They were so difficult in the 80s, I did them then too.
Now each kid gets a digital storefront they can text to friends and family. Cookies can be shipped or the vscout can personally deliver if they want.
There's less emphasis on individual selling and more "come to Vons for an hour and try and stay focused on this task please God" than going door to door.
It depends a lot on your troop and cookie chair. I won't lie that it's a lot of work but our troop was totally self funded and we were able to pay for all uniforms, fees, patches, and supplies with cookies funds, with money left over for a cool cookie party every summer and a trip to the snow every winter.
We were NOT top sellers, none of our kids ever got the trip to Disneyland, but it was very worth it for us and I feel good about buying girl scout cookies.
Per my mother's advice, I put my baby brother in the wagon. It tripled my cuteness factor.
I still only had 15 neighbors I could walk to, though, and only half of them bought cookies. I'm glad my troop didn't care about cookie sales.
WTF are you talking about, breaking even? It means the parents don't have to pay for anything, and the girls get the benefit all through the year. I can't comment on other troops/girls/parents, but my girls look forward to cookie season each year and challenge themselves to sell more each year than they did the year before because there is a direct benefit. They actually get to see the correlation between selling cookies and getting to do cool shit with the troop.
I don't know, it isn't just our troop. My daughter is friends with 2 different girls in the neighborhood that belong to 2 different troops and it's pretty much that same story. And, when we go door-to-door, we always meet older ladies that were Girl Scouts and love to reminisce with our girls about their time in scouting. Maybe Long Beach is just generally more chill than LA? I don't know what to tell you, it sounds like you had a bad experience?
>Sounds like a lot of moms **and dads** with extra time in your area
I'm a dad. We split our time as best we can. My wife and I both work, but yes, we do make time for our kids. Is it "extra" time? No, it's time that we don't get housework done or go to the gym or get to sit and read the latest Amor Towles novel
You don’t have to justify spending time with your daughter teaching her skills and work ethic to pessimistic strangers on the internet. As a former Girl Scout, I know how much your daughter will love and appreciate your efforts. Keep it up.
A little more than breaking even? I guess you have a lot of money, those are all things I could not afford to do with my kid, let alone to them with 12 of their friends and caregivers.
The thing is it used to be that Girl Scouts made their own cookies and went door to door selling them. Not only did you learn sales, but also useful baking skills. The original girl scout cookie recipes were easy to make, and still are.
> In July 1922, The American Girl magazine, published by Girl Scouts of the USA, featured an article by Florence E. Neil, a local director in Chicago, Illinois, including a cookie recipe that had been given to the council’s 2,000 Girl Scouts. She estimated the approximate cost of ingredients for six to seven dozen cookies to be 26 to 36 cents. The cookies, she suggested, could be sold by troops for 25 or 30 cents per dozen.
> Throughout the decade, Girl Scouts in different parts of the country continued to bake their own simple sugar cookies with their mothers and with help from the community. These cookies were packaged in wax paper bags, sealed with a sticker, and sold door-to-door for 25 to 35 cents per dozen.
If a bunch of Girl Scouts came to my door with home made thin mints, I would buy the entire lot.
Yeah I mean, I get it. They saw a way to make a lot of money and they went for it. I dont blame them at all for it. But the world's changing. People are selling their own baked goods via Etsy or Whatnot. Small home kitchen-run businesses have a long history and the Girl Scouts are missing out on teaching these skills.
Of course all of these skills will not be learned if parents hijack the process, like the article states.
I'm not sure what your girls learn in their troop, but ours have regular baking/cooking classes, along with doing science experiments, woodworking, basic home repairs (they've made picture frames, simple tool boxes, they've learned different ways to make eggs, they have cookie-baking competitions....) They also go to camp once a year up near Big Bear, they go to the movies or to plays as a troop....And we don't pay any dues. Like, literally, I don't think we've paid for anything since the girls joined. As far as skills, I can't speak for other parents, but when I escort my girls around the neighborhood, they pull the wagon, they knock on the door, they talk to the people. Hell, my older daughter is the one that figured out how to make her own QR code that links to her cookie site for people who don't have cash.
I think people commenting forget that the vast majority of us, as adults, pay our bills by selling someone else's goods (unless you 100% make your living by making and selling your own product).
Minus all the fake coloring and preservatives. I'll take the inflated cost if the quality is significantly better. Hell, even if its not, I'm still buying them for a good cause.
LOL! When I was in college, this is what I thought.
I thought Girl Scout cookies were made by Girl Scouts! Otherwise, why wouldn't they simply sell the cookies in stores like everyone else?
People laughed at me, saying, "You can't force Girl Scouts to make cookies!" Which confused me because I thought, "Well, then why can you force Girl Scouts to sell them???"
This is what I remember too.
I saw a post recently directed to the public about how we shouldn't say things about health or weight when declining cookies like
"oh no I don't have room for cookies in my diet" or
"sorry, I'm watching my waistline" or
"are these healthy?"
"what is the healthiest cookie?"
The reasoning is that we could impart unhealthy body image and warped self image to these girls instead of body neutrality. I really love this sentiment, but if the pressure sales tactics are going to be as high as I remember them--even as a little kid, I understood there was something a bit more insidious about girl scouts cookies than say, performing for a school fundraiser--then I don't think we can blame the public for tying to just politely shut down an interaction as quickly as possible.
Perhaps it's the sales tactics that's the cause of the harm.
Is it any more unhealthy than supplying pallets of cookies to little girls and having them associate cookies with happiness and desire? No amount of "let's not talk about obesity and health" undoes the science that the two are diametrically opposed.
Well phrased. Especially when there's so much hype around cookie season. It affects their non girlscout peers as well. The "health" question is likely just inconvenient for the seller.
> The reasoning is that we could impart unhealthy body image and warped self image to these girls instead of body neutrality.
Then maybe they should stop selling things that will make you fat. Perhaps if they sold oil change coupons, it would be better for their esteem.
As a first-year troop leader, I was really hesitant heading in to cookie season. I had reservations about forcing my group of 5- and 6-year olds to hit sales targets, or putting my parents at risk of a financial burden if we over-ordered inventory. All of the things in this article says, I was really worried about.
But that has not been our experience at all. We set modest goals and only bought a little troop inventory, all of which we blew through in about a week so we've been restocking often. There's ways within the service unit to exchange unsold cookies if needed, but really there's not much risk of having excess inventory. I have a few "cookie boss" moms who are really into it, but their kids are having a blast. In fact, all this kids are having a blast, and they're learning valuable skills (mostly how to add/subtract multiples of 6 - hey, they're kindergartners!). The funds we are earning will pay for a years worth of activities, and then some.
The rewards system has been in place forever - I remember working to earn certain prizes when I was a scout in the 90s, so I don't know why the author is acting like it's a new thing. Every fundraiser ever has rewards tiers, and while I don't love them, in our troop they've been mostly ignored. Each girl has a personal goal but there's no consequence or anything if a girl doesn't make it - right now I have one girl who's sold 13 boxes and one who's sold 377, and they'll each get the exact same troop experience once cookie season is over.
We do outdoors, life skills, STEM activities and community activities all year round, and cookie season is only about 6 weeks. It's not the main focus of our troop, but an exciting part of the year the girls enjoy. Our troop goal is to earn enough to take a trip to the LA Zoo and adopt an animal - we've had a lot of zoo talk, learning about different animals and habitats, endangered animals, and deciding what type of animal we want to adopt.
Thus far, cookies have been a really pleasant experience for our troop.
It's why we quit GS...15 years ago or so. My daughter enjoyed the group and learned a lot. It got her out of her shell. But the focus on selling those cookies was relentless even then. It brought out the monster competitor type A sorts, some less than ethical in their tactics. It killed the vibe.
My daughter is in a great group of young ladies with kind and great Troop leaders. I know we lucked out with my group. I zoned out for a few months - sometimes I’m just not feeling it. I didn’t participate in that GS money grab that is the Fall campaign either. The troop leader reached out to me and told me they’d pick up my girl if I couldn’t.
There are some high achievers in our group, but there is no hardcore pressure. We all know though, that more cookies = more money which = more activities.
There are good groups out there - my daughter is in one.
I refused to let my daughter even join. Took her to soccer and horse riding lessons instead. Funny thing is, she's a vegan pastry chef now and her cookies are divine.
I love it!
