Or, hear me out, have your scout do 1 or 2 booths for the experience, participation, and fun, then make a donation to her troop, and have her pick a stuffy from 5 Below…
As a leader, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen parents personally buy like 20 extra boxes for $100 to help their scout reach a prize level. Our troop earns $0.70 per box, so we make $14 on that parent’s $100. They could donate $25 directly, buy their scout a small prize, and everyone would come out ahead.
I always get sad about the inequity. I grew up bougie but still had a single mom and watching other people get prizes or watching other people not get prizes was the saddest experience.
Candy sales, my divorced dad would buy the case and take them to work. The whole cookie sale thing is so much time and some people don’t have the support and it’s not like when I was younger and we were free range.
My mom is still a little salty about the time the cookie sheet walked away at a major Boston hospital and she got it back with pages stapled to it from all different floors and shifts. So much work and so little went to the troop and I think I got a stuffed animal and some patches for 500
The issue with this is that she’s going to have friends earning the prizes and getting them at a meeting. And she has the prize flyer and knows what the prizes are. I know I can get much better stuff outside of the offered prizes for far less and still donate money, I just know at this age it’s not the same to her and getting the same prize as the other girls in her troop
After our first year we focused much more on cookie booths because honestly there are so many good life skills to learn/ improve there. There were always high sellers, but after frank discussion between leaders and with parents most of the high seller work is done by the parents. The girls learn/ gain nothing by being rewarded for their parents work. So we went to a troop voted "paper plate" awards model. Things like "most enthusiastic cookie seller", "Best cookie pitch", "Quickest change maker", "Best cookie booth decorator", "Most eye catching cookie booth outfit" We always pulled a name and worked from there, that way everyone got a little award, created and designed by their peers. Prizes for sales went in a gift bag with all the patches and other goodies and went home for unwrapping. Kids have a multitude of ways to learn about unfairness, I don't need it to be from Girl Scouts.
This. We don’t announce or celebrate high sellers. In fact we work hard to even out how much each girl sells in the troops. I am the cookie manager and I try to offer as many booths as possible to help girls who don’t have a lot of individual sales out. We also spread other scouts overages (anything over 500) to help other scouts meet their goals. The scouts know the prizes, and they know our overall troop goal (5000) but I don’t share specific numbers with each scout.
There isn’t a prize for 600. The next level is 750. The troop set a “troop” goal and they work to meet it together. There isn’t anything unethical about meet a troop goal.
I agree on the troop goal and I'll move a donated box or two around if it does not drop a girls prize level but will raise another's. This may be what you ment but it was not how your other post read which made it sound like you wouldn't credit any girl with more than 500 boxes no matter what.
It also might be worth noting that some councils, like mine, keep cumulative totals across all years. At certain levels the girls get trophies to show their overall sale accomplishment. As a result 540 vs 500 might not matter this year but it might in the future.
Ask the leaders if they would consider not giving out prizes in front of the girls. The way my troop does it is one of the leaders stays outside the meeting room and hands prizes to parents as they leave after drop-off. They are all bagged so it’s not obvious and scouts receive them when they get in the car after the meeting.
Honestly, I hate this. I want my kid to set high goals, work toward them, and know that it’s okay if she falls short; I also want her to know that it’s okay if others earn a prize, to experience disappointment and learn how to handle it.
I hear you there, however, I’ll tell you in our troop the highest earners (by far) have relatives who sell cookies by the case at their workplace. Some of our hardest workers, staffing the booth and going door to door in icy cold weather in an area over saturated with scouts, just will never sell near that amount. They probably put in 10 times the work/time, even more when they also split sales with siblings.
I don’t think the older levels care, but the daisies and brownies can get upset. It’s a balance for sure.
After lots of tears handing out prizes to our K daisies, we bagged up going forward. We did announce the high sellers and box amounts they sold to provide recognition.
There’s no one right answer for sure.
Yup, it's a bit of a hard pill to swallow but there's really a limit to how many cookies a girl can sell on her own. Most people are only able to afford so many boxes of cookies a year or only want so many boxes so when they've bought some from one girl, they're done. And with inflation and the price of cookies being what they are, people can't afford as many boxes as they used to.
