Girl scout cookie complaint

[always quiet]

Don't get me wrong...I LOVE some of the girl scout cookies and I am quite sure that we probably buy about 20 boxes by the time the sale ends. This year, they have added a couple new flavors. My neighbor's daughter was doing a "pre-sale" sale in order to earn a badge. I bought 4 boxes and got 2 of the new flavor, chocolate chocolate chip. Sounds yummy...and it is! It's just when I saw the box, I was stunned!! The box is half the size of the mint cookie box and you only get 18 cookies!!! For $3.50 a box, you should at least get a few more than that!! I know it's for a good cause and all, but, geez!!

 

[Pam]

What I find shocking is that the individual Girl Scout only earns about fifty cents commission on each box of the cookies - the rest goes to the corporate level. (I think.)

My son is a Boy Scout and sells popcorn - he personally earns over 33% commission on each product he sells - this is put into his own account with the troop.

I feel bad that the girls work so hard to sell those cookies - and earn very little profit.

 

[Cruise04]

If more parents would give towards their councils family fundraising, cookies wouldn't have to go up to so much. It's all dependent on the council budgets. It is sad how much the cost of cookies has gone.

 

[mrsmom]

My dd here didn't get the new favor choc choc chip, just the pinatas which are really good But our boxes are 2.50 i would be upset if i paid that much But i guess it only comes once a year.
Kim

 

[Cruise04]

mrsmom and I must have posted at the same time. There are two bakers that are used for cookie sales. Even in our area the two are used and it's so close to us that it's funny. A town that is 20 minutes away has the baker that sells the chocolate chocolate chip and our baker is the one with the Pinatas.

 

[KarenC]

I just placed an order for a box at $4.00!

 

[cgcw]

Originally posted by mrsmom
But our boxes are 2.50 i would be upset if i paid that much But i guess it only comes once a year.

WOW!! Our cookies are $4.00 a box!! I think at $2.50 your getting a deal.

I also heard that if you give a direct donation to the Girl Scout, the money would go towards their troop. So, if you donate $10 and don't buy any cookies, the $10 gets to stay with the girls. Just another thought.

 

[banana hammock]

I always buy from family members and yes it is a few cookies for a big price.

I was on a trip to NYC and saw the GSA HQ
What a beautiful building

 

[CarolA]

Girl Scout Cookie prices are set by the local council. In our council the girls get $0.50 a box off the top. If they get their paperwork in on time they get and additional $0.10 and if we meet our local goal they get another nickle. Actually the National organization gets practiacally no money from the sale. The difference between the cost and the troop amount is kept in the local area for programming and things like camps. The cookies do have a higer per cost unit from the baker then the Boy Scout popcorn. (Of course, the cookies are also rarely stale and the last two times I ordered that popcorn it was STALE!)

Troop donations are welcome. In addition, our council allows you to buy a box of cookies which are then donated. Last year I know of one Brownie troop that donated over 100 boxes of cookies to a daycare for inner city kids.

Personally I find the Boy Scout method of giving each kid an account kind of unfair. If one boy lives in a better neighborhood or his parents work in a bigger office, he has lots of money in his account and other kids might not have much. (Just my thoughts!) Technically the Girl Scouts are not allowed to do this. (I KNOW someone will post with some troop that breaks that rule.)

I don't know about National headquarters, but I can say that in every place I have been the Boy Scout office is every bit as nice if not a lot nicer then the Girl Scout office. The big difference is doncations. Women have not historically been in positions to donate large sums of money to the Girl Scouts while men have been donating these sums to the Boy Scouts. The Girl Scouts also don't do as good a job in asking for donations.

 

[jkovick]

I just placed an order for cookies with my neice last night. (3.00 per box) My SIL told me that each girl is expected to sell 100's of boxes of cookies in a 2 week time frame in order to earn badges. That is a lot of cookies! That seems like way to much pressure, (even with parental help) on a 3rd grader. Is this goal normal? I was blown away, especially if they are only getting like .50 a box!

