Did you miss the part where that is a regional phenomenon?
So Wal-Mart’s goal is to put the Scouts out of business? How about all the other companies who sell similar products, and have for years? How have the Scouts managed to survive all these years?
Who said it did?
They are screwing everyone else by selling peanut butter cookies? Really?
Do they need to sell toilet paper to stay profitable? Who are they targeting but selling that?
If Wal-Mart is targeting anyone, it is targeting a particular* customer base*, not an organization. And that in fact is a part of capitalism. If the Scouts are selling an overpriced product then they need to adjust.
I only buy cookies from actual girl scouts (not parents) and have almost never had a problem finding and buying my yearly fix. At a couple of the tables, I’ve seen moms & dads & other assorted leaders talk Brownies through the sales (Brownies can be 6 years old. Selling to Thin Mint addicts can be tough to remember exactly how much 7 * $4.00 is.). But scouts do the actual money taking and change giving and thanking for purchasing.
That’s it. I’ve been reading this thread and there are no Girl Scouts anywhere in the office today. So on my break I’m off to Dollar General (Wal-mart takes to long) for some cookies.
Ugh, I know. In school they even made us sell crap like magazines and wrapping papers to pay for field trips. (Totally lame, too, because I went to a rich ass school. Selling crap so rich kid parents don’t have to shell out as much for a multi day trip to DC or Virginia? Laaame.)
What, you didn’t like selling giftcrap? That’s a sale I can NOT get behind. The schools really push this stuff… they lay huge pressure on the kids (and by association, the parents, who have to do the real work) because if the kid sells forty gazillion units of this junk, the kid might get to go to a ZOMG Really Coowul Afterschool Party!!!1111 - and the stuff is expensive and junky and really they have to sell hundreds of bucks to get invited to the party and they’re devastated if they can’t sell enough, so all of the relatives and co-workers get pestered… One year both my kids came home with those, and I threw them in the trash… and exactly 1 week after the sale closed, my son came home with a NEARLY IDENTICAL packet, to raise money for the band.
GS cookies by comparison… yeah, they’re a bit overpriced, and not everyone likes 'em. But for every box my kid sells, she gets 65 cents in her account to pay for Scouting activities. One year, the girls in the troop sold so many boxes (at the lower level, the money per box is pooled), that they went on a weekend trip, all accommodations / food were covered; another year they al lwent to Hersheypark; entrance/food were covered… other nifty activities like rock climbing…
Re Wally World… While “trying to get rid of Girl Scouts” is certainly not in their plans, I suspect someone saw that the cookies sold well, and imitating them would be a way to raise profits without thinking of the PR value. I don’t even think that the cheaper WM cookies will cut much into GS profits (or vice versa) since the girls are only out there a few weekends a year, and a lot of people enjoy patronizing the girls.
And I know I’d rather pay 3.50 for a box of Thin Mints and have none of the money go to WM, than pay 1.50 a box and have some go into Sam’s coffers.
I don’t mean to be a nit-picker, but Wal-Mart isn’t targeting Girl Scouts. They are targeting people who like girl scout cookies. Those folks would appear to be the targets of their campaign.
Sorry, I was just a bit confused by the thread title.
I think my problem is that I’m strong of will as long as it’s not in front of me. Open. Beckoning me to take one more minty, crunchy bite.
I just finished dropping all of my Thanksgiving-Christmas weight, I’m generally in good shape, and I am capable of restraint for the most part, but chocolate and mint is a combo that just wrecks me. In a deliciously good way.
Sure the cookies taste great now, but what happens when they’re all gone in a single day? You buy more, and more, and then loot your 401k for more, and stay home from work to eat more cookies, and eventually you end up housebound and 900 pounds, washing yourself with a rag on a stick and spending your stimulus checks on Thin Mint cookies and screaming for more “bailout” so you can buy more cookies. Eventually you trade one of your corneas for a few assault rifles and you head off on your Rascal Scooter to the Girl Scouts headquarters to get more cookies.
Sadly, 1) thanks to a generous donation from the estate of Una, the local Girl Scout troop has been attending Rifle Camp all summer long and you walked in on “shoot what ya brung” day, and 2) missing one cornea, your depth perception is fucked and you can’t hit the broad side of a barn. So then come the Loud Noises, and the sirens, and the yellow tape, and a week later you’re in a cardboard coffin being lowered into a yawning grave with a single Thin Mint cookie resting on your tongue to pay Charon to ferry your soul to Hades.
I don’t want to judge you, but is that how you want to live your life?
Plus, you can choose not to be a Girl Scout if selling cookies isn’t your bag. I think it’s unfair if you’re just a student and the school gives you crap to sell. You HAVE to be a student. It’s one thing to tell kids to study and do homework and all that jazz. It’s not their place to tell me to sell things. I wish I could go back and just not sell any of it. My relatives bought most of it anyway.