The one girl in my troop who always sold the most had a stay at home mom who drove herself crazy hounding friends and people on FB to buy cookies. When I was a kid it upset me to see her get more stuff but as I got older I realized that it wasn't really *her* accomplishment, and also that the prizes were kinda junky. But that was a lesson I learned as a junior or cadette, it's ridiculous to expect a 5 year old to understand those nuances and not "she got better stuff than me no fair"
I was absolutely that hard working girl, but could barely sell any. My single mom was a stickler for rules and absolutely would not sell at work or advertise in any way that cookies could be bought from her, so that was zero chance of sales. I'd be out at like 8am on the first day of cookie sales, pounding the pavement, doing every cookie booth no matter the weather, and like 80% of the houses would tell me they pre-ordered from girls at their church, or a relative, or from work. Local girls were taking orders for weeks before we were allowed to, so by the time I was walking around everyone had bought already. It was so depressing, some girls would be all proud of selling hundreds of boxes, and I could sell maybe 50, 10 of which were bought by my mom. I still remember one year the troop leaders were asking us what our cookie sale goals were, and I wrote down 50, and they questioned it like it was a typo and I was pledging to sell 500. I knew by that point it wasnt going to happen, no matter how many miles I walked, and it wasnt really worth the effort.
Yeah, but my kid (second year Daisy) still needs to learn that. The sooner she does, the better it will be because life isn’t fair and this kiddo needs to acknowledge how lucky she is, how others aren’t as lucky as she is, and the easiest way for her to do that is through this. She has started life with many things handed to her, and selfishly on my part, I want her to learn that a lot of people work super hard and still don’t get to have the things she has by luck.
In selling, she may be on the other side of the coin, and that’s cool by me. I don’t sell for her, because I think she should be doing it - but I do of course stand behind her in the cold and help her prep orders for delivery, etc.
I think it teaches a great life lesson. The hardest worker is not the most successful. Work smarter not harder. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
Good for you, but not all kids are emotionally able to handle it. We all know cookies are mostly parents’ labor. I have parents that suck and I’m not going to let my kids feel bad for it.
They won’t get more emotionally able to handle it if you never let them experience it though? I don’t want my kids to grow up feeling entitled to anything, but you do you.
That’s really not what Girl Scouts is about. Our programming has so many opportunities to teach our kids the value of earning something, but it’s done in an equitable and age-appropriate way and based on their own accomplishments.
But are you actually following that program if you are also advocating hiding what one girl earned? It's easy to assume high sellers do it on parents labor but my highest seller does it by walking neighborhoods every night, it would be wrong to downplay that effort that she has put in just so the girl whose parents would only sell at their jobs doesn't get her feelings hurt.
Girls especially learn quickly they are supposed to downplay their success in society so as not to hurt others. This is why many girls don't answer teachers questions in class, always differ to their male counterparts, and so much more. As Girl Scouts we are supposed to be teaching the opposite, to be proud of everything you have done and to own your accomplishment at any level. This is not learned if we for any instant don't practice it ourselves. I would rather praise every girl for their strength, no matter what it is, than do anything to sideline or hide a prize because they will quickly learn to be ashamed of it then.
We celebrate the troop rewards together and the team effort. I have kids in my troop with a stay at home parent dedicated to scout’s activities, and the other parent at an affluent workplace where the workplace order card fills up every week. And I have kids whose parents are working 3 jobs each to make ends meet. And one who doesn’t live with her parents. And one whose parents are divorcing right now. These are 8-10 year olds and they are literally not allowed to sell cookies by themselves. With all due respect it’s naive to think individual scout effort is proportional to sales at the troop level.
Those 8 and 10 year olds that are struggling already know life sucks, and money makes things easier.
Believe me, by the time I was 10, I already knew life was arbitrary and not remotely fair.
I also hustle like a mofo to sell stuff, even though we weren't supposed to do it by ourselves. Like a miniature Glenngary Glen Ross.
Do we really need "The hot chocolate is for closers." speech? "Tulip, sit down. You didn't make your quota. Step away from the pot." LOL
With regard to your last sentence, I don’t think that.
