Selling Girl Scout cookies

[Shanna-like-Banana]

I am a Cadette Leader to my daughters troop.

This year we are up against a MAJOR brick wall. Our council uses Cookie Kiosk, a computerized lotterty system, where in each round you have to go in and enter bids on the sites you want to sell cookies at.

Round 1, you enter 8 bids and get 1. Round 2 you enter 16 bids and get 2, etc.

We have 5 retailers in our council that we can bid on. Sams club, Bi-Lo, K-Mart, Lowes and WalMart.

Kmart and Bi-Lo have pulled out entirely, we dont have Sams club in our town, WalMart has agreed to 1 out of the 5 selling weekends, so that leaves Lowes.

We are not allowed to soliciate any other sites. We are allowed to do "private" booths that we are invited too (church) But even those have to be reported to our SUCM, who in turns calls and verified that we were invited and grants permission. We are not allowed to set up personal booths outside of our service unit area, at all

Our S/U is taking a serious hit with this cookie kiosk this year. We are down to 1 retailers and 1 weekend at another. Troops around here are having to make bids in town over, that are still in our council, but are 15, 20, 30 minutes out of our Service Unit.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

They are tax deductable if your council participates in a program like

Cookies for Soldiers, Cookies for Troops, Cookie Share, etc. There would be a line on the order form to take those donations.

Your council would have something for you to give to the customers who donate, who can take that in to council and get a tax form for the donation.

 

[tinkerone]

I worked in a bank at a mall and I can tell you that there have been many a booth set up to sell. from my experience I see that if the child just sits at a table, few approach them. the successful sellers are the ones who approach clients. they need to ask people and I know a lot of the girls are shy of this. you have to be ready to talk it up.
good luck to your daughter. hope she reaches her goal.

 

[AuroraRora]

Are there any colleges near you? A girl scout troop used to come to my campus when I was in college and they'd set up shop outside the main library - it was MADNESS. I can't even imagine how many boxes they sold. No matter what time of day it is, there was huge lines of people waving money at the kids, snapping up every box they had. Those kids must have raked in the sales.

 

[plummer925]

We have a girl in our Service Unit (of 72 troops) that has sold 3200 boxes just in her initial order. I asked how she does it. Both her parents work from home, so sending it to the office is not in the cards. Honest to goodness, just a lot of foot traffic. She really truly goes door to door, street by street. She keeps track of houses she missed and goes back. Also she keeps her order form from last year and calls old customers up to get their orders. She's in 6th grade, and while her parents are obviously supportive... this is HER hard work and initiative.
,

Wow...that is amazing!! And that is what it's kind of about - a fundraiser, yes, but preparing those girls for the "real world" also. This girl will make it FAR with that kind of work ethic and initiative!!

 

[aprilgail2]

Post your sales pitch on Facebook...is that allowed? I have friends doing that for their daughters.

Yes its allowed, I always put it on my facebook and my daughter puts it on hers the past few years too.

I was very disappointed with the prizes this year and that our council had changed the way you could earn the prizes. Last year it was by how much $ you sold and this year it was by how many boxes you sold. To me, it seemed the prizes were not that easy to get.

I am proud of my daughter because her goal was to sell $500 and she sold $735

We always opt out of getting any of those "prizes" since they are all junk, we just take the extra 5 cents a box profit instead.

 

[DawnM]

I don't have girls, but I do have boy scouts. My husband tells his co-workers he will never sell his kids' junk in the office, and he won't buy their kids' junk either.

I hate sales.....cookies, popcorn, whatever. I hate it.

The girl across the street is a girl scout and I do buy a few from her, but I cringe when I see her on my porch. I just don't like it. I told myself I would just give her a $5 donation next year and be done with it.

Dawn

 

[bookgirl]

Location, Location, Location.

I get home on a major N/S street in my town. Every year a girl scout who lives in a corner house on that street is out front selling cookies. They have huge hand made signs that set up in the yard. Everyone knows where she lives and knows that every year if they need cookies to go there. There is always someone there (I've stopped there in prior years as well) selling and buying.

Find a great location and just sell sell sell.

 

[Princess_Meghan <3]

I agree with checking out the possibility of selling at a local college- the girl scouts who sell at our university come 2-3 days typically, and there's always a long line.

 

[drcmk]

GSUSA says no to Online sales.

The Girl Scouts absolutely encourage you to advertise that you are selling cookies through Facebook, email, any method available. "No online sales" means that you can't set up a website or use ebay to make the transaction. You still have to deliver the cookies and collect $$ the old-fashioned way. That said, there is nothing wrong with selling to your own friends/relatives out of state and having them send you a check and you ship the cookies--but you have to foot the shipping cost.

