Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Selling Girl Scout cookies doesn’t teach girls a damn thing except how to be underpaid worker bees for Corporate America. Each troop gets less than $1 per box. This is just a freaking scam that uses cute girls to sell overpriced mass produced cookies to well meaning suckers.

If that's how you feel, don't buy them, but my kids have been able to use cookie money to pay for pretty much everything and they do things they otherwise would not have been able to do. The troop buys everyone's vests, pins, badges, and patches, plus all the supplies they need to earn their badges at meetings and by doing projects (and my girls' troops have done some big outdoor projects like planting trees, etc.). And then field trips/overnights - when they were younger, they did things like farm visits, animal sanctuary visits, dog sledding, maker spaces, etc., and when they got older they have done more overnights (camping, museums, even Philadelphia and New York weekend trips). Oh and each year they donate food and supplies to at least one organization (homeless shelters, animal shelters, etc.). And my oldest is in 6th grade - the middle and high schoolers do a lot more, some of them are able to fund international trips and use money to do huge service projects to earn their gold award.

Sure, Jan. Unless your kid’s troop is selling millions of boxes of cookies every year, you are lying or are receiving charity that you haven’t been made aware of.

Clearly you don't know anything about Girl Scouts and/or your child has troop leaders that are new or just don't want to put in the work.

There's always a few girls that for whatever reason can sell hundreds of boxes (big families, mom or dad work in a hospital or school, etc.), and both troops do as many cookie booths as they possibly can (and the troop leaders have been doing this for ages, they know the good booths and the best way to get people to buy from those booths). Also, girls that do fall products and cookies can also do additional fund raisers. I'm not lying and there's no "charity" involved, the troop leaders and cookie managers for my girls' troops are great.

I really appreciate the Girls who sell door to door. I buy cookies from anyone that comes to my door. I also buy the coupon books, Boy Scout Popcorn, and citrus from band when they come by. I think it is great to see kids going door to door and learning how to interact with adults.

Like others said - neighborhood sales put pressure on my neighbors that I’m not comfortable with. Particularly when we have 4 Girl Scouts on our street. I have friends and family with relationships with my daughters that may be interested in supporting them and social media is a low pressure way of putting the word out there. I don’t like directly approaching anyone and asking them to buy (neighbors, co-workers, family) and will not do that or let my daughters do that (with the exception of grandparents 😆). Agree with others that the direct emails with the constant reminders are annoying and i spare people. Booths are great and we do most of our sales that way, but are getting harder to come by - with more and more businesses not allowing them.

As a leader, cookies teach more than sales. As our girls have gotten older, I’ve really appreciated that they cookie money is “their money” and we let them budget and help figure out how we spend it. We pay for badges and supplies out of troop dues, and the girls every year discuss how much we save for a big trip we’re planning, how much we use for community service projects donation, and how much we want to spend on activities. We made $3500 last year and it’s been great to have them involved in money management. It has also allowed us flexibility as leaders to offset costs for families who need extra assistance so all can participate in everything no matter what their situation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Selling Girl Scout cookies doesn’t teach girls a damn thing except how to be underpaid worker bees for Corporate America. Each troop gets less than $1 per box. This is just a freaking scam that uses cute girls to sell overpriced mass produced cookies to well meaning suckers.

If that's how you feel, don't buy them, but my kids have been able to use cookie money to pay for pretty much everything and they do things they otherwise would not have been able to do. The troop buys everyone's vests, pins, badges, and patches, plus all the supplies they need to earn their badges at meetings and by doing projects (and my girls' troops have done some big outdoor projects like planting trees, etc.). And then field trips/overnights - when they were younger, they did things like farm visits, animal sanctuary visits, dog sledding, maker spaces, etc., and when they got older they have done more overnights (camping, museums, even Philadelphia and New York weekend trips). Oh and each year they donate food and supplies to at least one organization (homeless shelters, animal shelters, etc.). And my oldest is in 6th grade - the middle and high schoolers do a lot more, some of them are able to fund international trips and use money to do huge service projects to earn their gold award.

Sure, Jan. Unless your kid’s troop is selling millions of boxes of cookies every year, you are lying or are receiving charity that you haven’t been made aware of.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Selling Girl Scout cookies doesn’t teach girls a damn thing except how to be underpaid worker bees for Corporate America. Each troop gets less than $1 per box. This is just a freaking scam that uses cute girls to sell overpriced mass produced cookies to well meaning suckers.

This is really false information. The Council gets $3-4 a box. The council then uses that to support all the troops in the DC area including funding the wonderful campgrounds, and various program activities that your troop should be taking advantage of. Also “be a sister to every Girl Scout” by supporting other troops — don’t just focus on what your specific troop is getting.