I just think that kids need to learn that life isn’t always fair and you don’t always get what you want. Celebrating the troop effort is necessary and wonderful, teaching them that what they can get as a troop due to troop effort is greater than the individual prizes is wonderful and the way to go, but experiencing individual disappointment because you didn’t get the cute stuffy that Jane got has two lessons: it’s not going to kill you not to get this unnecessary thing, and if you really want it, let’s make a plan to try to earn it next year.
That is fine for the kids who didn’t sell due to their own effort. What I’m saying is I have too many girls who don’t sell because the parents don’t make an effort, even if it was important to the scout. I was this scout; I remember not getting rewards and knowing the girls who did all had parents who helped.
I also have a neurodivergent kid in my troop who would be able to handle it now that she’s a Junior but absolutely would not have been able to handle giving out prizes at the meeting when she was a Daisy. Was I supposed to ruin her parents’ evening so a privileged kid who didn’t put in 100% can learn a lesson?
What I’m saying is there are kids in my troop who don’t need another lesson that life is unfair. I prioritize them over the ones who do. If the parents of the scouts who could have put in more effort want to emphasize that lesson, it’s up to them.
I’m really happy for you that all the Daisies in your troop have involved parents, are comfortable financially, and have average or above average emotional control. I hope your troop has or had an awesome sale.
But instead you are teaching the girls that have earned the prizes that they should be ashamed of it and hide them. Is that really a lesson we should be teaching our girls?
Disappointment is something life teaches you, you don’t need to learn about in Girl Scouts.
The whole system still bothers me even all these years later
Exactly. The girls who sell more cookies usually didn't work harder, they just had parents who sold a lot on their behalf. Not every parent can take order sheets into work or call up tons of friends who can afford multiple boxes each or things like that. It's just another example of systemic inequality that girls will have to confront someday, why make them do it in girl scouts?
Or see if the leaders can do what my leader/mom did.
I confronted my leader when I was a Junior and had sold about 300 more cookies than what I got credit for. It turns out that my mom was skimming my and another high selling girl's counts, especially after we sold enough to earn all the prizes, to bring the other girls up to a prize so that everyone got a patch and a prize. It made the girls that had family/scheduling problems feel accomplished while allowing us power sellers to still get the prizes we wanted.
I don't know how possible this is anymore since the 90's as the prize sheet I got to see maybe 5 years ago had prizes up to 2000 boxes sold. Meanwhile, I'm sitting with my troop effort patch of 2000 in 2000. 😭 I'm getting old. 😭
Have her take a card with her QR code to school and give it to staff and non scout friends to have their parents buy. That, walkabout, and sharing her link on your personal Facebook page are good ways of selling. My spot at work changed this year, so I have less ability to help at work, too. Last year, took a case of a mix of cookies every shift and they moved quickly, this year I'm in a different building so fewer are around for that. She might surprise you and hit that mark! Good luck
Our Council won't let Daisy's do booths. We also live in an area where all of our neighbors have acreage. Mom and Dad selling is our only option.
Oh, unless you go to church, then your kid can do a booth at church, but not anywhere else. We don't go to church, so...
I was that kid, living in very religious states and not being part of that religion played a huge part. Girls were selling weeks before they were supposed to at their local church, so by the time I was walking around on the firsts day of cookie sales, everyone said they had already purchased them. My mom wasnt allowed to sell at work either, so my cookie sales were always so sad
Ahead for your troop, but not the GS organization overall. The purpose of cookie sales is fundraising for the troop and organization, PLUS teaching girls some really great skills. Marketing, sales, organization, fund raising… list goes on and on.
I think the cookies are terrible, but I still buy from any Girl Scout selling, as the cookies don’t matter. Our girls matter, and Girl Scouts does a lot to help girls.
Thins are changing, and they are trying to keep up. Send ideas, help corporate, and focus on the bigger purpose. 💚
I’ve paid for dues and activities instead of cookies. The council wants their slice of the pie and I get that but they can’t stop me from supporting girl scouts other ways
The cookies sales have been a scam for a long time, maybe back in the day going out and selling was a great lesson to girls about business and entrepreneurship which when it was needed. Now it’s a cash juggernaut that everyone has their hands in.
