cookie sales

One of the oldest group sales campaigns in the US is the annual Girl Scouts cookie sale. Each year the scouts (and their parents) sell millions of boxes of cookies, going door to door, at booths set up in business areas, and by having parents sell them in the workplace. The cookies are a part of our culture. Many people have favorites like Thin Mints. The cookies sell for between $3 and $4 per box. The boxes seem to be around 12 ounces (I could be wrong on the weight). A customer is presented with a choice of about a dozen varieties of cookies and it isn't unusual for a person to buy several boxes. Therefore, a child could easily sell $500 worth of cookies. You can read more about it here:

Vox, that is the very best description I have ever heard. Clear, concise and very informative! And I was born here!. You do have a great way with words..... Peaches

Girl Scouts = Girl Guides in the UK

tgt

Thanks! We all have a good day once in a while.

It's a traditional fund-raising effort for the Girl Scouts (which is similar to your Girl Guides, I believe.) The cookies are commercially manufactured and the kids sell them door-to-door, via their parents' office-mates, or by setting up folding tables in public places like shopping malls, airports, or supermarket lobbies.

For more about the organization, see:

But times seem to be changing. Here is a story which appeared last week in our local newspaper:

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February 17, 2004

COOKIE QUANDARY: AS SALES CRUMBLE, WORRIES RISE OVER GIRL SCOUT STAPLE

It was a scene as familar and nostalgic as a Norman Rockwell painting, the three Girl Scouts in merit-badge bedecked vests who were lined up last week behind a supermarket table stacked with boxes of Thin Mints and Caramel deLites.

But something was wrong with the picture. As shoppers wheeled grocery carts briskly by, they barely acknowledged the girls' entreaties or curtly said, "Not today."

"Some of them say 'No, thank you,' and that's polite, then others just sort of walk away and ignore us," said 8-year-old Cristina Savino, who was at a Stop & Shop in Stoneham with two of her friends from Brownie Troop No.

1409, futilely chorusing "Would you like some Girl Scout Cookies?"

Once a wildy popular staple of American life, Girl Scout Cookies have fallen on hard times. Sales are plunging in New England. Some speculate that the sputtering economy or cold New England winters have slowed sales in the last few years, or that cookies are victims of the Atkins-era, low-carb craze. Whatever the reason, leaders are worried that one of their prime sources of revenue is drying up. And, perhaps worse, that a symbol so closely bound to Girl Scouts might be falling out of favor.

"Without it we'd be lost," said Laura Watkins, executive director of Patriots' Trail Girl Scout Council, which includes scouting troops in metropolitan Boston. "The cookie sale is an expression of the American lifestyle, of the ethic of children working with adults in the community, and of people supporting children whether they have their own or not. Girl Scout cookies, for so many Americans, bring back memories of childhood."

Cookie sales nationally are stagnant, and so far this year, sales in the Patriots' Trail region are down 10 percent from the same period in 2003 - or 107,000 fewer boxes with a decline in revenue of $428,000. With 45 percent of the council's budget coming from cookie sales, that means the decline is taking a toll on the scouting program, Watkins said. Last year's budget dropped $1.4 million to $6.7 million, in part because the Peanut Butter Patties and Classic Shortbread aren't selling like they used to.

"We'll have to cut our financial assistance to camp and reduce the program offerings like horseback riding if sales don't pick up," said Watkins, whose region includes 29,200 girls in 65 cities and towns.

Some scout leaders and parents say frigid temperatures have kept Girl Scouts indoors when they normally would be outside selling door to door; the cookie sale typically runs from mid-December through mid-March. Others say the recent low-carb frenzy has finally put a dent in sales.

"Obviously, the Atkins diet craze is worrisome," Watkins said.

Some also say small but vexing declines in membership mean there are fewer girls to sell the cookies. Membership in the Patriots' Trail region fell off by 500 last year. In an era of Xbox video games, Total Request Live music television, and increasingly popular girls' sports leagues, some say it's just not cool anymore to don a uniform dotted with merit badges and be part of a Girl Scout troop. One group of senior Girl Scouts in Wellesley has taken to calling their troop meetings "Russian tap dancing lessons" so no one will find out they are Girl Scouts.

"They have a code word for it," Watkins explained. "They don't want their reputation affected by it."

The Wellesley group members are between 16 and 18 years old and are planning to take a field trip to Russia, so the name's not that far off, Watkins said with a chuckle.

Two decades ago, about 18 percent of girls between 5 and 18 joined Patriots' Trail Girl Scout troops. Now that number is 15 percent. Still, it's far better than the national average of 12 percent.

"We're working to bring the numbers up," Watkins said.

And attracting new members means the council can't afford slumping cookie sales that would force them to cut programming.

"We're doing everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen," Watkins said.

So this year the council has organized more booth sales at supermarkets and banks - booths typically produce 25 percent more sales than the door- to-door method. The council plans to have a "Super Saturday" sale this weekend for the first time, installing troops in more than 100 booths throughout the area for an all-out sales push.

In a nod to the growing Latino population, the Council has joined several other regions in adding a new cookie to its repertoire this year: the "Pinatas."It's unclear whether the strawberry-filled, oatmeal-iced cookies resemble any traditional Latino pastry, but the name is unmistakably Spanish.

"We want to make sure we have options for every population," Watkins said.

While the new cookie could have provided a powerful sales tool to the

8-year-old Brownies from Troop No. 1409 for attracting shoppers to their booth, the Brownies chose not to tell anyone about the new offering.

"They're gross," Nicole Zeitlin exclaimed, her face crinkled up with displeasure.

When one shopper stopped to buy a box, Zeitlin politely said, "Are you sure you want those? They have strawberry in them." But the customer could not be dissuaded.

Zeitlin, Savino, and fellow Brownie Kayla Stefanelli giggled.

As of noon Sunday, halfway through their booth sale, the girls had sold 42 boxes of cookies. A few years ago, that number would have been closer to

120. As yet another shopper turned down the girls' plea to buy cookies, resolutely rolling his cart out the sliding-glass door, Zeitlin turned to her friends, clearly frustrated.

"He said 'I'll get them during the week,' but we won't be here during the week," she said, letting out one of those loud sighs it seems only an

8-year-old can produce.

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For more information about Girl Scout cookies, their history, the sales program, and a Girls Scout cookie "FAQ", see:

The Old Bear

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Oh, come on. That's just poor salesmanship.

The key with girlscout cookies is to go to the people you're connected to. Just standing around outside the quickiemart is a waste of time.

Though i'll have to note that the recent additions to the lineup do not excite me. I'm still buying thinmints and samoas from my niece Aleks. This, and the fact that there are millions of people out of work in this country and many millions more underemployed, probably account for the stagnant sales. I make less than half what i did two years ago. I'm buying about half as many boxes.

But this particular girl just needs to get out there and knock on some doors. I've seen Aleks sell $12 worth of cookies to a diabetic.