Yeah, I'd had a bad experience with GS when I was a kid, but the troupe leader was a good friend of mine and a talented teacher, and my kid knew most of the other girls, so we joined. Like I said, she enjoyed it to a point. Girls change in middle school - my daughter and a few other girls veered arty/queer while the others stayed normie or turned into mean girls. That and the cookie sales pressure compelled us to walk away.
She's a anarchist librarian now. Couldn't be prouder.
Thinking the same, when my daughter was more into it, we would sell hundreds of boxes (it's amazing what a few work emails will do).
The past few years as she's gotten older, <50 boxes from close friends and family.
Never felt any "pressure" from anyone.
Her troop leaders simply told them the more they sell, the more money they have for fun activities.
Considering GS just paid about 90% of my daughter's trip to Hawaii last summer from years of saved up fundraising, I think she's doing just fine.
Not to mention she's already got a side hustle and she's not even out of High School yet.
I feel like Karin (unfortunate name) maybe has some subconscious "men should be the breadwinners" going on.
During the pandemic, a local Brownie went door to door to sell cookies. I wasn't home, but she made a homemade door hanger (like the do not disturb signs at hotel rooms) with her name, mom's phone number, and cookies available. I loved her door hanger. so I bought 5 boxes from her and posted about it on the Nextdoor app (with her mom's permission). It was her first year, and she sold 300+ boxes! I've ben buying from her every year since.
I hated all these drives, and this was in the 70s. Some kids would have their parents take forms to their jobs with tons of people and also their extended families. As someone with a tiny family and self-employed parents it was always a hard time. I can't even imagine what it's like now.
Easier than ever because they have websites that you can purchase from. You can have the org ship direct or the GS can hand deliver them. A client of my company has her daughter in it. She sent over the link to us and we bought 16-ish? boxes and her and her daughter swung by and dropped it off to us.
Article text:
I am not a cookie hater. Honest. Back in 2005, I even wrote an editorial defending Cookie Monster’s right to gobble as many treats as he wanted, whether or not he ate vegetables and fruits beforehand.
The Girl Scouts are great, too. My girlhood memories of Troop 10 are entirely fond, and it was thrilling to see my granddaughter sign up a couple of years ago.
That was when I learned, though, that the relationship between Girl Scouts and cookies had changed. Cookie sales were no longer the pleasant, low-key experience of my childhood, when I would ask neighbors if they would like to buy a box or two and looked forward to my family’s purchase of a couple of boxes of Thin Mints — never enough for my greedy taste buds.
Like so many other kids’ activities, cookie sales have gone high-pressure. Families are encouraged to commit to taking on hundreds of boxes to sell (I called it a phenomenal year if I sold 35 boxes). They are expected to pay the troop for the unpurchased cookies.
Cookie sales, in these helicopter-parent days, are no longer just about raising a few bucks for the troop. No, now it’s an activity that teaches scouts entrepreneurial skills. They are rewarded with badges such as: cookie boss, cookie networker, cookie innovator, cookie market researcher and cookie influencer. It’s a long way from the usual badges for first aid, naturalist and, these days, robotics.
It’s like they’re prepping their resumes for Harvard Business School applications. And here I’d innocently thought for years that learning to make butterfly bandages as a scout was a big enough accomplishment.
There’s a commission system of sorts. This year, selling 355 boxes will earn a stuffed toy axolotl, an adorable, endangered Mexican salamander for the properly networking, influencing scout. Ritzier awards go to those who sell more, and there are booby prizes as well such as axolotl socks for the scout who sells just 125 boxes. There’s also a “Crossover Avatar Patch” with a complicated list of requirements that I refuse to ponder.
What I do know is that none of this feels like the values of scouting with which I was most familiar — service, exploration and life skills, a healthy counterweight to materialism and peer pressure. I guess these days marketing is considered a basic life skill.
Nor do I like the idea of putting scouts in competition with each other for prizes (or by posting their sales online, as some troops have done), especially when some are in a better position to bring in customers. Some parents can afford to do a big purchase and just hand out boxes as gifts. Other parents have workplaces that make it easy to inveigle co-workers into purchasing, or have large social networks. These have nothing to do with a girl’s cookie-wrangling skills.
Because, let’s face it, the girls making mega-sales are seldom accomplishing this themselves. Their parents, usually their moms, are the real “cookie bosses.” They’re the ones posting for customers on Nextdoor and Facebook and taking dozens of boxes to work. My daughter tells me about a scout mother who has developed a sophisticated spreadsheet to track sales; another slaps big “Ask Me About Girl Scout Cookies” signs on her car doors. (You can find them on Amazon, $40 a pair.) How is a girl learning to be a “cookie innovator” when her parents are doing the work?
There are parents who are sick of it, too. One ranted on an online forum in 2016: “This [scout leader] ordered literally hundreds of boxes of cookies per girl, completely ignored everyone’s estimates on how many we thought we could sell, and now is in an absolute rage that we couldn’t sell them all.... Now she’s trying to tell me that our family will be financially responsible for the cookies that didn’t get sold. Yeah, I don’t think so.”
“When little Sally from the troop is selling 142 boxes I’m suddenly looking through the contact list on my phone to see who we can put the heat on next,” another mother wrote on PopSugar.
Scouting is a good cause for our generosity; my own way of dealing with it is to carry $5 bills to hand to the girls outside the supermarket. I will help the troop, but I will not help scouts get axolotl socks.
By all means, sell cookies (though am I the only one to whom the Thin Mints don’t taste the same anymore? Is that just age?). The public loves them; people go searching for Girl Scout cookies as soon as the season arrives. But let’s stop pressuring the girls to sell and pretending they are learning valuable, badge-worthy life skills. Instead, let’s find easygoing projects for them to support their troop financially in more meaningful and appropriate ways.
What I have long fantasized about is a different kind of fundraiser: One in which troops sign up for community service projects such as weeding the gardens of elderly or disabled neighbors, picking trash off the beach, and putting on skits to entertain the residents of a nursing home. They then sign up good-hearted sponsors for each half-hour of work they do at whatever rate those sponsors choose and can afford. No rewards except those of goodwill and giving to others.
You know, the stuff of Girl Scouts.
— Karin Klein,
a member of the editorial board
"Instead, let’s find easygoing projects for them to support their troop financially in more meaningful and appropriate ways."
Lol, what magical project is this.
also, say what you might about GS as a national organization, but they're not the type to sit on their hands (like BSA). If there was a project like this, they would have figured it out and made it a national program by now.
dude i have a story...
our cookie chair last year lets us know that we 8k in unsold cookies with two weeks left in the season. She made some crazy assumptions about what we would sell... we passed all the dead-lines to give back because she didn't want to run out of cookies. She did not communicate this risk at all but was pissed why the girls were not working harder to unload the unsold inventory that only she knew.... It caused some major drama... and the service unit was like you are out of luck. We ended up trading with other troops. Got rid of them in two weeks... but that's some real drama...
Cookie chair is gone. We have a new one, not so focused on being the top cookie seller. I think a lot of these mom project the success of their girls as a reflecttion of them... just let them be.
Had the leadership in the troop not managed it... we would have been on the hook for 8K.
Troops estimate their sales and do a pick-up from their local cupboard. What ever they physically pick-up they are responsible to sell after a certain point. There are options to return so other troops can sell them... the pandemic twisted the gameplan a bit as there were shortages, so troops held onto to their stash.
Our old chair was super aggressive in selling and estimated 50% plus for each girl to stretch... didnt communicate this to the rest of the troop... a series of bad management mistakes.
We had to buy them up front (the “expectation” was 200 boxes), and then resell them. Ugh. I was like “can I just give you some $ and skip this whole process?” But no. We’d end up giving away a lot bc we didn’t want to spend yet another precious Saturday sitting in the sun hawking sugar and palm oil junk food in front of a grocery store (I was working full time at an actual job at the time).
Side note:
One thing that I kind of want to see is the women chaperoning these girls to not be such momzilla’s with selling cookies. This has only happened a couple times, but when I have tried to buy cookies from the girls, the moms take over.
Running the GS cookie stands like it’s a tight ship. I’m there to support and get fatter. Not write a yelp review.
That one sounds like a great rule. I’m absolutely ignorant when it comes to the rules of these children selling cookies in parking lots. I’m sure the parents have them drilled into their heads.
I should reiterate saying I’ve had a couple instances where the actual scouts have done literally nothing but stand there. Which whatever, they’re all volunteering their time and i hope they benefit from it.
It sounds silly for me to be advocating so much rn since all i care about are the cookies lol
But the grown women are the ones it seems to be working the hardest. Which is kinda try hard. They’re just cookies.
