Girl Scout cookies advice UPDATE Post #109

[chiefmickeymouse]

We were never able to return the cookies to council, but sometimes another troop would take some for a booth sale.

 

[DipsyDoodles]

The only thing I can think of is your troop may have to sell a certain number of boxes to receive a higher per box profit. Maybe your leader won't return them because she wants the higher profit. Either way, what she is asking is not right. On your original question, I see no problem at all adding it as a footnote to your soccer team letter. Do you have a Facebook page? If so, you can add to your status that you have girl scout cookies if anyone is interested in buying any to let you know.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I have been a leader in the past in 2 different states and if you order it, you own it.

However I would contact your local council and double check, because some councils will take them back.

When you contact GS Council make sure you sign up for more cookie booths. You should be able to sell most of them if you work at it.

That being said I would tell her that forcing each parent to take on 80 boxes is rude and stupid. You don't combat a cookie mistake with making more cookie mistakes.

I did cookies for many yrs.

Oh and banks! In one of my troops the leader went around to banks and they bought a ton of them. Not sure if you have the guts to do that but she did.

 

[dngnb8]

Just found out today that DD's Brownie troop cookie mom ordered way too many cookies and the troop has 570 boxes left to sell. We have 1 more cookie booth on Saturday, but it's highly doubtful that we'll sell 500 cookies! She's considering splitting up the cookies amongst the 7 girls to sell, but I know for us, that's not a good idea. DD has asked all the neighbors and has asked every person we can think of. I'm now trying to brainstorm more ideas of who to sell to.

One idea I have is to spread the word at DS's soccer practice that his sister is selling if anyone is interested. DH is the coach and doesn't think it's a very good idea. He doesn't want anyone to feel obligated to buy, but my thinking is what's the harm in just mentioning it, in case people are interested? Is that inappropriate or would it be OK to try? I'm the team mom and have to send out the snack list, I was thinking I could include a blurb at the end of the email and make it clear there is no obligation. But, at the same time, I don't want to offend anyone or cross a line with the soccer parents.

We're also having a garage sale on the 17th, so I was thinking DD could set some cookies up on a table to try to sell more.

Has this ever happened to any of your troops? What did you do to sell the leftover cookies? Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated!

Hvae the troop leader contact other troops in the area and see if they can transfer some boxes. My wife was about 300 over and another troop took them off her hands.

Of course, there is always eating them.

 

[LittleMermaidsMom]

I was a leader and cookie mom for several years... this happened to us also when we had another mother handle the cookies our first year - she ordered way too many and our council would not take them back.

We asked for more booths and we even set up some of our own - Sunday morning church, banks, dollar stores, anywhere we could think of... we also had some parents volunteer to take more cookies and sell them. They were able to sell additional boxes at work and to family members. We didn't FORCE the girls to sell anything additional, we just explained what happened and luckily almost all families were willing to pitch in and help get rid of them.

Ultimately, it is the cookie moms responsibility to pay for all the cookies she ordered. However, ours was not in financial position to do so, so our co-leader bought the remaining boxes (several hundred dollars worth) and she was able to sell them over the next couple of months. She's a high school teacher and had them available for purchase in her classroom, so she was able to unload them very quickly

If none of those options work, tell your cookie mom to start listing them on Ebay... several troops sell them on there.

Good luck!

 

[Metsfan520]

This is not funny - just plain RUDE!!

Your cookie mom should be contacting your service unit to return these extra cookies. (And your leader should be looking for a new cookie mom.) There is no reason why she would need to order so many. Our cookie mom makes a pick up before each cookie booth so we don't have many extras. Our service unit arranges meetings for troops to pick up/drop off extra boxes. I thought the extra 11 boxes we have was a lot!!

Here's the thread if you want to read it:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2889041

 

[brookmey]

Thanks again for the suggestions.

We had 4 cookie booths scheduled, with the last one this weekend. We haven't had a lot of luck with the weather, the first weekend it rained during most of the cookie booth (we still had it under a tent), the 2nd weekend was chilly (40s in southeastern TX, which causes people to not venture outside!) and last weekend, which was decent weather, we just didn't sell a lot. This weekend it's supposed to rain again.

Even though this is our first year, this troop has been together since Daisies and they've always done really well at the cookie booths. This year just hasn't gone well.