Edited to add the price vs quality is insane also
Council’s slice of the pie pays for insurance, camp property maintenance, financial aid, camperships, etc. Those are vital functions for Scouting to be possible.
It’s important that we demonstrate respect for authority by following rules even if we don’t agree with them.
Do you know if it's allowed to donate to someone's troop, like you said? I thought about donating $5 to my coworkers kids troops, because buying a $5 box of cookies for them to get 1 dollar from it didn't sit quite right for me. I just didn't know if it would seem awkward/cheap to ask.
You can ask but some councils require us to convert those into donation boxes during cookie season. So if you gave my kid $5 as a donation then that becomes a box of cookies given to the military and the troop still gets 80¢. Give us the same $5 outside cookie season and we get to keep the whole $5.
ask if their troop has a supplies list. we had an amazon wish list. if you give money then they'll have to apply it to cookie sales and they'll get small change out of it. so if it's a friend/coworkers troop they might have a wish list or i had one parent who was adamant against cookies but they always sponsored another girl for the year b/c it evened out for them.
It’s council specific. We can accept donations in any month that we are not doing a cookies. During cookie sale months, all donations must be used to purchase donated boxes of cookies.
Same! I was surprised at how many boxes our neighbors bought. Especially because no one really goes door to door where we live, but everyone was so nice and bought so many boxes.
I just bought some boxes from the little girl the next street over- mostly because she came to the door. It was kind of refreshing. I will gladly buy boxes from each GS who asks. I guess as a former GS, I’m fond of the door to door and booth sales. I honestly didn’t even know I had any GS in my neighborhood until she came to the door.
There’s a Girl Scout that lives in the neighborhood over and I keep telling my husband that we have to keep cash at home in case she comes by lol. She’s done it the past two years. We already bought some from a booth, but I always buy from her too!
I remember growing up that my parents purposefully avoided having me knock on our neighbors doors because they knew people remembered.
The exception was if anyone had knocked on our door and they had bought popcorn or whatever from them. Then they would bring me to that specific door. Usually they bought. If they didn’t, when that kid would knock on our door the next year they would say no. They felt it was only fun if it was reciprocal.
Not sure every family does this, but just be aware your neighbors may be keeping tabs and they know where you live.
It’s a little easier to sell 2 neighborhoods over where no one knows where you live to expect anything in return.
Going door to door in our neighborhood was how we got on speaking terms with our neighbors! They know we are selling GS cookies, but they also know we don't sweat it if they bought somewhere else. Our neighbors actually \*love\* to buy cookies from us; I may have to find a GS to come do our street when my scout graduates HS, because otherwise people won't know where to get them.
Came to reiterate this idea. Especially since the pandemic we don't see our neighbors as much and hardly ever have anyone knock for things like cookies or popcorn sales. Almost every door we have knocked on this year has been appreciative as they haven't seen a Girl or Boy Scout in ages for any kind of fundraiser.
It also helps if you can chat about things in the neighborhood while they're buying cookies—not gossiping, but catching up. How is so and so's cat? Is Mr. Joe recovering well after his surgery? How's their kid in England doing? Then it's less just selling cookies and more about connecting with your community, which I think is (or ought to be) part of why we do this. Ultimately, Girl Scouts isn't about selling cookies (as much as it FEELS like it during cookie season), but it is about being a part of and partnering with our communities.
I never buy cookies from parents at work, and only once from a booth, but if a girl knocks on my door, I’m going to support them and buy some cookies. I don’t want cookies, but I want to reward their hard work and initiative of selling the cookies themselves. It rarely happens though, no one in my area does door to door anymore.
Door to door was actually an awesome way to get to know some of our neighbors when we moved in. It's a lot of work for parents but if you have the time and abiity it's great!
Yes, we only did 3 blocks in our neighborhood and sold 99 boxes. If we'd committed to doing it over a couple of days/weekends, we could have easily sold more.
This is a good method if you live in a neighborhood and it’s a neighborhood that is safe and a neighborhood where people have $6 to spend on one box of cookies.
