Well, it's that time of the year, folks! Cookie season started on Sunday, with a giant drop off/rally of loading up cars with tons and tons of boxes off trucks. Here's why cookie selling, from the point of view of a 11th-grade Girl Scout, is both the best and worst time of year.
1.) You...will...sell...cookies.
We swear that they put something in the cookies that makes them so addicting. But there must be something just inherent in the concept of Girl Scout Cookies that makes it irresistible to sell cookies. Even for someone who hates talking to strangers, hates asking for stuff, and has way better things to do then lug a box of fattening cookies around trying to shove them off on friends and family for a tiny portion of the money, Girl Scouts just have these...compulsions. Trust me, it's scary. XD Like mind control. GS cookies are arguably the most successful fundraising campaign every year. And depending on who you ask, the incentives are either pretty crappy or pretty awesome, ranging from colored hair clips to an iPad(for selling 2500+ boxes. Which is 10,000 dollars worth of cookies by the way. For a $600 dollar prize. Seems legit).
..
2.) Older girl scouts are a huge disadvantage.
Little kids who sell 500+ boxes on a regular basis, don't think it's going get easier when you grow up. There should be a chart that shows that Girl Scouts sell exponentially less boxes of cookies the older they get. Half the reason people buy them is because of the cute little kids with huge eyes that are like "Wiw yoo buy sum girl scout cookiees fwum me?" and everybody goes "O3O awww, of course!" This is proven. Even if you aren't competing directly with a little kid, people will purposely not buy from me because they know that they won't be able to resist the little kids when they come around.
Trust me, when I go around selling cookies, most people just give me skeptical "aren't you a little old for this" looks.
3.) Moms sell their daughter's cookies for them
This also has to do with those adorable little Daisies/Brownies. Behind (almost) every little brownie with sales in the triple digits is an over-involved mom who carries bags and bags of her daugther's cookies to every PTA meeting, all her friends houses, and does all the talking while the girl just stands there and looks cute. Most of the time the kid isn't anywhere in sight. I mean, the whole point is so the kid can learn to talk/conduct business by herself, right? I sold them myself when I was her age(although never broke 100 until like a couple years ago). I mean, there's no point if mom sells them for you. I feel like the moms just don't want there kids to "fail" (when failing means selling five boxes less than the average of all the other moms selling all their other daughter's boxes for them).
Which leads into:
4) Moms (and dads) selling at the workplace
The kid's guaranteed not to be there. Yet parents still willingly lug their kids boxes of cookies to their offices(and the order cards, when we were doing that a couple years ago.) Especially the parents in positions of authority who sell to all their underlings. Like, if your boss asked you to buy her daughter's cookies, what can you do?
5.) Brainwashing:
You have all these little girls, big girls, troops, moms, all competing with each other. And for what? The more frenzied the competition, the more money the controllers get. It all goes to the Capitol. XD
We know that, and sell cookies anyway. Be sure to go support your local Girl Scout troop and buy them! XD
Oh, yes, selling can be a joy and a pain. Fortunatl I'm the only person in the neighborhood that sells cookies, so everyone buys. Unfortunately it rains a lot this time of year. Good
ReplyDeleteluck with selling!
Awesome. This is all so true! I'm not a Girl Scout, (have read the Boy Scout manual several times because tomboy) but still know the truth. Lol and they're so goood!!
ReplyDeleteI bought one box of cookies this year (FREAKING FOUR DOLLARS GEEZ) because my sister's friend was selling them and asked if I'd buy one from her.
ReplyDeleteAlso I like Thin Mints.
....so I bought them.
If you want to cross country ship to me, I'll buy your cookies. XDDDD
ooh Amar I can totally relate to this I was a girlscout until about 10th grade but didn't like my leader (she kept losing my work for my silver award or someother award and really lost my respect since she was the main reason my sister left the troop almost a year before I did) anyway getting back to the point I definitly remember the trials of selling. I used to love it espeically when I was little because like you said it was easy as you grew older it got a lot harder and not as fun thats actually the time I quit girl scouts was during cookie season.
ReplyDeleteI am very old fashioned now I feel like an old lady because if I choose to buy girl scout cookies I look for booths where the Girls are doing the following
-wearing the unifrom -okay as a current girl scout do you even have uniforms anymore besides a vest or sash? we had the pants and the shirt and the vest and it was expected we wore it at events including cookie sales. If I do ever see a girl scout in full uniform (which is like never) i would definitly buy a box
-The girls are actually doing the work- 90% of the booths I saw this year the girls may have said hello but it was the adults who were handling the money and making the sale some of the booths the girls were sitting in chairs hanging out and the adults were doing everything. the whole point is for the girls to learn about business and money and sales and people skills
so yep theres my rant on cookies and girl scouts (if it helps I mostly buy from the older girls only because I know how hard it is to get any sales at that age) anyway sorry for the long post but your bringing back memories :D love ya