I like the idea of selling during DS's soccer game, but there is a concessions stand already there, so it is not allowed. I've asked the cookie mom about more cookie booths, so she's looking into it.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Piper]

When my daughter was a Cadette and Senior she contacted some businesses among them our family doctor and orthodontist) and asked them to purchase cookies to donate to the local children's home. The businesses used the donation as a tax write-off and the children's home was thrilled to get the cookies.

 

[luvmy3]

Another suggestion would be to set up a booth at your local Post Office for people to buy cookies to be sent to the Troops. Your council should have all the information on who you can deliver the cookies to for shipping to them.

 

[lastminutemom]

Wow. That is a huge amount of cookies.

A couple of thoughts. Can she send an email to the cookie person for your service unit asking if any troops need cases transferred to them? I just got such an email yesterday from our service unit's cookie person for another troop.

The market is probably pretty saturated with cookies right now. Waiting a few weeks, once everyone is through having cookie booth sales, might help as well.

The college is a great idea. I know that troops sell tons on college campuses.

Finally, I think it isn't reasonable to expect each girl to sell 80 more boxes. As a troop, you all need to work together to figure this out.

 

[arthuruscg]

Wow, I am glad we only dealt with the donut sales in Boy scouts.

When I got out the NCAC was starting to push the counsel run popcorn sales.
I hope it doesn't turn into to the BSA version of the GSA cookie sales.

How much of the cookie sales money stays in the troop version going to the counsel?
The leads i have talked to could not give me and $ figures.

 

[scrapquitler]

Wow, I am glad we only dealt with the donut sales in Boy scouts.

When I got out the NCAC was starting to push the counsel run popcorn sales.
I hope it doesn't turn into to the BSA version of the GSA cookie sales.

How much of the cookie sales money stays in the troop version going to the counsel?
The leads i have talked to could not give me and $ figures.

When my DD was in girl scouts (about 4 years ago) the troop kept 75cents for each box sold ($4.00 per box). I think council kept $1. per box (but I might be wrong about that).

I'm sure this varies by council, and like I said, it was several years ago.

 

[aprilgail2]

Just found out today that DD's Brownie troop cookie mom ordered way too many cookies and the troop has 570 boxes left to sell. We have 1 more cookie booth on Saturday, but it's highly doubtful that we'll sell 500 cookies! She's considering splitting up the cookies amongst the 7 girls to sell, but I know for us, that's not a good idea. DD has asked all the neighbors and has asked every person we can think of. I'm now trying to brainstorm more ideas of who to sell to.

One idea I have is to spread the word at DS's soccer practice that his sister is selling if anyone is interested. DH is the coach and doesn't think it's a very good idea. He doesn't want anyone to feel obligated to buy, but my thinking is what's the harm in just mentioning it, in case people are interested? Is that inappropriate or would it be OK to try? I'm the team mom and have to send out the snack list, I was thinking I could include a blurb at the end of the email and make it clear there is no obligation. But, at the same time, I don't want to offend anyone or cross a line with the soccer parents.

We're also having a garage sale on the 17th, so I was thinking DD could set some cookies up on a table to try to sell more.

Has this ever happened to any of your troops? What did you do to sell the leftover cookies? Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated!

I don't understand why you would order even ONE more box than you have orders for. We order exactly what the kids sold and then when we do a cookie booth we drive over to council and pick up a cookie booth kit worth of cookies- usually around 200-250. We sell what we can and the next day return all the cookies we didn't sell- open cases or not they take every single one back and you pay for what you sell. There is no penalty if you don't sell them all and you never have to pay for anything you don't sell. Not a troop here would bother doing a cooie booth if there was a chance you would be stuck with the cookies!

 

[Magic Mom]

Just found out today that DD's Brownie troop cookie mom ordered way too many cookies and the troop has 570 boxes left to sell. We have 1 more cookie booth on Saturday, but it's highly doubtful that we'll sell 500 cookies! She's considering splitting up the cookies amongst the 7 girls to sell, but I know for us, that's not a good idea. DD has asked all the neighbors and has asked every person we can think of. I'm now trying to brainstorm more ideas of who to sell to.

One idea I have is to spread the word at DS's soccer practice that his sister is selling if anyone is interested. DH is the coach and doesn't think it's a very good idea. He doesn't want anyone to feel obligated to buy, but my thinking is what's the harm in just mentioning it, in case people are interested? Is that inappropriate or would it be OK to try? I'm the team mom and have to send out the snack list, I was thinking I could include a blurb at the end of the email and make it clear there is no obligation. But, at the same time, I don't want to offend anyone or cross a line with the soccer parents.

