Selling Girl Scout cookies

[TLuvsD]

Our D is a Gold Award Girl Scout, she sold 500 to 700 boxes a year, even through high school. She sold a LOT of Cookie Share (people pay for the cookies but they are donated to the military or the food bank). She also had developed a list of "big buyers" over the years...whatever you do keep track of you buys what. Call the early purchasers and see if they need more at the end of the sale. D used cookie money for two trips (one more local, one across the country), all GS activities and fees, and her Gold Award. I still volunteer with Girl Scouts.

Regarding the Direct Sale troop: we make this switch a couple of years ago. Each TROOP decided how many cases to order. No parent had to take ANY cookies, unless they wanted to preorder. This was very clear on all the paperwork. That being said, I know troops who "assigned" cookies to parents. Those parents had no interest in selling that many cookies, and it was a problem. We rewrote everything, and highlighted the fact that no one had to preorder cookies. The council should have helped that troop.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

GSUSA says no to Online sales.
My daughters sold over 1000 boxes two years in a row, we set up a drive through in our own driveway and we put signs up at major intersections near the house. This was when we live in Georgia in the 90's. We did troop sales with the whole group when we could get booth time, however that was put together by the service unit, it was a lottery for which store you could get and when, that was such a pain.

Yes and no...

You can do online if your council is involved. We do Cookie Club. you can then send emails to everyone you know if you want. However, if Grandma in Europe buys cookies you have to deliver.

Our council and most others spend the money on the camps. So.. if it's a rip-off I am happy to be "ripped off" Camping at the Girl Scout camps was a highlight of my summer. (And I started as a Brownie and stayed all the way until I graduated... well actually I never left LOL! And I don't have a daughter. I currently manage the cookie sale for my area. By my high school years I didn't really sell, my customers came to me LOL! and it's not near as unpopular to be Girl Scout in High School if you have the cookies to sell )

We actually have made a big effort to move funding away from cookies. But it's still a big funding point for the individual troops. In our area older girl troops actually can make more because they can opt out of the prizes etc...

And the "you can only be a top seller if your parents take the form to work" chant cracks me up. My top seller is being raised by her grandmother, who is retired. They work the door to door, do every booth thier troop has (Grandmother also leads the troop), that girl works hard to sell those cookies. Last year she sold 1,500 plus and there were no "mega" orders in there.

There's a family in my subdivision that 'advertises' Their two girls made posters that they put in the front yard. People just drop by to get to cookies. Mom also has the words "I have Girl Scout Cookies" written in that "soap stuff" on her SUV and her girls will sell out of it LOL!

Now when I had a troop my "goal" was each girl sells one box. Of course the year I had the girls going to Europe we had some different goals. I didn't expect them to all sell the same door to door (some of them lived in REALLY rough areas) but they ALL had to work X hours of cookie booths. (All the cookie money was pooled towards thier overall cost)

 

[Colleen27]

In middle school most of scouts was considered uncool even boy scouts but many stayed in and jsut didn't tell everyone they did it.

By high school boy scouts was respected again. Girl scouts wasn't. And for good reason. I was in girl scouts for years and loved parts of it even in high school but honestly wish I had joined boy scouts instead (girls can at least in my area) they did so much more real things and learned more outdoor activities. My girl scout troop did more eating ice cream and socializing then anything. Their were years that we did almost no badges at all and most of the actual girl scout activities were mentoring the younger kids (which were worthwhile don't get me wrong, its all the nothing in between that lost the troops respect)

The quality of the troop makes all the difference. Ours isn't very outdoorsy (except for summer camp), more social with a lot of sports and craft activities, some badge related and some for fun, along with a good bit of community service. It is very much shaped by the girls' personalities - each girl plans the meeting and outing for a month and most come up with ideas that share a personal interest they have with the rest of the troop.

Boy Scouts here is definitely more outdoorsy/extreme sports focused and caters to a particular type of young man. My son enjoyed it but couldn't make it a priority when his other activities (mainly football, which is his passion right now) conflicted so he ended up quitting after 6th grade.