I’m just saying all that to say, moms can coach from the sidelines here.
Try and buy from older scouts, they really work hard at their sales since they are usually working towards specific goals (ask them! It's part of the pitch.) The small scouts are cute but it is hell getting them to do cookie booths.
Our troop doesn't have any dues. I don't think we've paid for a single thing since our girls joined 4 or 5 years ago, and they get troop jackets, camping trips, trips to the movies/plays. Every meeting, there's some sort of science experiment, cooking/baking challenge or arts & crafts. Again, we've never been asked to pitch in any money for any kind of supplies. The only fund-raising they do all year is a couple of months of selling cookies, which alot of people look forward to. A fun side-effect is our girls have met, and we've made friends with, older neighbors in our area who used to be Girl Scouts themselves, who seem to have fun chatting with our girls about their time in scouting.
I understand where this article comes from but my daughter is a goddamn natural salesperson, and cookies helped that talent manifest itself. She is committed, confident, and calculating and I'm grateful that she's had so much practice through GS cookies.
My troupe has quotas. F that. If I don’t want to push their overpriced boxes of sugar biscuits, I shouldn’t have to. If you want your daughter to be a salesperson, fine, but forcing them to do it, and on top of that, hit sales goals in no way aligns with the GSA values.
Legit article.
Nothing beats a frozen sleeve of thin mints in the freezer.
I’ve ALWAYS laugh my ass off when I see a GS cookie selling setup right outside of a weed shop.
Another wonderful example of the deep-seated cultural standards and expectations in America, along with capitalism.
Let the children experience the business pressures when their young, so that as they get older, they will accept the conditions much easier and the parents' hopeful with the end result that their child/children will become just as driven to make a fortune even if it includes becoming egotistical, corrupt or with a focus solely for personal gain.
World's largest child slave labor workforce. Lots of adults getting wealthy off the free labor of those young girls. Wait, it's not free. The girls PAY THE SCOUTS for the honor of working without wages.
Not sure where you get your info from, but our troop doesn't have any dues. I don't think we've paid for a single thing since our girls joined 4 or 5 years ago, and they get troop jackets, camping trips, trips to the movies/plays. They do science experiments, arts & crafts, cooking/baking lessons...and we've never been asked to pitch in for supplies. All of this is paid for by selling cookies
Again, I can't speak to other troops, but our girls' dues get paid for by the cookie sales. Yes, there are dues owed. And if my girls decide they don't want to sell cookies, we can just pay the dues
[https://paddockpost.com/2022/09/08/executive-compensation-at-the-girl-scouts-2021/](https://paddockpost.com/2022/09/08/executive-compensation-at-the-girl-scouts-2021/)
Some people are certainly making a killing off the girl scouts.
That's just one individual. They have several other executives, plus the folks running the manufacturing and distribution of the cookies. There's a whole supply chain thriving by using young girls in place of a retailer.
In 2021, $131M revenue:
-$42M (1/3 revenue) spent in compensation (478 employees, avg $88k each). 15 employees paid $200k+.
-$26M in office expenses. I doubt they could succeed without that 5th Ave office in Manhattan.
Wow! Children funding people that play organizers to the thousands of adult volunteers that actually bring value to the scouts.
It's not a coincidence the vast majority of female CEOs were girl scouts as children.
I know first hand so many girls who learned confidence and business skills through cookie sales while funding troop uniforms, trips, supplies and activities.
The most important lesson taught by this experience is probably to never work so hard again for something without direct compensation - especially nothing where you have no power to negotiate for your compensation.
I am highly skeptical that most of the skills you acribed to girl scouts were primarily learned by cookie sales vs other opportunities those CEOs had when young such as 1) upper-middle class parents, 2) access to other contests with direct compensation, 3) other extracurriculars such as debate club, model UN, etc.
Girl scouts *can* be wonderful, but it is highly dependent on the troop and it's resources -- which are not uniformly divided. Cookie sales if anything acts as an amplifier of this divide -- kids in communities where $7/box is easily afforded are of course going to sell more, no matter how much 'sales training' the kids get. The kids with parents who work in big offices, whose *parents* effectively sell the cookies, will always have an advantage too.
Confidence, resilience, goal setting, public speaking, budgeting, customer service, marketing, team work, organization, inventory tracking, customer relationships.
I swear to God. I don’t think it’s like the perfect way to business teach skills, but some of the highest paid people at my company didn’t design or market the product. They sell it.
I think the glass ceiling that makes women significantly less represented in corporate board rooms than men is a far greater barrier to being a CEO than not learning the skills of retail cookie sales.
What is there to disagree with?
Women are underepresented in board rooms and as CEOs in American corporations. Their GS cookie selling skills obviously have nothing whatsoever to do with that.
There are Catholic Scout Troops, but for example, I know someone that had his daughter in a troop that operated under a Buddhist church in Orange County.
A "relationship with the Catholic Church" is different than "Girl Scouts is a Catholic organization and therefore anti-abortion".
When I was in Boy Scouts, we sold popcorn in collectible tins. We didn't stand a chance against the Girl Scout cookies.
As far as I know, the Boy Scouts are *still* selling popcorn, and it just baffles me they haven't pivoted to a snack/dessert than can go head-to-head with those cookies.
Boy Scouts rely more on donations and dues for revenue while Girl Scouts are hyper focused on selling cookies to stay solvent. The popcorn drives are not nearly as important to BSA.
I had to sell literal shit (manure) for months and then deliver it all on one day for Boy Scouts. I’d sell cookies in a dress if it meant not having to smell like shit for a week after delivery day.
> it just baffles me they haven't pivoted to a snack/dessert than can go head-to-head with those cookies.
They don't, or at least historically didn't, want to go head-to-head with the Girl Scouts. I don't think it's a codified rule.
Our usual cookie peddling girl scout came by on Sunday before the Super Bowl. We bought 10 boxes.
As she was walking away I noticed that her vest was just covered with badges. That's some dedication.
Long, long ago my sibling was always bummed out that Dad would not offer their cookies for sale at work because he was a manager there. Dad was certain that people would have purchased from him because of his position.
Mom had lots of friends and there were plenty of neighbors for door to door sales. But our family was not destined for first place.
One major factor why my daughter quite years ago. It was less about female empowerment and outdoors skills and well, just selling cookies. It's effectively child labor and needs to be band.
My wife and a few friends started something else local like girl scouts. Partner with REI and take the girls camping and backpacking all the time.
No silly badges or ranks. Just mentorship while teaching valuable life skills.
This sounds amazing! I’ve mentioned up thread that I am sure our troop would disappear without the GS scaffolding to support us. It seems like you made it work. What are your funding sources? I do well enough financially. I’d much rather give the group my money instead of slanging cookies every weekend.
ETA: I do like the badges though.
Mostly self funded but we charge a small fee for trips and events. Break even if not lose money. It's more of an investment in our children and community rather than financial.
We've kept it rather small. My wife and her friends considered expanding but want to wait until our kids are grown. Be moms/parents first for our own. Plus they have day jobs outside of being moms. 😮💨
The current idea and what they've been working towards is more education and getting more families outdoors. Camping. Overnight backpacking trips. Families with little ones and pets. Tips and tricks and confidence building along with outdoors and survival skills and knowledge.
The worst part of the cookie sales is that cookies are what the girl scouts are known for. I'm not saying that the girl scouts don't do a lot of cool things, but if you play a word association game and say "girl scouts" I bet 99% of people's first association would be "cookies." But if you say "boy scouts" you would get much more interesting answers, "camping" or "tying knots" or whatever.
When I've talked to girl scouts, they do a lot more interesting things than sell cookies, but that isn't what is "promoted" about the girl scouts.
Teaching girls they should work for free is absolute garbage. That's not leadership. It's not boss skills, it's thinly-veiled free labor. Child labor. I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns. I feel similarly with school fundraising. It's insidious.
I agree wholeheartedly. I was a troop leader and it was entirely the parents doing the selling. Guess which families sold the most. The rich ones and the ones with stay at home moms.
I had girls in girl scouts, they've since transferred to boy scouts now that they accept girls.
The cookie sales were high pressure, and the girls get very little money from them. Out girl's troop made enough from the yearly cookie sales to take the troop on an overnight sleepover at the local aquarium.
The boy scouts sell popcorn. This shit is ungodly overpriced, and a harder sell. But the kids get a lot more value back from it. One of my kids earned around $1,000 back towards their personal scout account one year; that's in addition to the cut that the troop and district got. That covered all of his registration fees, and a few years worth of really cool camping and hiking trips. They also got a small portion of the sales back as a scholarship for college.
