Samoas originally uploaded by Liza Lagman Sperl
There’s only one cookie worth buying in my opinion: Samoas from the Girl Scouts. Now, how I go about acquiring these tasty morsels is a bit different than what I assume the majority of people would do. I absolutely refuse to buy Girl Scout cookies from anyone but the Scout herself while she’s standing at my front door. Thankfully for one little aspiring entrepreneur who took the initiative and showed up at my door with a clip board and a sheet asking for me to buy some from her–and I did.
I’m sure you’re already saying, “whoa, whoa, whoa Bill, wait a minute! These girls have full schedules–they have other obligations other than Girl Scouts, they cannot be expected to go door to door and sell cookies to you. That’s dangerous and time consuming and as such, you should buy them from me at work instead!” But no, I won’t do that. It’s not to say that I am not grateful for your service, as an adult, to the Girl Scout organization. I just don’t believe it does anything to meet the mission of the entire project. You know, like following the line that the Girl Scouts give about why they do this every year:
Girls practice useful life skills like planning, decision-making, and customer service. During cookie activities, girls are members of a team working towards a common goal, with each girl striving to do her best.
It could certainly be argued that Girl Scouts who have their parents sell for them are engaging in planning and decision-making but I am not entirely sure how the girls are supposed to provide customer service and strive to do their best when someone else is doing it all for them. It could also be argued that selling door-to-door is just plain dangerous in this day and age–something I completely agree with which is why the parents should limit their involvement to standing 5 feet behind the girls while they hawk their wares. The overzealous helicopter parents will get to feel like they contributed and their daughters do what the entire exercise was meant to promote. Win win!
I guess the real point of this was to find out why parents of Girl Scouts sell their cookies at work. I’m sure some of you out there have done this yourselves or have discussed the entire ordeal with your coworkers as they pawn off $3.50 boxes of 5 cookies to you. What are the reasons for it? Why is it that Girl Scouts cannot sell door to door anymore–like the little girl who will eventually swipe $10.50 from my pockets at the end of February? Whatever you have to say about Girl Scout cookies go ahead and comment on!
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January 19th, 2010 at 7:48 am
I couldn’t agree more. Door-to-door is the way to go; of course with the parent standing close by to ward off any would-be creepwads.
Here’s an idea. If you must bring the order sheet into the office, why not bring the girl scout with and let her do the selling? This isn’t exactly door-to-door, but it’s close.
I also noticed many parents trying to sell GS cookies via their Facebook status update. Kiddin’ me? It seems like selling the cookies has turned into a parent event…lets see how many boxes I (the parent) can sell before other parents saturate the market.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:00 am
Girl Scout Cookies: How Do You Buy Them? http://tinyurl.com/ycgblrm
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
January 19th, 2010 at 8:13 am
I would be all for ordering a few boxes if the kids came to my door, however, that rarely happens. We don’t live in a bad area, but even Halloween turns out few to no trick-or-treat kidlets on the block.
If a parent does bring in a sheet, I’ll typically buy a few boxes, just to support the cause, as I feel it’s worthy, even if the kiddo isn’t banging on my door.
I have noticed the hockey kids that sell pizzas are still pretty hardcore in my neighborhood, one year, I had 4 groups in one night!
Jeff is right tho, I think the creepwad effect is what keeps some parents from letting kids venture our on their own these days, and the parents may be too busy to go follow their kid around for a few hours..
January 19th, 2010 at 8:13 am
I can see where you are coming from, but, as a buyer, I like being able to buy them from either somebody I work with or (preferably) at a physical location where they’ve set up shop.
By going door-to-door the traditional way, you eliminate possible buyers:
– People who live in apartments or condos with controlled access
– People who live in neighborhoods with strict No Solicitation policies (me)
– People who aren’t generally home when the Scouts are going door-to-door (also me, to a certain extent)
There’s probably categories of people I haven’t thought of too. I think the door-to-door experience is valuable, but every retailer knows the importance of a multichannel strategy. :)
(Along those lines, I will comment on the Costco thread when I get a chance)
January 19th, 2010 at 8:20 am
we’ll buy from the neighborhood girls that we know. i also buy from my granddaughter. the door to door girls that some over zealous parents truck in from other hoods i don’t buy from.
i like the lemon creams and shortbread’s. good dunkers!
bb
January 19th, 2010 at 8:30 am
My guess is these ‘helicopter parents’ (great term BTW), also push them into every sport imaginable, and get mad when they don’t do well at any of them. Living through your kids perhaps? Let kids, be kids.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:08 am
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a door-to-door GS selling cookies. Maybe girl scouting just isn’t very popular in the Powderhorn neighborhood? I’ve seen them with a table set up outside grocery stores before… this seems much more efficient & WAY easier, IMO.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:16 am
Long time reader…. and GS mom/leader.