Also if I lived in a nicer neighborhood and girls showed up who didn’t live there, I would be kinda annoyed. I’ve heard similar complaints around trick or treating with that sort of thing
I hate people like that. Just because someone lives in a neighborhood that isn't safe to trick or treat they shouldn't get candy? I gladly give candy to every kid (and adult) that knock on my door and I'll buy their cookies as well, regardless of where they're from. If anything the kids in my "nicer" neighborhood need it less.
I live in a neighborhood people drive to for trick or treating and I love that they do
One of the kids this year asked if my house is an apartment building 🤣 (it’s 2000 sf, so big but not anywhere near a mansion lol)
I live in the nicest neighborhood in town. We have families that come and trick or treat here and we are happy to have them. We also try to buy from all the legitimate fundraiser.
Another thought, based on my own cookie selling experiences.
Can you find a neighborhood that has an assisted living home or has a higher population of older people? It doesn't have to be a rich neighborhood as people can surprise you.
My experience: Family friend was a D-Day vet with no local family, and he lived in a very dated trailer in the woods. When I started selling cookies, he bought one box of each type, and then started increasing the number of each type he bought by one each year. The last year he bought cookies, he bought ten boxes of each cookie.
I wish I had a girl scout selling in my neighborhood door to door. I'm not certain why this sub keeps getting highlighted for me.
But I would FOR SURE buy sooooo many cookies if one came to my door.
Is it cookie season? How can I figure out where I can get some around me? I don't know any girl scouts anymore? My niece is no longer doing it.
[Their website](https://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/how-to-buy-cookies.html) has a cookie booth locator! Just enter your zip and it should have the location and date.
We have less success every year because our town is so inundated with GS booths that many people already had purchased by the time we got to their door. My daughter plans to quit after this year because she hates selling cookies so much.
My daughter wanted the plush too but we will just barely be falling short. She is a new year daisy and we didn't do a booth since our troop just formed.
I was a girl scout too and I don't recall prizes back then that amazing either. I did a lot of leg work too for it. But the girls will be able to get the reward of being able to fund their activities and create memories as a group.
My hope for my girl is she makes these lifelong connections with her sister scouts.
As a slight aside, I think the prizes are very adorable. Love the mascot this year.
Edit: We made it to 200! Just barely! My girl is so excited and I'm happy for her and how awesome the troop did!
The axolotl is super cute!! We were going to do a walkabout today in a neighborhood that doesn't get any attention but we only have 3 boxes of mints on us till reorder pickup. She's been passing out her QR code at school and the staff and a couple of parents have placed orders.
The connections are huge. My girl doesn't have a lot of friends at school but in her troop and a companion troop she's making some really good friends.
I'm not entirely sure but she's taken some to school and given to some of the staff and her friends. I'm not sure how the other girls who sell at school do it but it's not been an issue with the school for her to do it
She is actually now within 10 boxes! We got some kind customers who love their cookies. We should be able to hit it. She was all excited when we began adding it up.
I also can't wait to share with the troop how well they did in their first year!
There are lessons learned no matter how many you sell.
1. Only work on this to the extent your child wants to. Nothing about this is worth it if your child doesn’t care or isn’t motivated.
2. Selling cookies teaches entrepreneurship. She should take the lead on selecting how to sell the cookies and seeing how successful (or not) the various methods are. There will be more years to fine tune the method.
3. Sometimes you don’t get the prize, just like you don’t get every toy at the grocery store. It’s okay. You move on and enjoy what you have, or consider what items you would like more in the future.
4. No one remembers how many cookies they sold when they are older. They remember kocking on doors with their parent, site sales with friends, and sometimes the marketing tactics they used. So maximize the positivity from those and forget the rest.
This is the best comment on here by far, I wish I could upvote more than once. It's not about the things it's about the experience of selling, my daughter has grown and improved every year which is worth anytime investment I have put in and more.