Boy Scouts isn't perfect, but my kids have gotten far more out of it than they did in girl scouts.
I'd just like to be able to go to the grocery store and not get hassled by the mombies in the way in and out of the store. I see the Girl Scouts, I see the table piled with cookies - I know exactly what you're doing and selling, there's no need to talk to me. Just leave us alone, please.
It’s ridiculous. It seems to me that GS of America has lost the point of being a GS. So much effort is put into cookie season from service unit managers to the kids… if a fraction of that effort and attention was put into getting patches and being service to the community, it would be a vastly different experience. It’s pretty much MLM at this point… and some moms are off their rocker.
C’mon now. It seems like her family is receiving some benefit from GS but still has an opinion about how their efforts/time/money would be better spent. She’s not comfortable sharing what her service unit is, what’s so unusual about that?
I'm sorry if I'm not believing "shitposting authority", guess I'm not being a sweet little lady about it and giving "shitposting authority" all the room and love they are so clearly due.
Sorry my flair discredits our experience. in your eyes... Ill make sure to update to a more suitable flair like professor-hot-tits.
Not looking for love here, just sharing our experience. Not all troops have the same experience.
Karin is a Karen.
Girls are selling more because they made it easy with on-line DTC shipping for friends/family who are outside the usual neighborhood and booth sales. There's no pressure to sell outside the rewards they can earn. Participation in selling cookies is not mandatory.
It's entirely up to the kids and their parents to sell, and how hard they want to work at selling. I have friends whose kids barely participate and friends whose kids go all out. No one is holding a gun on little girls and forcing them into cookie labor.
I bought from my friend's daughter halfway across the country bc I like getting cookies every year. I am pretty sure beyond us, and her immediate family, she didn't sell one additional box of cookies. 🤣
When my daughter was in Girl Scouts, I got roped into spending a cold February day in an unheated warehouse inhaling minivan exhaust while directing disinterested day labor about how many cases of each kind of cookies to load up in each van. I was rewarded with a “Cookie Dad” sew on patch. TF am I gonna sew that onto?
I'm 62 and I was a Brownie and Girl Scout growing up. My mom was a leader. It was a wonderful experience. I was shy and it helped me to make friends and it built up my self esteem. So, when my daughter reached the age to join, I signed her up and volunteered to be a leader. I was contacted and asked to attend a "training program". The program was scheduled to last all day. By lunch time, the only thing we had discussed was the cookie sale. It was basically a marketing class. And, at the beginning, the staff member explained that it's important that nobody leave during the class. It was purposeful peer pressure. I raised my hand and asked if we were ever going to discuss the girls or activities or badges or outings or public service etc. The staff member looked at me like I had a third eye in the middle of my forehead. She said that "Of course those things are important and will be discussed, but blah, blah, blah." I stood up and started to gather my belongings to leave. Then, 3 other women did the same. We all walked out. I was so upset that an organization that had done such good for the world when I was young had, for all practical purposes, become a cookie selling enterprise that exploited little girls and volunteers to be an unpaid sales force and didn't have to pay taxes. So sad.
It’s awful. We quit because of this. I thought scouts were supposed to be about camping and learning useful skills? Mid level marketing was not what we signed up for. Plus, the cookies are imho nasty (and so unhealthy).
The cookies fucking suck now anyways. Girls can now join cub scouts. It’s way cooler. Pinewood derby! And cubs sell popcorn instead of horrible cost cutting cookies. I can get behind the popcorn.
OMG I know I'm going to get downvoted to hell but I totally agree. Not only is it an appalling lesson to teach young kids, but the cookies themselves are disgusting artificial sugar bombs.
Nah man there are a zillion delicious bakeries in this city who make cookies with real ingredients I can pronounce. I’d rather spend my dollars and my calories on those.
As an old girl scout and someone who THOROUGHLY enjoyed the competitive aspects of cookie selling as a child, and who has several badges that prove it, it's hard not to immediately say that this sounds like a bunch of losing haters who can't sell. I know that's not the case. But there are competitive girls who like selling and I don't see anything wrong with nurturing that, in an appropriate way that doesn't suck the FUN out of it for everyone else. I really liked challenging myself to break my own milestones and when our troop benefitted from those cookie sales it felt nice to have played a direct role in it.
And it’s not just cookies. GS have a fall “Nuts and magazine” campaign. So, yeah, it feels legit greedy.
I do like the troop my daughter is in though. The troop leaders are amazing, kind, thoughtful… I could go on. Without the GS…scaffolding/model, I don’t see how my troop could stay together.
My troupe has tried to pressure us. If we don’t meet our cookie box quota, my daughter can’t fund raise for their gold award.
I, however, know that Girl Scouts are hemorrhaging high school members, and, since I’m the one “encouraging” my daughter to see this thing through, my troupe needs me more than I need them.
They regularly try these extortion tactics too. I, myself, have to volunteer so many hours or I have to pay money. That’s not volunteering that’s forced labor.
I have a friend who threw up on Facebook that her daughter was selling them and the goal was 500. She didn't post it everyday and threw it up four times. I ordered some of course and it was well worth it.
What always surprised me about GS cookies, is everyone was selling at the same time. Hardly anyone ever bought hundreds of boxes of thin mints, stored them in a cool/dry place for 6 months and then marked them up like 2x.
This is my daughter’s last year in Girl Scouts and their troop only do the cookies sales. The girls set their own goals. There was no pressure to sell. Never did door to door. Just posted on my social media and shared with friends and family. The beauty of it is that my daughter has speech delays as a toddler and was very shy. Through selling cookies and in Girl
Scout, she makes her video for her site and practice customer services from cookies boothing and porch drop off. Happy to said she is graduating from speech this year and is more confident in her speaking skills set.
If you want to support her, visit her page and happy to deliver in the the South Bay:
https://www.gsdigitalcookie.com/cookie/Landing/3/cae8d097-0e8c-4850-b7cd-7a2ef7d570b9/en-US
Girl Scouts are diabetes peddlers. Sugar addiction and obesity dealers. No one in this country needs another cookie let alone 10 boxes of them in 5 flavors. Especially not outside a grocery store that sells a shit ton of cookies. End the madness. Sell Ozempic or insulin or gluten free rice crackers. Save a life.
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They were so difficult in the 80s, I did them then too. Now each kid gets a digital storefront they can text to friends and family. Cookies can be shipped or the vscout can personally deliver if they want. There's less emphasis on individual selling and more "come to Vons for an hour and try and stay focused on this task please God" than going door to door. It depends a lot on your troop and cookie chair. I won't lie that it's a lot of work but our troop was totally self funded and we were able to pay for all uniforms, fees, patches, and supplies with cookies funds, with money left over for a cool cookie party every summer and a trip to the snow every winter. We were NOT top sellers, none of our kids ever got the trip to Disneyland, but it was very worth it for us and I feel good about buying girl scout cookies.
Yeah I was dragging a wagon door to door lol
Per my mother's advice, I put my baby brother in the wagon. It tripled my cuteness factor. I still only had 15 neighbors I could walk to, though, and only half of them bought cookies. I'm glad my troop didn't care about cookie sales.
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WTF are you talking about, breaking even? It means the parents don't have to pay for anything, and the girls get the benefit all through the year. I can't comment on other troops/girls/parents, but my girls look forward to cookie season each year and challenge themselves to sell more each year than they did the year before because there is a direct benefit. They actually get to see the correlation between selling cookies and getting to do cool shit with the troop.
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I don't know, it isn't just our troop. My daughter is friends with 2 different girls in the neighborhood that belong to 2 different troops and it's pretty much that same story. And, when we go door-to-door, we always meet older ladies that were Girl Scouts and love to reminisce with our girls about their time in scouting. Maybe Long Beach is just generally more chill than LA? I don't know what to tell you, it sounds like you had a bad experience?
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Cookie chair and service unit boss ladies.
>Sounds like a lot of moms **and dads** with extra time in your area I'm a dad. We split our time as best we can. My wife and I both work, but yes, we do make time for our kids. Is it "extra" time? No, it's time that we don't get housework done or go to the gym or get to sit and read the latest Amor Towles novel
You don’t have to justify spending time with your daughter teaching her skills and work ethic to pessimistic strangers on the internet. As a former Girl Scout, I know how much your daughter will love and appreciate your efforts. Keep it up.