We're also having a garage sale on the 17th, so I was thinking DD could set some cookies up on a table to try to sell more.

Has this ever happened to any of your troops? What did you do to sell the leftover cookies? Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated!

She (troop leader) needs to go to the booth coordinator ASAP and 1) ask for some more booth time, and 2) ask other troops to reorder from your supply before ordering from council. Then whatever you have left, you can do team door to door sales. That is how our troop handled overages in cookie orders.

Your Dh should not be asking, your DD and another troop member should set up a small table and try to sell at practice. I 100% garuntee that you will sell more if she sells somewhere like that (obviously a parent would have to do the selling at their own workplace.)

The garage sale is a great idea! Invite another troop member to participate, because some councils are picky about "booth" sales having more than one girl, and that could be seen as a booth sale even thouh it really isn't.

 

[MolonLabe]

In Texas you have a wonderful, freedom loving location at your disposal... PM inbound.

 

[Magic Mom]

I don't understand why you would order even ONE more box than you have orders for. We order exactly what the kids sold and then when we do a cookie booth we drive over to council and pick up a cookie booth kit worth of cookies- usually around 200-250. We sell what we can and the next day return all the cookies we didn't sell- open cases or not they take every single one back and you pay for what you sell. There is no penalty if you don't sell them all and you never have to pay for anything you don't sell. Not a troop here would bother doing a cooie booth if there was a chance you would be stuck with the cookies!

Not all councils do it the same way. Our coucil made you preorder your booth sale cookies. No returns. You can imagine how stressed that made me as a first year leader.I had NO idea how many to order. Luckily I had some good advice and made a good guess my first year.

 

[pperfectmom]

To the OP-not sure if someone else mentioned this, but you are under no obligation whatsoever to take any of the extra cookies. She is the one that way over ordered and it's up to her to figure a way out of the mess. I was the leader of my DD's troop last year and I had extras and ended up having to write a check for around $200 to cover it. I was able to go on and sell some of those, but we ate a lot of cookies.

 

[Magic Mom]

To the OP-not sure if someone else mentioned this, but you are under no obligation whatsoever to take any of the extra cookies. She is the one that way over ordered and it's up to her to figure a way out of the mess. I was the leader of my DD's troop last year and I had extras and ended up having to write a check for around $200 to cover it. I was able to go on and sell some of those, but we ate a lot of cookies.

That is sad that your troop left you stuck like that. You are right that they don't HAVE to help the leader, but that would really be against everything the GS's believe in.

It's also, not something my council would condone. The troop would eat the loss before the leader's family was forced to pay.

 

[brookmey]

I passed on many of the suggestions offered to the cookie mom and she said was pretty impressed. She said I've got some really smart friends! Of course I do! Disney nuts are a lot smarter than people give us credit for!

I would love to set up a booth and sell during DS's soccer practice because there are a ton of teams around practicing there. That's a good idea and I do think a lot of cookies will sell. I'll have to find out where to get permission because the fields are city owned.

The cookie mom really liked the idea of going to local businesses. She's going to try that this week. She's also looking into setting up a booth at the local community college. The girls have spring break next week, so it is possible to hit day classes with half of the troop and night classes with the rest of the troop.

This is kind of a big deal to me because our troop leader is a dud and she's a glass is always empty person. We don't get along well and she's made several comments about how DD hasn't sold her fair share of cookies (she's sold 101 and she's worked really hard to get that many). The leader saw my Disney Dooney purse at the last meeting and asked the cookie mom to suggest to me that I just buy the remaining boxes so the girls won't have to pay for it because I must have a lot of money if I can buy designer handbags. Uh, no, I don't have like $2000 just sitting around to be tied up in GS cookies. So I'm trying to show her that there are plenty of ways to sell these cookies if we think outside of the box and ask others for advice. Expecting me to buy them all, whatever.

 

[clh2]

To the OP-not sure if someone else mentioned this, but you are under no obligation whatsoever to take any of the extra cookies. She is the one that way over ordered and it's up to her to figure a way out of the mess. I was the leader of my DD's troop last year and I had extras and ended up having to write a check for around $200 to cover it. I was able to go on and sell some of those, but we ate a lot of cookies.

This. Do NOT take any additional cookies - unless you want to be financially obligated for them.

I am a former cookie mom (one of my really favorite volunteer activities EVER!) I managed our cookies so we had less than 12 extra boxes each an every year.

Our council now has the "no-return" policy on cases of cookies ordered.