Posted on 03/28/2006 1:38:37 PM PST by brown noiser
It's an American tradition as homespun as Thanksgiving Day turkey and Fourth of July fireworks. But how much you pay for a box of Girl Scout cookies can depend on where your Girl Scout lives.
Every winter, eager Girl Scouts set up their cookie-laden booths in front of supermarkets, and the selling begins.
For buyers, getting a box or two of the Girl Scout-sponsored Thin Mints is about much more than picking up a snack; it's a nostalgic trip down memory lane. For the scouts, selling the cookies is a chance to learn valuable business skills, while making money for troop activities like camping trips and overnight stays at Boston's Museum of Science.
Cost is hardly ever a factor -- until buyers find out that the same box of cookies is selling for less in the next town.
''We hear it all the time," said Renee Brogan, a troop leader from Billerica. On Saturday mornings, at a cookie booth in front of grocery stores, potential customers will comment on the price. ''People will say, 'Oh good. These are only $3.50,' " she said.
In neighboring Bedford and Concord, the same cookies sell for $4 a box.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
I wish I were by you. However, I believe that the cookies cost the troops the same amount. If they're charging $3.50, then the troop should be getting one dollar. (Can't swear that this is true, but it should be what is happening.)
I don't mind the $3.50 for cookies and the $5 for BSA popcorn but at some point in fund raisers I just fish in my wallet and hand them a few dollars for a donation.
When selling popcorn we accounted for the # of boxes adding up to $x and a separate category for just donations, which went directly to the Troop.
....run , while you can...
The business lesson these scouts learn is that people will buy extremely over-priced cookies because the scouts are selling them. In the real world, the price-value ratio is just as irrelevant... when the government er taxpayer is paying.
Kids expect people to buy the cookies no matter the cost, simply because GS are selling them. I am equally repulsed by public schools that prostitute students by sending them out on various candy-selling fundraisers. The message is, just have your hand out and people will cough up the cash. The product "sold" is mearly the token love gift given in exchange for the donation.
Socialists-in-training. If this were an honest, moral life lesson it would involve a product or service that has real value, and would teach kids that productivity and good character (not dependancy on a perpetual charity scam) is the key to success.
Alas, these sales are what they are: fund-raisers. Extracting the largest amount of cash from the donors is the goal. Because the end justifies the means, it's okay to use children to do the dirty work.
In Fresno they are $4.00. Seems kind of high considering its a small box of cookies.
Thankfully, you're far enough away that my Girl Scout daughter needn't worry about running into the likes of you.
The lawn-mowing idea is a good one, because after a hard day's work, the little scouts would have to fork over all the hard-earned money to their GS treasurer, and they would't like that one bit. :-D
Damn YOU!!!
Now, I want cookies.
But they don't go around with their hand out, they're selling stuff. Maybe the mark-up is a little high to get extra funds (though I don't think so, prices on GS cookies are comparable to normal grocery store cookies) but that's still not socialistic. If they were just sending the kids out to beg for money and offering nothing in return that would be socialism, sending kids out to sell stuff is teaching the fine capitalist lesson that you can't just get money from people you have to give them something for their money.
Extracting the largest ammount of money from customers is the goal of all business.
*snicker*
Still got three boxes in the freezer at home!
...well guarded by a Rottweiler and loaded guns.
\
Guns don't kill people...but I won't mess with Rots!!!!!
Because the cookies are a rip-off, yet the consumer is just supposed to roll over and take it. They are cute little scouts, after all. Now, if the GS were sent out to solicit donations, and in return they gave away the cookies as a "thank you for your support", then it wouldn't be deceptive. The scouts would not have any illusion that they were selling a product. Yet, they are dispatched ostensibly to "sell" cookies, as if normal supply and demand would support those kind of prices.
Many of these kids simply have no concept of real-life values of products or services, but they (some, not all) do learn to cop an attitude when they hear the "no" word. Or, they learn (from the attitudes of adults around them) that the people who won't buy the cookies are just stingy scrooges.
This is a general gripe I have about fundraisers that involve kids. The people in charge of these schemes are happy to use kids, because consumer-victims are generally unwilling to turn down children. I just don't like it. It is smarmy and manipulative. To each his own.
Our boy scouts just charged every parent with $50.00 then if you want to sell the popcorn it was up to you but you had to pay the 50.00.
Want to buy some popcorn?
Boxes of pain! ;)
Thank God for Keebler...I'd never make it til the next cookie sale...LOL
I buy Grasshoppers two bags at a time (2 for $4) I need help! :)
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