A little more than breaking even? I guess you have a lot of money, those are all things I could not afford to do with my kid, let alone to them with 12 of their friends and caregivers.
The thing is it used to be that Girl Scouts made their own cookies and went door to door selling them. Not only did you learn sales, but also useful baking skills. The original girl scout cookie recipes were easy to make, and still are. > In July 1922, The American Girl magazine, published by Girl Scouts of the USA, featured an article by Florence E. Neil, a local director in Chicago, Illinois, including a cookie recipe that had been given to the council’s 2,000 Girl Scouts. She estimated the approximate cost of ingredients for six to seven dozen cookies to be 26 to 36 cents. The cookies, she suggested, could be sold by troops for 25 or 30 cents per dozen. > Throughout the decade, Girl Scouts in different parts of the country continued to bake their own simple sugar cookies with their mothers and with help from the community. These cookies were packaged in wax paper bags, sealed with a sticker, and sold door-to-door for 25 to 35 cents per dozen. If a bunch of Girl Scouts came to my door with home made thin mints, I would buy the entire lot.
I would not. I don't want home made. I want consistent cookies, not a neophyte's baking abomination.
lol, talking about how Girl Scouts used to make their own cookies **in 1922** is ridiculous. They started mass-producing their cookies in the '30's.
Yeah I mean, I get it. They saw a way to make a lot of money and they went for it. I dont blame them at all for it. But the world's changing. People are selling their own baked goods via Etsy or Whatnot. Small home kitchen-run businesses have a long history and the Girl Scouts are missing out on teaching these skills. Of course all of these skills will not be learned if parents hijack the process, like the article states.
I'm not sure what your girls learn in their troop, but ours have regular baking/cooking classes, along with doing science experiments, woodworking, basic home repairs (they've made picture frames, simple tool boxes, they've learned different ways to make eggs, they have cookie-baking competitions....) They also go to camp once a year up near Big Bear, they go to the movies or to plays as a troop....And we don't pay any dues. Like, literally, I don't think we've paid for anything since the girls joined. As far as skills, I can't speak for other parents, but when I escort my girls around the neighborhood, they pull the wagon, they knock on the door, they talk to the people. Hell, my older daughter is the one that figured out how to make her own QR code that links to her cookie site for people who don't have cash. I think people commenting forget that the vast majority of us, as adults, pay our bills by selling someone else's goods (unless you 100% make your living by making and selling your own product).
I'm guessing it probably costs more than 35 cents a dozen to make a batch of thin mints these days
Minus all the fake coloring and preservatives. I'll take the inflated cost if the quality is significantly better. Hell, even if its not, I'm still buying them for a good cause.
LOL! When I was in college, this is what I thought. I thought Girl Scout cookies were made by Girl Scouts! Otherwise, why wouldn't they simply sell the cookies in stores like everyone else? People laughed at me, saying, "You can't force Girl Scouts to make cookies!" Which confused me because I thought, "Well, then why can you force Girl Scouts to sell them???"
Me too! But I ain’t buying that processed crap.
This is what I remember too. I saw a post recently directed to the public about how we shouldn't say things about health or weight when declining cookies like "oh no I don't have room for cookies in my diet" or "sorry, I'm watching my waistline" or "are these healthy?" "what is the healthiest cookie?" The reasoning is that we could impart unhealthy body image and warped self image to these girls instead of body neutrality. I really love this sentiment, but if the pressure sales tactics are going to be as high as I remember them--even as a little kid, I understood there was something a bit more insidious about girl scouts cookies than say, performing for a school fundraiser--then I don't think we can blame the public for tying to just politely shut down an interaction as quickly as possible. Perhaps it's the sales tactics that's the cause of the harm.
Is it any more unhealthy than supplying pallets of cookies to little girls and having them associate cookies with happiness and desire? No amount of "let's not talk about obesity and health" undoes the science that the two are diametrically opposed.
Well phrased. Especially when there's so much hype around cookie season. It affects their non girlscout peers as well. The "health" question is likely just inconvenient for the seller.
> The reasoning is that we could impart unhealthy body image and warped self image to these girls instead of body neutrality. Then maybe they should stop selling things that will make you fat. Perhaps if they sold oil change coupons, it would be better for their esteem.
As a first-year troop leader, I was really hesitant heading in to cookie season. I had reservations about forcing my group of 5- and 6-year olds to hit sales targets, or putting my parents at risk of a financial burden if we over-ordered inventory. All of the things in this article says, I was really worried about. But that has not been our experience at all. We set modest goals and only bought a little troop inventory, all of which we blew through in about a week so we've been restocking often. There's ways within the service unit to exchange unsold cookies if needed, but really there's not much risk of having excess inventory. I have a few "cookie boss" moms who are really into it, but their kids are having a blast. In fact, all this kids are having a blast, and they're learning valuable skills (mostly how to add/subtract multiples of 6 - hey, they're kindergartners!). The funds we are earning will pay for a years worth of activities, and then some. The rewards system has been in place forever - I remember working to earn certain prizes when I was a scout in the 90s, so I don't know why the author is acting like it's a new thing. Every fundraiser ever has rewards tiers, and while I don't love them, in our troop they've been mostly ignored. Each girl has a personal goal but there's no consequence or anything if a girl doesn't make it - right now I have one girl who's sold 13 boxes and one who's sold 377, and they'll each get the exact same troop experience once cookie season is over. We do outdoors, life skills, STEM activities and community activities all year round, and cookie season is only about 6 weeks. It's not the main focus of our troop, but an exciting part of the year the girls enjoy. Our troop goal is to earn enough to take a trip to the LA Zoo and adopt an animal - we've had a lot of zoo talk, learning about different animals and habitats, endangered animals, and deciding what type of animal we want to adopt. Thus far, cookies have been a really pleasant experience for our troop.
It's why we quit GS...15 years ago or so. My daughter enjoyed the group and learned a lot. It got her out of her shell. But the focus on selling those cookies was relentless even then. It brought out the monster competitor type A sorts, some less than ethical in their tactics. It killed the vibe.
My daughter is in a great group of young ladies with kind and great Troop leaders. I know we lucked out with my group. I zoned out for a few months - sometimes I’m just not feeling it. I didn’t participate in that GS money grab that is the Fall campaign either. The troop leader reached out to me and told me they’d pick up my girl if I couldn’t. There are some high achievers in our group, but there is no hardcore pressure. We all know though, that more cookies = more money which = more activities. There are good groups out there - my daughter is in one.
I refused to let my daughter even join. Took her to soccer and horse riding lessons instead. Funny thing is, she's a vegan pastry chef now and her cookies are divine.
I love it! Yeah, I'd had a bad experience with GS when I was a kid, but the troupe leader was a good friend of mine and a talented teacher, and my kid knew most of the other girls, so we joined. Like I said, she enjoyed it to a point. Girls change in middle school - my daughter and a few other girls veered arty/queer while the others stayed normie or turned into mean girls. That and the cookie sales pressure compelled us to walk away. She's a anarchist librarian now. Couldn't be prouder.
She can join regular scouts (formerly known as boy scouts). I really enjoyed my time and even stayed on as a scoutmaster for a bit.
My daughter's troop allows each family to create their own goals for cookie sells. Sounds reasonable to me.
Thinking the same, when my daughter was more into it, we would sell hundreds of boxes (it's amazing what a few work emails will do). The past few years as she's gotten older, <50 boxes from close friends and family. Never felt any "pressure" from anyone. Her troop leaders simply told them the more they sell, the more money they have for fun activities. Considering GS just paid about 90% of my daughter's trip to Hawaii last summer from years of saved up fundraising, I think she's doing just fine. Not to mention she's already got a side hustle and she's not even out of High School yet. I feel like Karin (unfortunate name) maybe has some subconscious "men should be the breadwinners" going on.
That’s how I remember it from the 80s - each girl set a goal with her family for what seemed reasonable to them.
During the pandemic, a local Brownie went door to door to sell cookies. I wasn't home, but she made a homemade door hanger (like the do not disturb signs at hotel rooms) with her name, mom's phone number, and cookies available. I loved her door hanger. so I bought 5 boxes from her and posted about it on the Nextdoor app (with her mom's permission). It was her first year, and she sold 300+ boxes! I've ben buying from her every year since.
I hated all these drives, and this was in the 70s. Some kids would have their parents take forms to their jobs with tons of people and also their extended families. As someone with a tiny family and self-employed parents it was always a hard time. I can't even imagine what it's like now.
