Parents who push Girl Scout Cookies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Door to door sales don't work - nobody answers the door anymore (including me) and it's dark at 5 this time of year.
But, I'm also opting out of digital sales this year because the website bombards my email contacts with multiple messages that I have no control over. And the digital platform is not really something DD10 can manage herself anyway, as she doesn't have an email address.

So, just booth sales for us.

Yea, I frankly don't have the energy to set up digital sales this year, and you can't throw a cookie in our neighborhood without hitting a Girl Scout. Shipping costs are ridiculous, and I really don't want to drive an hour one way to drop some cookies off to well-meaning friends who want to support our daughter.

Also, this is just a crappy time of year to be starting this. We're all exhausted from the holidays, and it's too cold to be enthusiastic about door to door or booth sales.

Pre-covid, when she was a Daisy, I took her into my office to directly make a sale to one person who asked to buy cookies. She had her uniform on, and a few other people approached us to buy cookies. That was cute when she was 5, not so much when she's 10. We were also in a different, smaller neighborhood and she and the other two Girl Scouts in the neighborhood went around to all the people without kids and did reasonably well with sales.

I'm going to talk to her about it, and if she wants to sell in addition to the booth, she'll have to go door to door, might have her post on social media, but only if she sets up everything.

Hopefully she's matured enough to not be competitive about it-- but there are 40-something troop moms who aren't mature enough to not be competitive...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They taste awful. I'm not eating that crap just to please someone else, and I'm not wasting my money either.

This. Nobody wants these cheap, unhealthy junkie cookies! Can someone save us from them, please! Every year we have to go through this crap. At work, moms pushing cookies, by stores- kids standing trying to sell them, family members trying to sell them to you. I'm just so sick of it. I want to eat healthy, I don't want to waste my money on this junk.

Then don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Door to door sales don't work - nobody answers the door anymore (including me) and it's dark at 5 this time of year.
But, I'm also opting out of digital sales this year because the website bombards my email contacts with multiple messages that I have no control over. And the digital platform is not really something DD10 can manage herself anyway, as she doesn't have an email address.

So, just booth sales for us.

My DD does door to door, but we have a very small neighborhood with a lot of elderly people who expect to buy cookies that way. She’s had a great few years and usually averages ~15 houses of sales for knocking on 40 doors. A lot of people say no, which she practices for. As a child who was in pre-k and kindergarten during the pandemic, learning to interact with adults who she doesn’t know has been a really big confidence booster.

She does more sales at booths, but those have become more competitive in our area so she’s lucky to total ~60 boxes in 8 hours of booth shifts.

It does bother me that the girls who win “top seller” awards and prizes in our troop have parents who sell in their offices for their children and send emails and make social posts for their kids, but I know that my daughter will ultimately learn more by doing it her way. The proceeds get split by the entire troop anyway, so it works out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does it teach your child if most of their boxes are sold through your own social media push? Guilting colleagues and friends into buying multiple highly processed cookies that last only 6 months. What happened to door-to-door sales? Kudos to the parents who encourage old school ways of selling the cookies and don't post links and sales on their Facebook pages. "Look how many boxes Larla sold!" but it was really just her mother selling them to her friends!

Geez. Just buy some. You sound unhappy/grumpy.

[Anonymous]

Where can I find out where booths will be in DC?

[Anonymous]

This is my DD's first year doing Girl Scouts. After years of buying cookies from my colleagues, you'd better believe I sent the info around my office this year. Buy them, don't buy them, I don't care. But I'll make the ask.

For family and close friends out of state, I had DD record a video or FaceTime to "sell" to them. She's also doing thank you videos and FaceTime for people who purchase cookies online.

[Anonymous]

What is the minimum they have to sell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they’re selling Peanut Butter Patties and Caramel deLites then it’s highly offensive, and the parents should be censured.

If they’re selling Tagalongs and Samoas then the parents are performing a public service and deserve gratitude.

You're not wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the minimum they have to sell

Zero. Girl Scouts are not required to sell cookies.

The *troop* is required to participate in cookie sales if they want to do other money earning activities, but participate is a pretty wishy-washy word. Just a few boxes counts. And troops that can/want to self fund completely are welcome to not even acknowledge cookie sales.
Girl Scouts is a very intentionally inclusive organization, though, so in general it's frowned upon to expect parents to pay a ton of money, and instead to fund through cookie sales, so that all girls are able to participate fully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I almost started a thread on this. WHY are girls being told to push cookies this way?! This is our initial push. We take preliminary orders and then order those cookies. We're dual feds and selling at work is against ethics. They even send a yearly email about it.

Why can't they just give girls boxes of cookies and then they can have stands at stores/metro stations/neighborhood entrances? Parents shouldn't be doing the work for them.

I also think it's crazy that I need a background check to sit with my dd at a cookie booth.

Shut up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I almost started a thread on this. WHY are girls being told to push cookies this way?! This is our initial push. We take preliminary orders and then order those cookies. We're dual feds and selling at work is against ethics. They even send a yearly email about it.

Why can't they just give girls boxes of cookies and then they can have stands at stores/metro stations/neighborhood entrances? Parents shouldn't be doing the work for them.

I also think it's crazy that I need a background check to sit with my dd at a cookie booth.

The first two pargraphs really just depend on how your troop handles things.

As for the background check... sadly there have been many many instances of people stealing cookie money or embezzling troop funds. And if you're at a cookie booth, you're also around other people's kids. It's part of the general youth safety checkpoints that are designed to keep kids safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where can I find out where booths will be in DC?

Scroll down to find cookies.
https://www.gscnc.org/en/cookies/girl-scout-cookies/find-cookies.html

Booth sales start February 2nd.

[Anonymous]

Anyone I have asked. Nobody wants to buy. How do we sell them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does it teach your child if most of their boxes are sold through your own social media push? Guilting colleagues and friends into buying multiple highly processed cookies that last only 6 months. What happened to door-to-door sales? Kudos to the parents who encourage old school ways of selling the cookies and don't post links and sales on their Facebook pages. "Look how many boxes Larla sold!" but it was really just her mother selling them to her friends!

You sound jealous of 10 year olds and their moms, OP. That's really sad.

Anyway, I LOVE it when my neighbor emails the neighborhood with the link to buy cookies from her daughter. It's so easy and then they appear on my doorstep a few days later.

In fact, you have inspired me to reach out right now and ask her when they are starting sales!

Does she email the neighborhood once or a dozen times in a month? The former is OK, the latter is obnoxious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I almost started a thread on this. WHY are girls being told to push cookies this way?! This is our initial push. We take preliminary orders and then order those cookies. We're dual feds and selling at work is against ethics. They even send a yearly email about it.

Why can't they just give girls boxes of cookies and then they can have stands at stores/metro stations/neighborhood entrances? Parents shouldn't be doing the work for them.

I also think it's crazy that I need a background check to sit with my dd at a cookie booth.

Sooooo do it the traditional way and take your kid around the neighborhood to sell to neighbors. I don't see what your problem is? You have choices.

We don't have boxes of cookies to sell. We take orders and then we order the cookies.

I WANT boxes of cookies to sell so that we can go door to door or sit at booths. I don't want my DD to go door to door "pre-selling" cookies and then she has to go around again to deliver. My troop isn't doing any cookie booths this year and wants to sell at our workplaces instead.

I just think it's the wrong message to girls about selling- just let your parents do it for you at their work.