Girl Scouts Say Cookie Sales Hurt By Economy

An economy on thin ice is hurting sales of Thin Mints.

Girl Scout and Brownie troops say cookie sales are noticeably down this year as their customers struggle to pay for groceries, gasoline and home heating fuel.

Becky Santos, leader of Brownie Troop 74 in Barrington, said her group sold 300 boxes outside a Wal-Mart recently, down from 500 in the same location last year. Sue Cusack, the troop's co-leader, said she and her daughter also made fewer door-to-door sales, with some repeat customers buying one box instead of two.

Jan Arsenault of Barrington said she scaled back her purchase because of the economy but couldn't resist two boxes.

Keep Reading

-- OR --

Read about how you can find out where Girl Scout cookies are being sold in your neighborhood.

Comments

[zizyphus]

Those cookies are nauseating. They use the cheapest hydrogenated fats in them, and they are tasteless, while covering the inside of the mouth with a greasy, waxy coating.. If the Girl Scouts went back to baking fresh cookies at home, packaging them in baggies and selling them, using butter or good oils, they would do better.

Little kids should not be peddling heart-clogging hydrogenated cookies.

[jasjohn128]

Yeah zizy, it's true, but i still buy a box or two when the scouts and their moms set up outside the supermarket. It's not like they guilt me or anything, and i always talk to the moms, and yeah, they know what crap it all is, and if/when enough of them get together it'll change one day.

Still, it's all about the kids. So i just buy the cookies and talk to the moms and save my rants for up here on the Huffpo ... lots of them are up here too, ya know.

[tumblewind]

The last box I bought was from my Granddaughter. Most of the cookies aren't fit to eat. I don't know what's happened to them. When my daughter sold them they were good cookies. But, somewhere along the line the price went through the roof and the quality suffered.

[samandally]

ENK727, I totally agree with you on this one.The cookies are filled with sugar and other ingredients that are not good for you.Make your cookies at home, at least you know what is in them then.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Last time I was in our local Wal-Mart, it was about empty...

[umichigan]

I think that their prices are too high to buy even one box. I stopped last year when the price went up to $4.00 . The mom with the girl scout said a lot of people were not buying either because of the increased cost. The troops get very little of that $4.00 so the whole thing is a rip off. Got to be competive to sell especially in this economic climate.

[Weathermaker]

Girls, the economy is in trouble cause mommy and daddy voted for a guy who told them three things:one, that it's a good idea to wage war on a credit card; second, oversight is bad; and third, it's a sound economic policy to hand out credit to just about anyone who has a pulse. Now, who wants a cookie?

[olephart]

Maybe the Fed will loan them a few hundred billion if they put a box of cookies up as collateral.

[Weathermaker]

I'm sure uncle ben doesn't see a problem with this...

[jasjohn128]

Wait, wait ... they only need to put up two boxes of cookies. Then they can create two or three holding companies in Lichtenstein, each of which would own half a dozen or so shell companies domiciled in the Cayman Islands, Antigua, Gibralter, etc., each of which in turn would own shares in companies registered to nominees acting on behalf of shareholders invested in any number of Delaware corporations created for the purpose of, let's say, "investment opportunities and capital growth", and then (for tax purposes) sell debt based on completely realistic future sales of, say, 500 boxes of cookies per location per day, for the next ten years.

All the girl scouts would be laid off to rationalize labor costs, of course, and cookie production would shift immediately to locally-contracted, cost-effective facilites in Calcutta and Bangladesh. And as long as the cookies aren't packaged until they're on an American dock, every box can be stamped "Made in America".

Just like "Florida" Oranges. 8-)

See? Probelm solved, Girl Scouts, and gawd bless capitalism and the U.S.A.. that makes it all possible.

[ibsteve2u]

Now there is an economic indicator that I trust - the Girl Scouts.

They have the great advantage of not having their leadership appointed by Bush and, unlike this Administration, a history of working fervently to instill character in our youth through the twin practices of honesty and transparency in government.

[TucsonEd]

Actually I bought several boxes and ended up giving them away. There are way better cookies out there such at Trader Joes brands. I suggest the Girl Scouts look for a new baker cause I won't be buying anymore cookies until they do.

[mrcontinental]

First the girls scouts and then other charities and finally churches.

[ENK727]

My daughters are both in girl scouts and the cookies are priced at $4.00 a box this year. They aren't selling as many as they did other years. I hate to say it, but they are expensive, there aren't many in a box and if you read the ingredients they aren't that good.. they still have partially hydrogenated oils in them and all sorts of other crap!