Not only are they delicious and come in an expensive tin but they are shipped halfway around the globe. Last week we bought the large 2 lb tin at an Asian market for about 10 bucks (a bit high, my wife bought them). Today I got the 8” diameter, 12 ounce tin at Menard’s for less then $3.00. The large tin was from Denmark. The 12 ounce are called Cambridge & Thames but made in India. They may be the best version I have had. So Danish cookies with a British name made in India and sold at an American lumber company.
International, indeed.
Wait til the tariffs hit the butter cookie market.
Seriously they’re cheap because they’re made if stale cookie dust and air. 
Wait, you’re saying that those shelves full of tins of my grandma’s sewing supplies… actually have cookies inside?
My guess is that it’s because they’re extremely simple, and composed completely of commodity ingredients- i.e. butter, sugar, flour and baking powder.
That both makes the ingredients relatively cheap and makes the production process easier as well- just mix, extrude, and bake.
Plus, they also keep pretty well, being fully baked, so they can be shipped everywhere without too much worry of spoilage in that time frame.
Basically it’s a perfect storm of cheap ingredients, streamlined production, and long shelf life that allows them to be cheap and easily shippable.
Butter is no longer as cheap as it once was, and these cookies have become slightly more expensive in Canada. They used to be very inexpensive, but are still often a good deal. Been a while since I’ve seen the medium ones for $2.99 though.
It seems there are a large number of providers providing butter cookies in tin gift boxes these days, but I suspect those specific prices reflect the stores in question (perhaps selling old stock?) rather than current production costs. Using Amazon (no real sales, but a bulk supplier with a lot of options) the 12 oz Cambridge & Thames mention came up at $8.51 US (5% off right now), while a similar 12 oz option by Royal Dansk was only $4.99.
So, huge range in prices over size, provider, and location. Sounds like more or less normal capitalist drift? Although I’ll grant a bit of wonder that you can using @bump’s words:
And with all of that, the shipping costs, the middlemen, all all the other confusion of the world and sell them at the prices we’re talking about! It’s impressive, and kind of shows how much we (the consumer, avoiding for the moment talking about the environmental and social cost) benefit from such a dance of industry, as we learned NOT to take for granted during Covid-19 disruptions.
But back to Cafe society, I don’t think I’ve had any such in 5-6 years… They’re inexpensive, but especially with the all of the above caveats, they’re more a value for the tin than the intensity of flavor. 
I think the missing part is just how cheap those agricultural commodities are if you’re getting them at the market price and close to the source. (or if you prefer, how large the markups are)
For example, a bushel of wheat is in the $5.25-5.50 range, and that bushel’s good for around 42 pounds of wheat flour. So even if you double it to account for milling (probably wildly inflated), you’re still looking at a quarter per lb, which is less than half the retail price of regular old AP flour.
Butter’s similar- it’s $1.53/lb right now on the commodities market, and it sells for about $4.80/lb retail.
Sugar’s also much, much cheaper overseas, due to the lack of protective tariffs (these predated Trump), at about $430 per metric ton in the commodities market. Or $0.19 per pound, if you prefer.
This recent Morgan Donner video is very apropos. (Historical/sustainable craftuber makes “sewing basket” to hide the butter cookies in.)
Me, I found one of these in a thrift shop to use for my cookie tin. Turnabout is fair play! 
In America they’re called spritz cookies and are easy to make.
I’ve never heard them called that. Is it a regionalism?
I’ve never heard that term, either. I do love those things, though, especially with a nice cup of tea or coffee.
Those blue Royal Dansk tins are regular thing at Christmas (along with those panettone, though the butter cookies actually taste good).
And so much better than the tins! We have one of those cookie extruders and make them every holiday season. Now that I know what goes into the dough, I try not to eat so many. They are really and effective way to get a lot of butter and sugar into your mouth.
No, but you don’t see “spritz cookies” around as much as you used to. They’re made with metal cookie presses that extrude a soft dough. When I was a kid you’d buy them by the dozen at bakeries. Some of the Royal Dansk cookies are extruded like spritz cookies.
Now I want a spritz cookie with a candied cherry in the middle.
The wife makes the spritz cookies, colored red and green, shaped like trees, snowflakes or wreaths.
Knowing Menards and their Christmas Village and related gifts, it might just be a loss-leader to keep you buying more. We rarely leave that store with less than empty cart. I hope you file the 11% rebate, making the final cost $2.67.
I think there’s a German name for Spritz cookies.
Coincidentally I’ve recently been using a French recipe for something similar
Now I’m just waiting for Baader-Meinhof to take effect. I literally never remember ever hearing or seeing the term, but I’m now wondering if I’ve just been deaf and blind to it.
Yeah.
I certainly remember “helping” Mom make those sorts of cookies with the dough squirtgun. And her buying them from the bakery. I’ve certainly eaten lots of them, albeit not much in the last 30 years.
I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard the term “spritz” connected to them though. I wonder if that’s more a regionalism from the heavily ethnic German or Dutch areas of the US.
Time to see if Baader or Meinhof make an appearance. This is certainly the season to be hearing / reading about home-baked cookies.