We let our daughter call relatives and I let our friends know they’re available. Since I volunteer my time, I don’t feel obligated to have her sell oodles of cookies b/c every year they get smaller, less in the box & the actual troop gets less money.
The local breakdown is like this:
$.55 – .60 Troop proceeds (average)
$.11 Girl awards and recognitions
$.85 Baker
$1.94 – $1.99 Council-sponsored program events, properties, and services
$3.50 Package
Most people buy them out of tradition — the same reason certain foods are only eaten at Christmas.
We have had girls in our troop go door to door only to find they are never able to catch the buyer at home to deliver/collect money. This comes out of the troop’s coffers or the parent’s wallet. In fact, if there are 12 boxes in a case of Samoas and our troop sells 10 boxes, we have to buy all 12 from the council & then either find someone else to sell them, move them at a cookie booth or pay the entire $3.50 out of our troop funds. When we only make $.50/box we have to sell 7 boxes to cover each “extra” box we deal with just to break even.
I also wish we’d sell them a)when it’s not so cold out and b) sometime other than new year resolution time.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:27 am
I only buy from the GS herself, and only from girls that we know. That applies to any door-to-door sales by youth organizations. Sometimes I’ll just cut a check to the organization if I don’t want to buy any of the overpriced offerings.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:43 am
I think the Boy Scouts have gotten away from the delivery problem by having all products (usually popcorn) mailed to the customers…. but my Boy Scout troop doesn’t do any fundraising… so I wouldn’t really know.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:46 am
Welcome bj!! This detail is great and very informative!
January 19th, 2010 at 10:06 am
Will you buy from Girl Scouts’ parents at work, why? RT @SouthMetroNews: Girl Scout Cookies: How Do You Buy Them? http://tinyurl.com/ycgblrm
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
January 19th, 2010 at 10:15 am
We buy them from those friends close to us that have girl scouts. They usually plan a trip to our house, knock on the door and we buy. We always have room for a couple more boxes should the odd neighbor or two stop buy, though most of those kids are no longer in the scouts.
Alternatively, we have a mixed bowling league that we participate in, and usually one of the families has a daughter selling cookies. The daughter comes buy on the bowling night and takes the orders from us.
I don’t have a real problem with people selling them at work, but those local to me get first dibs on my dollars.
And for those of you watching your health, here is the 2009 nutritional info for Girl Scout Cookies.
http://www.girlscoutcookies.org/nutrition_info_2009_2010.asp
January 19th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Mr. Whit answered the door this weekend, and had said “no thank you” and had closed the door before I could say “hey, was that the doorbell?” If I wasn’t still in my PJs, I would have chased the girl and her mom down the block, waving my $20 bucks like a madwoman. Guess I’m going to have to invite myself over to Bill’s house to get my fill of Samoas. :-) Why is it that my favorite GS cookie has the fewest cookies/box?
January 19th, 2010 at 11:19 am
My waistline is thankful that there are no Girl Scout parents in my office or I would feel obliged to buy (being a former Girl Scout and absolutely HATING cooking selling time).
The only way I’d buy if a GS showed up at my front door would be if they collected the money when they brought me the cookies. I’ve been burned once by a kid selling something as a fundraiser. I placed the order and never got anything in return. Next time (different kid), my husband answered the door and same deal, ended up getting burned.
January 19th, 2010 at 11:23 am
That’s how it works in our neighborhood. I ordered what I wanted and she said she’d be back in late February to drop off the cookies and collect my check.