You are being quite dense. Of course they are just targeting the customers. But that in turn effectively targets the organization itself. You talk about them needing to reduce their prices: that’s exactly the problem. They do that, they make less money.
Of course other places have sold similar products. But they didn’t allow Girl Scouts to set up a booth, either. They didn’t cheat the organization by making them think they could rely on sales from people entering what is often the most popular spot in a town, and then pull the rug out from under them (which is bad enough but not worthy of ire.) and then start competing with them (which is).
The thing I’m trying to get across about capitalism is that it does not mean that you must solely look out for your own interests. And that’s precisely what Walmart is doing, at the expense of Girl Scouts. They can’t argue that they need to sell them (unlike Girl Scouts). They can’t claim ignorance when they kick people out. They know that, if they make any money at all, it will take away from them. And they’ve decided this is perfectly okay.
That’s what we are decrying. It’s perfectly fine for a profit-based organization to act like this with another profit-based organization. Walmart starts making their own Big Macs and wants to kick McDonald’s out? Fine. But it’s another story when it’s an organization that actually focuses on doing good for the community. Because then the goal winds up decreasing that good.
Look, I don’t even like Girl Scouts. There have been things going on their that I don’t agree with, and there are other girls-only programs that do not do these things. Sending my kids to said organizations is competing on the same level. On the other hand, if I suddenly stopped letting them sell in cookies in my neighborhood, and started going around selling my own knockoff cookies, you’d better bet I’d be perceived as a bastard of the highest degree. Why should a corporate person like Walmart be treated any different?
P.S.(Can’t figure out where to stick it in the above.)
So what if it’s regional–that just means that we should be mad at Walmart of region X, which gets their ability to do what they’re doing from headquarters.
Also, my Walmart is the second ever built. Policy here is pretty much set by headquarters. If a place where Girl Scouts were allowed in the store (with cookies even on the shelves) suddenly kicks them out, you’d better bet the order came from above.
Bite your tongue! Frozen Thin Mints are awesome with a cold glass of milk! Samoas are pretty awesome too! You my friend are crazy!
Anyway, if WalMart can supply me with a cheaper, SAFE (not Chinese-made) supply of reasonable simulacrums of all year round, then I’m a fat and happy camper.
I donate a grand a year to both the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts, and I still can’t help but feel guilty if I don’t buy a few boxes of the cookies. I support any organization that allows people to help better the lives of children AND get fucked up on sugary treats.
Then again, Wal-Mart indirectly employs thousands of Asian children. Now I’m torn.
I do however have to agree with the previous poster that talked about how the Girl Scouts sell a much better product than the Boy Scouts. My 8 year old son is a Wolf Cub Scout, and popcorn is just…kinda lame in the face of the awesomeness that is Girl Scout cookies.
I mean, c’mon people, really? Girl Scout cookies suck? What the fuck is wrong with you? My SIL is an acclaimed pastry chef at arguably the best restaurant in my area and even SHE likes the cookies, even though she can make better, and does.
Sometimes it isn’t always about the product either (witness Cub Scouts selling freaking popcorn to help support their infrastructure) its a combination of charitable support along with a quality product, which I am sorry to say, the Girl Scouts provide where the Cub/Boy Scouts do not (not that their popcorn is bad, but its…popcorn).
Samoas, Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Patties, Shortbreads…ya’ll done lost your damn minds. These are overpriced but GOOD cookies.
Oh yes, this year the Girl Scouts are selling magazines too, and I think it was nuts or brittle and other gifty junk in the packet, I didn’t actually look at it too close.
In fact, our leaders were told that each troop was required to sell this extra overpriced fundraising stuff in order to even have permission to do their own fundraising (such as pancake breakfasts, spaghetti suppers, carwashes, bakesales ect.) Not being a leader myself, I don’t have all the details.
I’m still affronted at the idea that actual Girl Scouts (and Brownies) don’t sell the cookies! I went door-to-door in my full Brownie regalia at the advanced age of 6 years old, and I sold the hell out of those cookies! People were always happy to see me. And when their cookies came in, I went back to each house and delivered the crack…er…cookies!
And now I’m 31 years old, and live in an apartment complex no Brownie or Girl Scout has ever approached, and when I see them outside of local stores I always buy a box or two…and while there’s always a parent nearby, it’s the little girls in uniform who proudly take my money and sell me their product.
A frozen box of Thin Mints in the freezer is a very fine, fine thing. Tagalongs rarely make it 24 hours past date of purchase.
I don’t remember the price of the cookies when I was selling them–I want to say it was around two bucks but I could be wrong–but it was considered high. And nobody cared.
They’re tasty cookies and they’re for a good cause. I don’t get the whole “cookie snob” bullshit in this thread. Frozen pizzas aren’t fine cuisine but they’re tasty, too, when you’re in the mood for them. Get over yourselves, people!
Oh, and since this is the Pit…FUCK Wal Mart. Assholes…