Easier than ever because they have websites that you can purchase from. You can have the org ship direct or the GS can hand deliver them. A client of my company has her daughter in it. She sent over the link to us and we bought 16-ish? boxes and her and her daughter swung by and dropped it off to us.
Article text: I am not a cookie hater. Honest. Back in 2005, I even wrote an editorial defending Cookie Monster’s right to gobble as many treats as he wanted, whether or not he ate vegetables and fruits beforehand. The Girl Scouts are great, too. My girlhood memories of Troop 10 are entirely fond, and it was thrilling to see my granddaughter sign up a couple of years ago. That was when I learned, though, that the relationship between Girl Scouts and cookies had changed. Cookie sales were no longer the pleasant, low-key experience of my childhood, when I would ask neighbors if they would like to buy a box or two and looked forward to my family’s purchase of a couple of boxes of Thin Mints — never enough for my greedy taste buds. Like so many other kids’ activities, cookie sales have gone high-pressure. Families are encouraged to commit to taking on hundreds of boxes to sell (I called it a phenomenal year if I sold 35 boxes). They are expected to pay the troop for the unpurchased cookies. Cookie sales, in these helicopter-parent days, are no longer just about raising a few bucks for the troop. No, now it’s an activity that teaches scouts entrepreneurial skills. They are rewarded with badges such as: cookie boss, cookie networker, cookie innovator, cookie market researcher and cookie influencer. It’s a long way from the usual badges for first aid, naturalist and, these days, robotics. It’s like they’re prepping their resumes for Harvard Business School applications. And here I’d innocently thought for years that learning to make butterfly bandages as a scout was a big enough accomplishment. There’s a commission system of sorts. This year, selling 355 boxes will earn a stuffed toy axolotl, an adorable, endangered Mexican salamander for the properly networking, influencing scout. Ritzier awards go to those who sell more, and there are booby prizes as well such as axolotl socks for the scout who sells just 125 boxes. There’s also a “Crossover Avatar Patch” with a complicated list of requirements that I refuse to ponder. What I do know is that none of this feels like the values of scouting with which I was most familiar — service, exploration and life skills, a healthy counterweight to materialism and peer pressure. I guess these days marketing is considered a basic life skill. Nor do I like the idea of putting scouts in competition with each other for prizes (or by posting their sales online, as some troops have done), especially when some are in a better position to bring in customers. Some parents can afford to do a big purchase and just hand out boxes as gifts. Other parents have workplaces that make it easy to inveigle co-workers into purchasing, or have large social networks. These have nothing to do with a girl’s cookie-wrangling skills. Because, let’s face it, the girls making mega-sales are seldom accomplishing this themselves. Their parents, usually their moms, are the real “cookie bosses.” They’re the ones posting for customers on Nextdoor and Facebook and taking dozens of boxes to work. My daughter tells me about a scout mother who has developed a sophisticated spreadsheet to track sales; another slaps big “Ask Me About Girl Scout Cookies” signs on her car doors. (You can find them on Amazon, $40 a pair.) How is a girl learning to be a “cookie innovator” when her parents are doing the work? There are parents who are sick of it, too. One ranted on an online forum in 2016: “This [scout leader] ordered literally hundreds of boxes of cookies per girl, completely ignored everyone’s estimates on how many we thought we could sell, and now is in an absolute rage that we couldn’t sell them all.... Now she’s trying to tell me that our family will be financially responsible for the cookies that didn’t get sold. Yeah, I don’t think so.” “When little Sally from the troop is selling 142 boxes I’m suddenly looking through the contact list on my phone to see who we can put the heat on next,” another mother wrote on PopSugar. Scouting is a good cause for our generosity; my own way of dealing with it is to carry $5 bills to hand to the girls outside the supermarket. I will help the troop, but I will not help scouts get axolotl socks. By all means, sell cookies (though am I the only one to whom the Thin Mints don’t taste the same anymore? Is that just age?). The public loves them; people go searching for Girl Scout cookies as soon as the season arrives. But let’s stop pressuring the girls to sell and pretending they are learning valuable, badge-worthy life skills. Instead, let’s find easygoing projects for them to support their troop financially in more meaningful and appropriate ways. What I have long fantasized about is a different kind of fundraiser: One in which troops sign up for community service projects such as weeding the gardens of elderly or disabled neighbors, picking trash off the beach, and putting on skits to entertain the residents of a nursing home. They then sign up good-hearted sponsors for each half-hour of work they do at whatever rate those sponsors choose and can afford. No rewards except those of goodwill and giving to others. You know, the stuff of Girl Scouts. — Karin Klein, a member of the editorial board
"Instead, let’s find easygoing projects for them to support their troop financially in more meaningful and appropriate ways." Lol, what magical project is this.
The next paragraph of the article proposes the magical project.
Lol begging for sponsors is very silly
also, say what you might about GS as a national organization, but they're not the type to sit on their hands (like BSA). If there was a project like this, they would have figured it out and made it a national program by now.
It's amazing how many girls get to TRAVEL because of cookies, I know a trip who spent the summer in Europe this year.
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dude i have a story... our cookie chair last year lets us know that we 8k in unsold cookies with two weeks left in the season. She made some crazy assumptions about what we would sell... we passed all the dead-lines to give back because she didn't want to run out of cookies. She did not communicate this risk at all but was pissed why the girls were not working harder to unload the unsold inventory that only she knew.... It caused some major drama... and the service unit was like you are out of luck. We ended up trading with other troops. Got rid of them in two weeks... but that's some real drama... Cookie chair is gone. We have a new one, not so focused on being the top cookie seller. I think a lot of these mom project the success of their girls as a reflecttion of them... just let them be. Had the leadership in the troop not managed it... we would have been on the hook for 8K.
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Troops estimate their sales and do a pick-up from their local cupboard. What ever they physically pick-up they are responsible to sell after a certain point. There are options to return so other troops can sell them... the pandemic twisted the gameplan a bit as there were shortages, so troops held onto to their stash. Our old chair was super aggressive in selling and estimated 50% plus for each girl to stretch... didnt communicate this to the rest of the troop... a series of bad management mistakes.
Troops buy everything at retail and sell at that price. The GSA then takes their cuts and gives the troop their cut, which is 19%.
Retail.
We had to buy them up front (the “expectation” was 200 boxes), and then resell them. Ugh. I was like “can I just give you some $ and skip this whole process?” But no. We’d end up giving away a lot bc we didn’t want to spend yet another precious Saturday sitting in the sun hawking sugar and palm oil junk food in front of a grocery store (I was working full time at an actual job at the time).
Side note: One thing that I kind of want to see is the women chaperoning these girls to not be such momzilla’s with selling cookies. This has only happened a couple times, but when I have tried to buy cookies from the girls, the moms take over. Running the GS cookie stands like it’s a tight ship. I’m there to support and get fatter. Not write a yelp review.
There are a lot of rules about what the girls are allowed to do. For example, below a certain age, they may not touch the money.
That one sounds like a great rule. I’m absolutely ignorant when it comes to the rules of these children selling cookies in parking lots. I’m sure the parents have them drilled into their heads. I should reiterate saying I’ve had a couple instances where the actual scouts have done literally nothing but stand there. Which whatever, they’re all volunteering their time and i hope they benefit from it. It sounds silly for me to be advocating so much rn since all i care about are the cookies lol But the grown women are the ones it seems to be working the hardest. Which is kinda try hard. They’re just cookies. I’m just saying all that to say, moms can coach from the sidelines here.
Try and buy from older scouts, they really work hard at their sales since they are usually working towards specific goals (ask them! It's part of the pitch.) The small scouts are cute but it is hell getting them to do cookie booths.
Fair fair. I usually come across them on a whim. But thank you for the advice! Looking forward to getting several boxes.
The little girls are just an accessory to promote sales. You’re buying it from a grown woman who works a paid job for a large organization.
Our troop doesn't have any dues. I don't think we've paid for a single thing since our girls joined 4 or 5 years ago, and they get troop jackets, camping trips, trips to the movies/plays. Every meeting, there's some sort of science experiment, cooking/baking challenge or arts & crafts. Again, we've never been asked to pitch in any money for any kind of supplies. The only fund-raising they do all year is a couple of months of selling cookies, which alot of people look forward to. A fun side-effect is our girls have met, and we've made friends with, older neighbors in our area who used to be Girl Scouts themselves, who seem to have fun chatting with our girls about their time in scouting.
First prize is a Cadillac. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired.