 

[CindyLouWhoo]

I wonder if some grocery stores sell 100 boxes (packages) of cookies in a month???!!! Talk about "corporate" pressure on kids!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

I have never heard of the pinata flavor here in the ny metro area. We have a flavor called samoa (reminds me of the Poly). I think the double choc chip looks good. We pay $3.50 a box and the girl is on our ds bowling team and she never even asks anyone, her mom does all the work, passing it around to everyone at the bowling alley and where she works. My dh just loves the samoas so we always say yes. We ordered 3 boxes total.

 

[CajunDixie]

Ours here are $3.00 per box. I have no clue what the new flavors are because if the family found out I had ordered anything besides my 1 box of lemon and all the rest thin mints I think they'd disown me.

If more parents would give towards their councils family fundraising, cookies wouldn't have to go up to so much. It's all dependent on the council budgets.

Good thing I do not have a DD. I have 2 boys in BSA and I never donate to the FOS anymore. The way I see it I'm already donating money everytime I drive them someplace, everytime I print out minutes and calendars, everytime I buy odd and ends needed for special meetings.... I know I could give the receipts to the treasurer and be re-imbursed but this way I know the money is used for our troop and not for the council in general.

Personally I find the Boy Scout method of giving each kid an account kind of unfair. If one boy lives in a better neighborhood or his parents work in a bigger office, he has lots of money in his account and other kids might not have much.

Nothing says they cant travel out of their neighborhood to sell popcorn. In fact in our small town several of us live only a street away from each other. Last year our street had 4 scouts. What makes it fair is the ones that do the work are rewarded. My oldest DS chose not to sell popcorn.....should he be rewarded the same as the other boys? Nope!!! As for the money in the accounts it may only be used for scout dues, fees, camp, or camping equipment. So its not like they can just go out and spend it wherever they want. As for the ones that do not sell very much....we have never turned a scout away because money was an issue and we have never not let a scout go to resident camp or a weekend camp because money was an issue. The boys are encouraged to earn their own money to pay for all scout related expenses....thats just teaching them to be responsible.

As for the popcorn being stale.....complain!! If no one complains then nothing will change. Our scouts are given the chose to sell or to find another product to take its place. Most of our scouts do not sell popcorn in the spring but instead they sell frozen unbaked pies. Of course the council doesnt like this since they then do not get a percent.

I don't know about National headquarters, but I can say that in every place I have been the Boy Scout office is every bit as nice if not a lot nicer then the Girl Scout office.

Another reason I do not support FOS (Friends of Scouting). I see where they spend quite a bit of money on a fancy office yet go to our resident camp and see dirty visitor restrooms, junkfood served for breakfast the last morning, latrines with doors that do not properly lock...... They need to get their priorities in line.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

We seem to have a shortage of Girl Scouts around here cause the only time I see them is when they do the infront of walmart thing (which I love)

When is cookie time this year?? -em

 

[Girls Scout Leader]

You know I cannot let this thread go by unanswered!

The thing I do not like about Girls not having individual accounts, is you know as well as I do that there is always one who does not do their fair share. WE have 6 girls going to WDW and one hardly ever does fund raisers with us for one reason or another. The rest have to pick up the slack and that gets real old real fast.

50 cents a box stinks.

This is the breakdown of justwhere every penny goes in our council: (or, How The Cookie Crumbles)

$ 1.84 = Council Services
$ .85 = Baker
$ .55 = Troop Proceeds
$ .10 = Girl Recognitions
$ .08 = Cookie Program Support
$ .04 = Collections Loss Per Box
$ .02 = Troop Loss Reimbursement
$ .02 = Service Unit Proceeds
(Each box is $3.50 )

Hope this helps you see where is goes. And it still stinks.

 

[DocRafiki]

Originally posted by CajunDixie
Another reason I do not support FOS (Friends of Scouting). I see where they spend quite a bit of money on a fancy office yet go to our resident camp and see dirty visitor restrooms, junkfood served for breakfast the last morning, latrines with doors that do not properly lock...... They need to get their priorities in line.

