tell ya what, it was F-ing cold out, but they hung in there. I was proud.
The thing I thought was weird was this years GS selling hook, ‘The’re great for freezing’. Ya, and…

6

:tubagirl sits down to tell a story:
When I was ten years old I was a junior girl scout in a local troupe. Most of the girls in my troupe either lived in my neighborhood, or were in my classes in school. We had a lot of fun trying to save up for the camping trip

One of our fundraisers was the girl scout cookie sales. Our troop sold and sold as much as little ten year olds can. We sold to all relatives, neighbors, and breathing bodies within a 50 mile radius. You should have seen the stock piles of boxed cookies we had! They covered the inside of our little portable at the local church we convened at.

So we delivered all the cookies and started buying stuff for the camping trip. We personally bought ourselves sleeping bags and mess kits, and everything we needed.

The next week following the cookie delivery we went to our weekly tryst at the local church to plan the camping trip. Only our leader didn’t show up. The group stayed for thirty minutes before we called our moms and told them to pick us up.

The next week she didn’t show either. No one called our parents. One of the girls mother decided to host this weeks meeting at least. We had fun but wondered he whole time what had happened to our leader. Was she dead? Injured? Sick?
It wasn’t until 4 weeks later we found out that she had taken off to another state, so her landlord told us. She took all of our dues, cookie proceeds, and everything of value with her, never to come back.

We never got to go on the camping trip and our troop dissolved in 2 months time. Since then I’m wary of girl scouts and making them sell those damn cookies
…but who can resist the thin mints?

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Mmmm…tagalongs…mmmmm

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If it were crap I didn’t want, I might resent the parents doing the selling on behalf of the kids.

But there are Girl Scout Cookies. I need these in my life.

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Last week, there was a quiet knock on my door. Which in itself is unusual, as the requisite greeting is pounding accompanied with, “Andy!!”

Anyway, there was some 9 year old there with her mother a few paces back. I thought it was completely and utterly adorable. Talk about your perfect market, too. Kid and mom were cleaning up.

…although I’m not sure if I would want my kid to read what was written on my whiteboard at the time.

10

I always buy from the kids sitting at the table selling cookies in the university commons. Sure, those little girls should be in school at 1:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, but I’ll be damned if I’ll be the one to call the truant officer. Those kids are my hookup for the yummy caramel toasty coconut cookies (Samoas?), and nothing must come between me and those cookies. I swear, when I don’t have Samoas, I want them the way a lab monkey wants heroin.

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God I love Thinmints. I love to put them in the freezer and eat them cold.

I was a Boyscout and had to sell the worst crap imaginable. I was always a little jealous that the girls got to sell those damn cookies.

I mean…they practically sell themselves.

Ever since I was scarred as a child selling for Boyscout fundraisers, I always buy from kids. I’ll buy anything.

But those Thinmints…[sub]mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm[/sub]
I get hit up by at least 6 kids everyyear. Luckily I know them from different areas, so their time to sell the cookies are not all the same. I almost get them year round.
In fact, I am eating one right at this moment.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

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Is there any way to obtain this confection in Girl-scout-less areas or in the off-season? Do they have a website where you can order several hundred cases?

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No, they don’t sell in the off season unless you have a scalper in your neighborhood. I wish they did.
Apparently, there was a change in the “rules” some years ago that the GS now discourages girls from going door-to-door.
The cookies may be easy to sell, but the girls make up for it by selling calendars in the fall. Those things were a really hard sell.

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Tuba, that’s quite possibly one of the saddest stories I’ve ever heard. I’m just picturing all those poor crushed girlscouts…

I just bought my cookies today. 3 different managers at work have small kids, and they’re all selling for them. Sigh…there’s 6 boxes of cookies I really don’t need. My hips are cursing me.
Damned cookies!

15

I used to like them, until I found out that there’s no Girl Scouts in them. Talk about false advertising!

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No one I know is selling them and they don’t set up tables at my University! I have no way to get the cookies! I guess it’s all for the best in the end but I really wish a few of them would go door-to-door!

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where are you, that you can get girl scout cookies in january?

where i am, the cookies are sold in october!
cause i want some thin mints tooooo!

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A chocolate mint lover here

I found it horrible to go door to door to sell anything back when.
I used to stock up on the cookies and keep them in the basement during the warm months.
Until I found that keebler Grasshoppers taste exactly like the chocolate mint ones.

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tubagirl, that is the most pitiful story ever. I think you may be the one to find this story amusing, then.
I have a small “no solicitation” sign on my door because of the neverending wave of magazine salesmen and church henchmen trying to win us over. (I am way too nice so I had to put a sign up. Last time I got my husband and I signed up for Sunday School classes at a church we do not attend.)
Anyhoo - This little girl rings the doorbell. I usually do not go to the door, but did this time so the dog follows me to “watch.” About the time I open the door the mother says “Sorry, we didn’t see your sign before we rang.” I start to tell her that it’s ok, I always make exceptions for girl scouts, isn’t her daughter cute, etc… Well, the little girl (about 10) see the dog and starts to step toward me with “Oh, a doggy!” hanging in the air like bait. My sweet dog, Allie, takes this as a threat towards me (she is very protective, esp. since I’ve been pregnant) and leaps into the air attack style and starts the most horrible snarling and barking you ever heard. I slam the glass door while the mother runs to protect her little scout; the whole time I’m yelling “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” and shut the door. I have successfully traumatized a Girl Scout and ruined my chances of ever getting cookies again.
Re-reading this I realize, tubagirl, that you would probably not find the attack of a child amusing, but think of it as retaliation against the evil scouting behemoth that scarred the cookie part of your brain. And the little girl wasn’t hurt, so that’s good.

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tuba you’re not alone!!! That happened to our girl scout troop, too (minus the camping trip). Our girl scout leader, who was the mother of one of the girls, took her family and absconded to Florida with the cookie money. At least she didn’t abandon her kids.

The next year, two of the other mothers got together as co-leaders. A few months into it, one of the women ran away with the other woman’s husband, both of them leaving their children behind.

Around the same time, my brother was raising money for the marching band so they could go to a competition in some other state. It was freezing cold, but they were out there selling candles :rolleyes: . Shortly before the trip, their bandleader (the school music teacher) took all the money and left the state. He was actually caught and arrested.

Man, it was all drama where I grew up.

BTW, I hated selling those stupid cookies but I could eat a whole box of Samoas in one sitting (are they even called that anymore?).