January 19th, 2010 at 11:39 am
The only time I have bought girlscout cookies from the office is when I had no girl scout hook up of my own. I am thinking its been about 10 years since that has happened. I am fortunate to live in a neighborhood that has a girl scout or two that comes door to door to sell the delightful things. :)
January 19th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
RT @SouthMetroNews: Girl Scout Cookies: How Do You Buy Them? http://tinyurl.com/ycgblrm
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
January 19th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
I am a Girl Scout leader and my 1st grader is selling cookies this year for the first time. She and her dad went out saturday around our neighborhood and sold a bunch. there are quite a few Girl Scouts in our neighborhood so we were mindful to stay off streets where the other GS lived so they had a fighting chance to sell to their own neighbors. :) We both brought GS cookie forms into our respective offices and I did send an email out to my co-workers but that’s it. I don’t care if you buy any, but usually people do. You just can’t say no to Thin Mints! ha! :)
January 19th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
I have to buy them as a payback to everyone that has supported my kids’ fundraisers for 20 years. These people have bought pizzas, cookie dough, annuals & perennials, Subway cards, gift wrap, magazines, attended spaghetti dinners at the Legion, gone to our Noodles nights, gone to our BW3 nights, poinsettias, gone to car washes, etc. I still have at least two more years of fund raising for high school booster clubs. I will continue to buy from their kids and grand kids until I die.
January 19th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Ha.. I don’t even buy them from my own daughter. And I refuse to bring the sheet into the office and hit my employees for cookies. For one thing, it’s not nice when the boss asks and you feel you have to, it also means I have to carry in a bunch of boxes of cookies and they stick around for weeks.. Not supportive.
January 19th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Well when I was a kid…hehe
Anyway, when I was a kid we were constantly selling crap to support our Catholic school – magazines, Ovaltine Bars, the yearly marathon for non-public education, the list goes on and on. We kids sold what we could, on our own with no help from our parents. It sucked, but to be honest, it is NOTHING like the constant barrage of crap being sold by kids these days. I DETEST that wrapping paper company – those people are seriously unethical. People at work are constantly pushing Boy Scout wreaths, Girl Scout cookies, hockey pizzas, basketball cookie dough, nuts, caramels…someone should sell some Dexitrim after all that crap. Oh, and that isn’t including the Pampered Chef brochures, the Avon magazines, the Melaleuca, the Arbonne etc etc.
But….I will admit, when the cookie sheet comes around with the beautifully color coded columns, I have to buy some…thin mints and tag-a-longs, I’ll buy from co-workers kids…and from the poor kids sitting at Wal-Mart on Saturday afternoons. I love cookies.
January 19th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
This goes for all fundraisers…we are specific that if our nieces/nephews want us to buy, THEY have to pitch. Luckily we have several that are all in an abundance of activities/sports, so we’re usually full up on mag subscriptions, cookies, wrapping paper, raffle tix, discount cards, etc. By the time the neighbors kids make it to our house we usually politely decline.
Oh, and my niece is a Girl Scout, you can buy her cookies by e-mailing me…only kidding!?!?! ha!
January 19th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
OR…one way to stick to that damn evil cookie empire is to make them yourself! I found this recipe on the Copykat.com website:
January 19th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
What’s interesting is how little the groups actually get for most of the overpriced crap they sell. I’d much prefer just donating cash than wasting money on wrapping paper or popcorn. At least with the kids hitting you up for the Marathon for Non-Public Education, all they’re asking for is a straight cash donation so I feel better giving to them.
Actually, as a parent of 3 kids, all in various activities, I’d much prefer just paying a higher fee than having to make the kids sell all this garbage. Where they allow it, that’s what I do.
January 19th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
The companies that sell this stuff through the fund-raising children are thieves. That said, the individual kids are working hard to sell this stuff and do see benefit from doing so. Therefore, we buy the cookies from neighbors and friends, then have a hard time getting rid of them. We don’t eat them because we like food that actually tastes good, not sugared-up artificially-colored-and-flavored preserved-to-death fake food. Sorry.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
So Bill, how did you get to wait until the end of February to pay for your cookies? We had to pay the girl who came to our door Saturday morning on the spot. We buy from neighbor girls who come to the door and also at the office.
The girls get a participating patch PLUS a special patch for selling 100+ boxes so it quickly becomes a family project to sell that many because all the kids want the “super seller” patch. The people at my work who sell bring in their daughters for the actual delivery and to personally thank everyone.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
I have no idea. As far as I know, it’s always been done that way. I think you guys are getting the short end of the stick.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Also, to go along with what others have mentioned, there’s just not that many girls of scouting age around where I live, so as a result there won’t be too many scouts.
January 20th, 2010 at 7:45 am
The girls are not supposed to collect money until they deliver cookies.