Separately, no parent should be selling on social media. This is actually prohibited by our Council, as is using neighborhood listserves and Nextdoor to sell. Girls can send emails directly to friends and family, go door to door, call friends or family, or do booth sales (approved private or through the council system).

It’s not false information, liar. “The Council” is not “the troop”, which is what I said in my post. And what I said in post is 100% true.

We did it last year and not doing it this year. We bothered everyone we knew. No one wants cookies, including us. I still have cookies left in my pantry from last year.

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!

I am grateful to the two moms in my older DD’s troop who each sold 1000 boxes via social media because that funded the scholarship that let my kid participate in scouting with no cost to me while I dealt with a near fatal health crisis.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Selling Girl Scout cookies doesn’t teach girls a damn thing except how to be underpaid worker bees for Corporate America. Each troop gets less than $1 per box. This is just a freaking scam that uses cute girls to sell overpriced mass produced cookies to well meaning suckers.

This is really false information. The Council gets $3-4 a box. The council then uses that to support all the troops in the DC area including funding the wonderful campgrounds, and various program activities that your troop should be taking advantage of. Also “be a sister to every Girl Scout” by supporting other troops — don’t just focus on what your specific troop is getting.

Separately, no parent should be selling on social media. This is actually prohibited by our Council, as is using neighborhood listserves and Nextdoor to sell. Girls can send emails directly to friends and family, go door to door, call friends or family, or do booth sales (approved private or through the council system).

This is not true - GS Digital Cookie has a link to share your child's site on Facebook.

Anonymous wrote:Selling Girl Scout cookies doesn’t teach girls a damn thing except how to be underpaid worker bees for Corporate America. Each troop gets less than $1 per box. This is just a freaking scam that uses cute girls to sell overpriced mass produced cookies to well meaning suckers.

If that's how you feel, don't buy them, but my kids have been able to use cookie money to pay for pretty much everything and they do things they otherwise would not have been able to do. The troop buys everyone's vests, pins, badges, and patches, plus all the supplies they need to earn their badges at meetings and by doing projects (and my girls' troops have done some big outdoor projects like planting trees, etc.). And then field trips/overnights - when they were younger, they did things like farm visits, animal sanctuary visits, dog sledding, maker spaces, etc., and when they got older they have done more overnights (camping, museums, even Philadelphia and New York weekend trips). Oh and each year they donate food and supplies to at least one organization (homeless shelters, animal shelters, etc.). And my oldest is in 6th grade - the middle and high schoolers do a lot more, some of them are able to fund international trips and use money to do huge service projects to earn their gold award.

Anonymous wrote:Selling Girl Scout cookies doesn’t teach girls a damn thing except how to be underpaid worker bees for Corporate America. Each troop gets less than $1 per box. This is just a freaking scam that uses cute girls to sell overpriced mass produced cookies to well meaning suckers.

This is really false information. The Council gets $3-4 a box. The council then uses that to support all the troops in the DC area including funding the wonderful campgrounds, and various program activities that your troop should be taking advantage of. Also “be a sister to every Girl Scout” by supporting other troops — don’t just focus on what your specific troop is getting.

Separately, no parent should be selling on social media. This is actually prohibited by our Council, as is using neighborhood listserves and Nextdoor to sell. Girls can send emails directly to friends and family, go door to door, call friends or family, or do booth sales (approved private or through the council system).

Selling Girl Scout cookies doesn’t teach girls a damn thing except how to be underpaid worker bees for Corporate America. Each troop gets less than $1 per box. This is just a freaking scam that uses cute girls to sell overpriced mass produced cookies to well meaning suckers.

Anonymous wrote:Find me one!!! I need some somoas

They are Keebler Coconut Dreams. Exact same product, made in exact same factories, sold for less money in the cookie aisle of the grocery store.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personally I find door-to-door sales more “guilting” than an email or social media post that I can easily ignore.

I thought door to door was discouraged because of predators.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GS guides kids to make their own online advertisement and yes, it gets sent to parent friends. Just don’t respond. The GS donate tons of boxes. Each troop picks a group to which they donate. The military, firefighters, hospital ERs, whichever.
The troop earns money from the sales to fund their activities, which include many cool things that girls could not otherwise afford. GS also have related badges concerning business and being an entrepreneur that relate to cookie sales, all of which is valuable to kids. Many kids sell cookies to earn money for summer camp.

If you don’t want them, just say no, and move on. It’s a good organization that provides leadership opportunities for girls and civic education.

There are so many other things to whine about.

How is mommy selling your cookies for you teaching them about leadership?

Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:No one is guilting you into buying cookies. Buy if you want, ignore if you don't. Nobody answers their doors anymore, by the way, door to door sales are useless.

Guess it depends where you are, we went door to door on our street and sold 60 boxes that way. I think people use their Ring cameras to see who it is and when they see a kid they answer the door.