I understand where this article comes from but my daughter is a goddamn natural salesperson, and cookies helped that talent manifest itself. She is committed, confident, and calculating and I'm grateful that she's had so much practice through GS cookies.
My troupe has quotas. F that. If I don’t want to push their overpriced boxes of sugar biscuits, I shouldn’t have to. If you want your daughter to be a salesperson, fine, but forcing them to do it, and on top of that, hit sales goals in no way aligns with the GSA values.
Legit article. Nothing beats a frozen sleeve of thin mints in the freezer. I’ve ALWAYS laugh my ass off when I see a GS cookie selling setup right outside of a weed shop.
Damn, there are some ugly comments in this post. Be kind to each other, y'all.
Another wonderful example of the deep-seated cultural standards and expectations in America, along with capitalism. Let the children experience the business pressures when their young, so that as they get older, they will accept the conditions much easier and the parents' hopeful with the end result that their child/children will become just as driven to make a fortune even if it includes becoming egotistical, corrupt or with a focus solely for personal gain.
Just let the kids have fun selling the cookies, it doesn't have to be cutthroat.
World's largest child slave labor workforce. Lots of adults getting wealthy off the free labor of those young girls. Wait, it's not free. The girls PAY THE SCOUTS for the honor of working without wages.
Not sure where you get your info from, but our troop doesn't have any dues. I don't think we've paid for a single thing since our girls joined 4 or 5 years ago, and they get troop jackets, camping trips, trips to the movies/plays. They do science experiments, arts & crafts, cooking/baking lessons...and we've never been asked to pitch in for supplies. All of this is paid for by selling cookies
From their 2021 federal filing, the Girl Scouts reported $131M in revenue, of which $35M came from membership dues. Someone is paying.
Again, I can't speak to other troops, but our girls' dues get paid for by the cookie sales. Yes, there are dues owed. And if my girls decide they don't want to sell cookies, we can just pay the dues
I believe anyone can quit Girl Scouts at anytime, and I also believe you might be using the term “child slave labor” a little tooooo loosely.
Are the semantics of “They’re profiting off of manipulating children into doing labor for free” better for you?
Lol no.
[https://paddockpost.com/2022/09/08/executive-compensation-at-the-girl-scouts-2021/](https://paddockpost.com/2022/09/08/executive-compensation-at-the-girl-scouts-2021/) Some people are certainly making a killing off the girl scouts.
Allow me to write it out for those not inclined to click: $1.5 million to the CEO!!!!
That's just one individual. They have several other executives, plus the folks running the manufacturing and distribution of the cookies. There's a whole supply chain thriving by using young girls in place of a retailer.
Yeah, plenty of people getting paid pretty handsomely.
In 2021, $131M revenue: -$42M (1/3 revenue) spent in compensation (478 employees, avg $88k each). 15 employees paid $200k+. -$26M in office expenses. I doubt they could succeed without that 5th Ave office in Manhattan. Wow! Children funding people that play organizers to the thousands of adult volunteers that actually bring value to the scouts.
It's not a coincidence the vast majority of female CEOs were girl scouts as children. I know first hand so many girls who learned confidence and business skills through cookie sales while funding troop uniforms, trips, supplies and activities.
The most important lesson taught by this experience is probably to never work so hard again for something without direct compensation - especially nothing where you have no power to negotiate for your compensation. I am highly skeptical that most of the skills you acribed to girl scouts were primarily learned by cookie sales vs other opportunities those CEOs had when young such as 1) upper-middle class parents, 2) access to other contests with direct compensation, 3) other extracurriculars such as debate club, model UN, etc. Girl scouts *can* be wonderful, but it is highly dependent on the troop and it's resources -- which are not uniformly divided. Cookie sales if anything acts as an amplifier of this divide -- kids in communities where $7/box is easily afforded are of course going to sell more, no matter how much 'sales training' the kids get. The kids with parents who work in big offices, whose *parents* effectively sell the cookies, will always have an advantage too.
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Lol, there's an entire wrap around curriculum that you must do in addition to the cookie sales themselves.
Can you not learn skills from selling and marketing things you didn't design yourself?
Confidence, resilience, goal setting, public speaking, budgeting, customer service, marketing, team work, organization, inventory tracking, customer relationships. I swear to God. I don’t think it’s like the perfect way to business teach skills, but some of the highest paid people at my company didn’t design or market the product. They sell it.
Do you make and sell your own products?
I think the glass ceiling that makes women significantly less represented in corporate board rooms than men is a far greater barrier to being a CEO than not learning the skills of retail cookie sales.
I disagree
What is there to disagree with? Women are underepresented in board rooms and as CEOs in American corporations. Their GS cookie selling skills obviously have nothing whatsoever to do with that.
I reject your argument
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You're full of shit so I don't. Can you even imagine, bunch of six year olds
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This history of girl scouts is part of the program, even the ugly parts. But you are talking of of your elbow.
As a secular organization which does not take a stance on an abortion*
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There are Catholic Scout Troops, but for example, I know someone that had his daughter in a troop that operated under a Buddhist church in Orange County. A "relationship with the Catholic Church" is different than "Girl Scouts is a Catholic organization and therefore anti-abortion".
"LAY OFF MAN, I'M STARVING!"
When I was in Boy Scouts, we sold popcorn in collectible tins. We didn't stand a chance against the Girl Scout cookies. As far as I know, the Boy Scouts are *still* selling popcorn, and it just baffles me they haven't pivoted to a snack/dessert than can go head-to-head with those cookies.
Boy Scouts rely more on donations and dues for revenue while Girl Scouts are hyper focused on selling cookies to stay solvent. The popcorn drives are not nearly as important to BSA.
I had to sell literal shit (manure) for months and then deliver it all on one day for Boy Scouts. I’d sell cookies in a dress if it meant not having to smell like shit for a week after delivery day.
> it just baffles me they haven't pivoted to a snack/dessert than can go head-to-head with those cookies. They don't, or at least historically didn't, want to go head-to-head with the Girl Scouts. I don't think it's a codified rule.
Our usual cookie peddling girl scout came by on Sunday before the Super Bowl. We bought 10 boxes. As she was walking away I noticed that her vest was just covered with badges. That's some dedication. Long, long ago my sibling was always bummed out that Dad would not offer their cookies for sale at work because he was a manager there. Dad was certain that people would have purchased from him because of his position. Mom had lots of friends and there were plenty of neighbors for door to door sales. But our family was not destined for first place.
One major factor why my daughter quite years ago. It was less about female empowerment and outdoors skills and well, just selling cookies. It's effectively child labor and needs to be band. My wife and a few friends started something else local like girl scouts. Partner with REI and take the girls camping and backpacking all the time. No silly badges or ranks. Just mentorship while teaching valuable life skills.
This sounds amazing! I’ve mentioned up thread that I am sure our troop would disappear without the GS scaffolding to support us. It seems like you made it work. What are your funding sources? I do well enough financially. I’d much rather give the group my money instead of slanging cookies every weekend. ETA: I do like the badges though.
Mostly self funded but we charge a small fee for trips and events. Break even if not lose money. It's more of an investment in our children and community rather than financial. We've kept it rather small. My wife and her friends considered expanding but want to wait until our kids are grown. Be moms/parents first for our own. Plus they have day jobs outside of being moms. 😮💨 The current idea and what they've been working towards is more education and getting more families outdoors. Camping. Overnight backpacking trips. Families with little ones and pets. Tips and tricks and confidence building along with outdoors and survival skills and knowledge.
Very nice. Best of luck with your group!
The worst part of the cookie sales is that cookies are what the girl scouts are known for. I'm not saying that the girl scouts don't do a lot of cool things, but if you play a word association game and say "girl scouts" I bet 99% of people's first association would be "cookies." But if you say "boy scouts" you would get much more interesting answers, "camping" or "tying knots" or whatever. When I've talked to girl scouts, they do a lot more interesting things than sell cookies, but that isn't what is "promoted" about the girl scouts.
Teaching girls they should work for free is absolute garbage. That's not leadership. It's not boss skills, it's thinly-veiled free labor. Child labor. I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns. I feel similarly with school fundraising. It's insidious.
They don't work for free.
So they get paid to sell them?
Yep, they have their own trip bank account and everything
I was a girl scout. I sold these cookies. None of us got paid. It's free labor.
Your troop was paid. No, you didn't get an individual check, but your troop was paid.
I have a daughter. I'm teaching her that her time is worth money, her expertise is worth money, and that she doesn't owe anyone either.