Yeah, I'd have a hard time giving to a charity whose organizers lived or worked in the lap of luxury.

 

[kidzmom3]

This is my second year as a brownie girl scout leader. Our cookies cost 3.50 a box. We put no goal on our 2nd grade girls. We have absolutley no pressure to sell. I gave out the info, told the parents its our biggest money maker, planned one booth sale and thats it. We might sell 10 boxes or 100. The girls in my troop like to sell the cookies, especially at the booth sale. It makes them feel grown up, to make change etc.. many parents do bring them to work, which helps increase their numbers. I am personally not a big fan of door to door selling. I don't really like to advertise that my cute kid lives in the neighborhood. Individual accounts would hurt a few of our girls. Their moms are single, with mult children, from a poor economic area. Plus their mothers don't support them in the GS activities. But they are nice girls, who deserve to have nice times, so we work as a group for the group. I think it helps teach them all a lesson about compassion, and helping those less fortunate.

 

[catsrule]

Ours are still 2.50 a box here. I ordered 4 boxes. They have a new strawberry cookie here that looks yummy.

 

[tkd lisa]

Oh, the dreaded cookie debate! I too have a cub scout (will graduate to boy scouts in 4 weeks, man did it go fast!) and a girl scout (last year of juniors).

It is our cookie time too. Our new flavors are double dutch (the double chocolate one talked about here), and lemon cooler, and we sell for $3 a box with basically the same breakout listed by Girl Scout Leader.

Our cub scout pack talked about individual accounts, but didn't do it, primarily because our boys are mostly military, and it's very hard to tell a new boy that other boys can do events, but he would have to pay because they just moved in and don't have money in the account. Our boy scout troops do have individual accounts.

Our girl scout cookie money is allocated to the troop, not the girl. We have girls in our troop with 4 girls selling (2 brownies, 2 juniors). Now if each girl only got the money they sold, and their sales were divided by those 4 girls, it would be very hard for them to do their activities. GSL mentioned girl recognitions. Those are the prizes each girl can pick from based on how many boxes she sells. That's how the girl who sells more is rewarded, while the activities they do are balanced across the entire troop.

My DD always does well selling. Last year she sold 425 boxes, this year her goal is 600! Her goal, not mine!! We also live on a street with only six houses. The opening weekend, I limit her to our street and the adjoining neighborhood (25 or so houses). After the first weekend, imo, if a girl is willing to make the effort to visit other neighborhoods, and the girls in the neighborhood haven't yet made the effort to go sell, then it's their own fault if someone beat them to the sale.

No one's really brought up the sales in the workplace. When the kids were younger, I brought in the order form, and left it in a prominent place with a note to see me with questions. Over the last couple of years, I told DD that she was old enough to see by herself. She asked me to bring her to work for sales. I pick her up after school on the day we have cub scouts, she puts on her vest, and sells "desk to desk". Many people order who wouldn't just sign up on an anonymous order form, and she actually was responsible for making the sale. We're careful not to bother anyone, and most people are just closing up work for the day anyway. Several people have told me how they like to see her doing this. My old office asked me to bring her up this year, since they wanted to buy from the girl, not the parent!

Anyway, no right answer to this age-old issue. Just my family's approach.

 

[Jeafl]

My daughter is a brownie this year, and is in the midst of selling cookies. When the "cookie mom" gave us the information and paperwork at their last meeting, she said to me "please don't let her sell more than 20 boxes. I have to pick up all the cookies, and if we limit each girl to 20 boxes it will make things easier for me". Can you believe it? Needless to say, I never even said a word to my daughter and she has sold 47 boxes already. I guess I will just volunteer to help the cookie mom pick up the cookies if she has a problem with it.

We also have the Pinatas, and they do look good.

CarolA, I have to agree with you about the stale boy scout popcorn. I ordered some caramel corn with peanuts this year, and when I opened the tin it smelled rancid. There was $12 right in the garbage. Also, every year I buy a fresh Christmas wreath from the boy scouts. The past 3 years the thing was half dead when it was delivered. All the needles fell off by the middle of December.