January 20th, 2010 at 7:45 am
I am a former door-to-door girl scout cookie distributor! I practiced my sales pitch, had to use my newly learned multiplication tables, and adapt some form of organization to insure all my customers got what they ordered. This was almost 20 years ago and my neighborhood was relatively safe so i did most of this by myself. I remember taking great pride in my sales even when i didn’t sell over 100 boxes. It shouldn’t be about the patch, it should be about the experience. At least that’s what i got out of girl scouts. It’s sad if parents are supplementing sales without involving the girls. I wouldn’t refuse a girl in a green sash at my door, but i have not seen one as of yet. I’ve only lived in Burnsville for a year now. Maybe they will come out of the woodwork or i’ll snag a couple of boxes at the grocery store.
Oh and Bill, you are absolutely right. I think Samoas are the only ones worthy of their price.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:39 am
bj, so what is it with these girls who are coming around asking for money in advance?
January 20th, 2010 at 11:59 am
My guess is they want to make sure they don’t get stuck with cookies they can’t collect for. Also, it makes it easier to just drop them in your door/on your desk if you’re not home/around.
And as far as the incentives go, they aren’t that great. I think it’s about 140 boxes before your get a stuffed animal. Some girls really try to earn them.
As a family we aren’t big on fundraising things. The hub won’t even take it to work b/c he doesn’t want to feel obligated to reciprocate. I look at it as something traditional that some peole look forward to each year. Needless to say, we aren’t big sellers! :-)
January 20th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
I will buy from people whose kids come in to peddle them themselves. I also bought a box from one of my students who came in, after school, in her sash and asked kindly. (I work in a middle school, so there won’t be too many who ask, or I’ll go broke)
January 20th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
I am a parent of 4 girls. 3 of them are involved in scouts, 2 are selling cookies this year. I am 8 months pregnant. Taking the girls door to door is a pain in the a$$. My husband took them around the neighborhood a little. Both he and I will bring the forms to work. Ｈｅ ｗｏｒｋｓ ｎｉｇｈｔｓ ｓｏ ｉｔ ｉｓ ｎｏｔ ｆｅａｓｉｂｌｅ ｔｏ ｂｒｉｎｇ ｔｈｅ ｋｉｄ ｔｏ ｗｏｒｋ． Ｉ ｗｏｒｋ ｏｎ ａ ｐｓｙｃｈ ｗａｒｄ ｓｏ ａｇａｉｎ， ｎｏｔ ｆｅａｓｉｂｌｅ ｔｏ ｈａｖｅ ｔｈｅ ｋｉｄ ｃｏｍｅ ａｌｏｎｇ． Ｉ ｔｒｙ ｔｏ ａｔｔａｃｈ ａ ｎｏｔｅ ｆｒｏｍ ｔｈｅ ｋｉｄ．
February 26th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Cookie Thief Steals Cases of Samoas from Garage! http://www.startribune.com/local/east/85523892.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUac8HEaDiaMDCinchO7DU
I swear, it wasn’t me!! Bill, where were YOU on Thursday? ;-)
February 26th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
No wonder I haven’t gotten my cookies yet. I was wondering when they’d show up :(
March 1st, 2010 at 8:20 am
Got my first order on Sunday. Yummy! Samoas, Tagalongs and the new Thank You Berry Much. I bought from 3 other scouts that came door to door. I won’t buy from parents who email or Facebook their kid’s wares.
March 1st, 2010 at 1:09 pm
My husband and I were just discussing this yesterday as we drove through AV on CR 42 and noticed sign after sign for the cookies. The booths are everywhere and were staffed by girls so at least they were out there making an effort. I too would rather buy from someone going door to door but nobody came to our Bville neighborhood. I bought them from a coworker this year who sold them for her two daughters – neither of them had to do a thing. BTW, the new Thank You Berry Much are awful.
March 1st, 2010 at 2:24 pm
I didn’t buy any cookies this year because I really don’t need any extra calories in my diet. This woman I work with actually has a pretty good idea. The daugther of the woman I work with writes a very nice email asking you to purchase cookies from her. She states her mother has the sign-up sheet at her desk. You go and order your cookies at the mother’s desk. On cookie delivery day, the daughter comes into work at 4:30 ish and the mother and daughter walk around and deliever them. The girl scout was earing her proper attire. She thanked everyone personally and took the money, even figured out the change herself. The mom was just there for support.
March 4th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
I like the new Thank you Berry Much. they are a nice change from chocolate (which I gave up for Lent).