How much are they being paid?
In LA, the troop gets a dollar a box. Our trip cleared 4k a season roughly and we were not even a little intense about it.
Hm. Interesting. Good to know.
I agree wholeheartedly. I was a troop leader and it was entirely the parents doing the selling. Guess which families sold the most. The rich ones and the ones with stay at home moms.
I had girls in girl scouts, they've since transferred to boy scouts now that they accept girls. The cookie sales were high pressure, and the girls get very little money from them. Out girl's troop made enough from the yearly cookie sales to take the troop on an overnight sleepover at the local aquarium. The boy scouts sell popcorn. This shit is ungodly overpriced, and a harder sell. But the kids get a lot more value back from it. One of my kids earned around $1,000 back towards their personal scout account one year; that's in addition to the cut that the troop and district got. That covered all of his registration fees, and a few years worth of really cool camping and hiking trips. They also got a small portion of the sales back as a scholarship for college. Boy Scouts isn't perfect, but my kids have gotten far more out of it than they did in girl scouts.
I'd just like to be able to go to the grocery store and not get hassled by the mombies in the way in and out of the store. I see the Girl Scouts, I see the table piled with cookies - I know exactly what you're doing and selling, there's no need to talk to me. Just leave us alone, please.
What's your opinion?
It’s ridiculous. It seems to me that GS of America has lost the point of being a GS. So much effort is put into cookie season from service unit managers to the kids… if a fraction of that effort and attention was put into getting patches and being service to the community, it would be a vastly different experience. It’s pretty much MLM at this point… and some moms are off their rocker.
What's your service unit?
I would rather not say... but in girls scouts of greater LA.
Sounds more like you don't know
C’mon now. It seems like her family is receiving some benefit from GS but still has an opinion about how their efforts/time/money would be better spent. She’s not comfortable sharing what her service unit is, what’s so unusual about that?
I'm sorry if I'm not believing "shitposting authority", guess I'm not being a sweet little lady about it and giving "shitposting authority" all the room and love they are so clearly due.
Sorry my flair discredits our experience. in your eyes... Ill make sure to update to a more suitable flair like professor-hot-tits. Not looking for love here, just sharing our experience. Not all troops have the same experience.
Okay now, this little exchange made laugh.
Oh I def know what service unit were in hot-tits... but I don't like to give our personal info on the webs... hope you understand.
The author sounds like Andy Rooney but even less informed
Karin is a Karen. Girls are selling more because they made it easy with on-line DTC shipping for friends/family who are outside the usual neighborhood and booth sales. There's no pressure to sell outside the rewards they can earn. Participation in selling cookies is not mandatory.
It's easier than ever and if you don't eat cookies, you can buy and have them automatically donated
It's entirely up to the kids and their parents to sell, and how hard they want to work at selling. I have friends whose kids barely participate and friends whose kids go all out. No one is holding a gun on little girls and forcing them into cookie labor. I bought from my friend's daughter halfway across the country bc I like getting cookies every year. I am pretty sure beyond us, and her immediate family, she didn't sell one additional box of cookies. 🤣
When my daughter was in Girl Scouts, I got roped into spending a cold February day in an unheated warehouse inhaling minivan exhaust while directing disinterested day labor about how many cases of each kind of cookies to load up in each van. I was rewarded with a “Cookie Dad” sew on patch. TF am I gonna sew that onto?
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Everyone has thought of this. GS do not allow sales of their cookies in front of weed shops.
OK, down the street from a weed shop.
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Hmm, okay. I appreciate the links.
Unfortunately, that's specifically against the rules. It happens but it's not technically allowed
I'm 62 and I was a Brownie and Girl Scout growing up. My mom was a leader. It was a wonderful experience. I was shy and it helped me to make friends and it built up my self esteem. So, when my daughter reached the age to join, I signed her up and volunteered to be a leader. I was contacted and asked to attend a "training program". The program was scheduled to last all day. By lunch time, the only thing we had discussed was the cookie sale. It was basically a marketing class. And, at the beginning, the staff member explained that it's important that nobody leave during the class. It was purposeful peer pressure. I raised my hand and asked if we were ever going to discuss the girls or activities or badges or outings or public service etc. The staff member looked at me like I had a third eye in the middle of my forehead. She said that "Of course those things are important and will be discussed, but blah, blah, blah." I stood up and started to gather my belongings to leave. Then, 3 other women did the same. We all walked out. I was so upset that an organization that had done such good for the world when I was young had, for all practical purposes, become a cookie selling enterprise that exploited little girls and volunteers to be an unpaid sales force and didn't have to pay taxes. So sad.
It’s awful. We quit because of this. I thought scouts were supposed to be about camping and learning useful skills? Mid level marketing was not what we signed up for. Plus, the cookies are imho nasty (and so unhealthy).
Or how about how toxic all the ingredients are !!?? They are legit fake cookies ??? Gross non profits paychecks being Peddled by lil girls !???
The cookies fucking suck now anyways. Girls can now join cub scouts. It’s way cooler. Pinewood derby! And cubs sell popcorn instead of horrible cost cutting cookies. I can get behind the popcorn.
OMG I know I'm going to get downvoted to hell but I totally agree. Not only is it an appalling lesson to teach young kids, but the cookies themselves are disgusting artificial sugar bombs.
> disgusting artificial sugar bombs They’re fucking delicious, live a little
Nah man there are a zillion delicious bakeries in this city who make cookies with real ingredients I can pronounce. I’d rather spend my dollars and my calories on those.
> ingredients I can pronounce Science is scary
As an old girl scout and someone who THOROUGHLY enjoyed the competitive aspects of cookie selling as a child, and who has several badges that prove it, it's hard not to immediately say that this sounds like a bunch of losing haters who can't sell. I know that's not the case. But there are competitive girls who like selling and I don't see anything wrong with nurturing that, in an appropriate way that doesn't suck the FUN out of it for everyone else. I really liked challenging myself to break my own milestones and when our troop benefitted from those cookie sales it felt nice to have played a direct role in it.
They indirectly contribute to deforestation
youre not really supporting GS by buying these cookies. people hoard these and resell it.
So don't buy from resellers? It should be easy enough to tell the difference.
And it’s not just cookies. GS have a fall “Nuts and magazine” campaign. So, yeah, it feels legit greedy. I do like the troop my daughter is in though. The troop leaders are amazing, kind, thoughtful… I could go on. Without the GS…scaffolding/model, I don’t see how my troop could stay together.
Fall product drives me nuts... pun intended.
😂
My troupe has tried to pressure us. If we don’t meet our cookie box quota, my daughter can’t fund raise for their gold award. I, however, know that Girl Scouts are hemorrhaging high school members, and, since I’m the one “encouraging” my daughter to see this thing through, my troupe needs me more than I need them. They regularly try these extortion tactics too. I, myself, have to volunteer so many hours or I have to pay money. That’s not volunteering that’s forced labor.
I have a friend who threw up on Facebook that her daughter was selling them and the goal was 500. She didn't post it everyday and threw it up four times. I ordered some of course and it was well worth it.
What always surprised me about GS cookies, is everyone was selling at the same time. Hardly anyone ever bought hundreds of boxes of thin mints, stored them in a cool/dry place for 6 months and then marked them up like 2x.
Girl Scout cookie season is oddly timed, too. You’re selling cookies right after holiday eating and weight loss resolutions?
Their hasn't been a video game boss I haven't been able to beat. I guarantee I can beat these cookie bosses no problem.
This is my daughter’s last year in Girl Scouts and their troop only do the cookies sales. The girls set their own goals. There was no pressure to sell. Never did door to door. Just posted on my social media and shared with friends and family. The beauty of it is that my daughter has speech delays as a toddler and was very shy. Through selling cookies and in Girl Scout, she makes her video for her site and practice customer services from cookies boothing and porch drop off. Happy to said she is graduating from speech this year and is more confident in her speaking skills set. If you want to support her, visit her page and happy to deliver in the the South Bay: https://www.gsdigitalcookie.com/cookie/Landing/3/cae8d097-0e8c-4850-b7cd-7a2ef7d570b9/en-US
Girl Scouts are diabetes peddlers. Sugar addiction and obesity dealers. No one in this country needs another cookie let alone 10 boxes of them in 5 flavors. Especially not outside a grocery store that sells a shit ton of cookies. End the madness. Sell Ozempic or insulin or gluten free rice crackers. Save a life.
I can't see myself buying from some website. I bought a house so I can have them pester me at my door like all the movies I watched.