 

[drcmk]

The girl across the street is a girl scout and I do buy a few from her, but I cringe when I see her on my porch. I just don't like it. I told myself I would just give her a $5 donation next year and be done with it. Dawn

I'm sorry to hear that you hate cookie sales so much. It is our only fund-raiser and is great experience for the kids and--honestly--most of our customers are as excited to buy cookies as we are to sell them.

That said, we earn much less than one dollar per box of cookies, so a five dollar donation costs you less than the cost of two boxes and gives the troop as much money as if they'd sold 8 boxes.

 

[drcmk]

She's in 5th grade and this is her last year in scouts and she REALLY wants to get to 1,000!

If you don't mind my asking, why is this your daughter's last year in scouts? Mine are in high school and we still find Girl Scouts to be a lot of fun, a great way to socialize with like-minded girls and a great opportunity to do community service and other projects that look pretty good on college applications. There are fewer troops for older girls, but these troops can do so much more than the little girls and are usually populated with great kids.

Also, it doesn't really make much sense for your daughter to generate so much profit for the troop and then quite a few months later before she has a chance to benefit from the money she has earned.

 

[nchulka]

If you don't mind my asking, why is this your daughter's last year in scouts? Mine are in high school and we still find Girl Scouts to be a lot of fun, a great way to socialize with like-minded girls and a great opportunity to do community service and other projects that look pretty good on college applications. There are fewer troops for older girls, but these troops can do so much more than the little girls and are usually populated with great kids.

Also, it doesn't really make much sense for your daughter to generate so much profit for the troop and then quite a few months later before she has a chance to benefit from the money she has earned.

She has been in the troop since Kindergarten and it is ending this year. All the girls are in 5th grade getting ready to start middle school and no one is interested in continuing. The girls are doing a big trip to Kansas City for a few days to visit Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun as their big finale. That is what the cookie money will all be going to. They are going in July and that will be the end. My DS is in Cub Scouts and he will be continuing through high school and making Eagle. I plan to get DD into Venturing (affiliated with Boy Scouts, but co-ed which starts at age 14).

 

[ceecee]

Wow...that is amazing!! And that is what it's kind of about - a fundraiser, yes, but preparing those girls for the "real world" also. This girl will make it FAR with that kind of work ethic and initiative!!

I had a girl who also went door to door and wrote down the house #'s she missed. I commented on her 3 page order form and she said "I did work hard, sometimes I had to go to the same house 3 times before they said yes!" She was only 7 and did it by herself. Her parents helped her deliver to the farther houses.

 

[Fire14]

My Dh buys cookies every year and complains he didn't buy more. I personally hate the cookies any more ( I OD'd as a GS). I also never cared for BS popcorn.

 

[Ms.Grumpy]

I have 3 GS in my classroom, and I purchased 2 boxes from each one. DH will be thrilled when the cookies arrive!

 

[Colleen27]

One of the families in our troop owns a movie theatre. Talk about a great place for booth sales!

My DD shoots for 100 boxes, but she only sells to family, friends, and a handful of neighbors that we know. I can't imagine the work it takes to sell 1000+. I think the Keebler knock-offs hurt us this year; we had several people mention that they don't stock up any more because they can get the same flavors at the grocery store for less than the $4/box that GS cookies cost.

 

[Poppcorn]

As a child my selling totals were always in the 5000+ range! My daddy was on air craft carriers!

My dd always sells in the 1000+ her daddy is in the Coast Guard and I work at a hospital!

 

[princesspwrhr]

I worked in a bank at a mall and I can tell you that there have been many a booth set up to sell. from my experience I see that if the child just sits at a table, few approach them. the successful sellers are the ones who approach clients. they need to ask people and I know a lot of the girls are shy of this. you have to be ready to talk it up.
good luck to your daughter. hope she reaches her goal.

Unfortunately there are areas (like here) where the girls (or boys ) are not allowed to solicit customers outside of stores. They are allowed to set up a booth- 15 feet from the nearest door- with a display and signs but they are not allowed to approach store customers.

Not that everyone follows the rule, but its there.

 

[Leajess99]

I don't have girls, but I do have boy scouts. My husband tells his co-workers he will never sell his kids' junk in the office, and he won't buy their kids' junk either.

I hate sales.....cookies, popcorn, whatever. I hate it.

The girl across the street is a girl scout and I do buy a few from her, but I cringe when I see her on my porch. I just don't like it. I told myself I would just give her a $5 donation next year and be done with it.

Dawn

My daughter quit Girl Socuts this year as it was ridiculous. I felt like it was more about cookie sales than anything else and she wasn't really enjoying it. She worked her butt off on cookie sales and it always ended up being more of an issue and costly when people ordered and then could never be contacted again.

She had a friend that kept bragging about the number of cookies she sold yet it was the mom that did the work. This year was so nice to not have to deal with cookies and if any of my daughter's former customer contacted us we recommended a girl from her old troop. I ordered cookies from my little cousin up north only to be donated. Otherwise, I am not wasting money on the cookies.