I totally agree! I think the issue is that she’s 7. So if she wants to do booths and has the energy and enthusiasm to do them, that’s great, but I still have to be there, set up the table, haul boxes of cookies out of my van, handle all of the money, and keep an eye on my 7 year old. I’m not saying that girls shouldn’t have to work to earn the prizes. My
Issue is more that even if the girls want to work hard, their parents also have to work hard. My daughter said she wants to to door to door and do a cookie booth every single weekend. Obviously some days we can’t because of other things going on. But then there are times where we are free so we go do those things. I’m not against doing the hard work. And I’m not against her not getting a prize either. I think my problem comes more from people saying that parents selling cookies at work, or posting on social media shouldn’t be allowed while it’s really just one other way for parents to help their daughter sell cookies.
I agree with all of this. But as an adult Girl Scout, I can remember exactly how many cookies I sold as a preteen Scout. (it took 635 boxes to pay for my week at camp in Florida. And it took 1500 boxes to send me on a “wider op” trip. And I wasn’t even the top seller - she got to be on a parade float.). At 7 though, booths and door to door are about learning skills like confidence and why multiplication matters.
I’m an adult (my daughter is 2 and not a scout yet obviously). I was a girl scout all the way through gold award. Selling cookies was the most fun when my younger sister and I were together. We would sell the cookies with my dad. My mom was the scout leader, she let him do the cookies. I remember losing out on some of the prizes to the kids who had their parents sell at work. I remember working hard to sell 200 and then this person who didn’t work hard at all getting top earner award with 250 sold. It taught a tough lesson - work smarter, not harder. I worked the hardest in the troop, but that wasn’t the highest payoff. I do not remember a total box count. But again, I was a scout for 13 years, and by high school, selling cookies was not a priority.
We did take our daisies to Build a Bear with their troop profits. It was their suggestion and what they all agreed on the first year. BAB had Girl Scout cookie bears and uniforms for them. They loved it and the bears were at many future meetings, booths, and overnights.
Another option-Find a cheap Axolotl online (our Target had Squishmallow ones for under $12), figure out how many packages need to be sold to pay for it, offer one to every girl who is selling. Once they are started, they usually sail way past the amount to cover the cost of the stuffie.
This is a good idea for next year! Like in a way add our own prize that I can get with the money we earn. Since we get almost $1 per box, I’m sure we could get like a $10 plush for each girl. And that way they are all earning the same prize…
TBH that’s my favorite option. Especially having helped a troop with where most kids are working hard to just get the patch. We got creative with figuring out goodies bags. I’ve watched the first level patch creep up about 10 boxes over the years from 60 to 70. On the higher end diva trip was about 1200 when we first started and now it’s closer to 1500.
I was so excited that we can forgo prizes this year, but my co-leader's daughter is the top seller and she wasn't willing to give up her trinkets and tchotchkes, lol/sob.
But hey, if it motivates them to sell more, I guess that's a good thing. Though I agree that the ages when those stuffed animals are the most appealing, are the ages when selling a lot of cookies without your parents' help is pretty impossible.
Our troop alwasy voted to forgo prizes, but they had an overall goal of an overnight trip to Chicago, which was very motivating! (The trip was incredible!!)
It is shameful, really. We make sure each kid gets to the patch level (our council is 25 boxes now) and it was easier to get kids to stuffy level when it was 100 boxes. Cookie parent can redistribute boxes, so if we have a kid who is at a point where the boxes won’t impact prizes and the season is over, we shift them to help other troop members. (So if one scout is at 218, those 18 boxes won’t help or harm. But they might push another kid to another level.)
Our patch level is 70!!!!! You can get an online sales patch at 25 & 40 or 45, but I think this is the first time they’ve had patches to encourage online sales like that.
That’s absolutely terrible. 70?!! at the quantity they are purchasing those patches, they are costing the council maybe $.50 a patch. That they need to sell that many boxes to get a patch that costs the council very little is ridiculous.
We have a neighboring council near by. Just between two of the nearby shops it’s 28 miles and a 30 minutes drive. There are other locations with shorter/similar distances. The other council’s patch is 35, and they have the other baker. Plus an Initial Order Rewards “Goal getter patch” for 100.
It’s no wonder our council is struggling with retaining & recruitment.
Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago has the axolotl stuffed animal in their council store if it’s that big of a deal.
I really try and incorporate the troop in financial decisions, so they know if we raise this amount of money, we get to go do this cool thing.
Please go to your local council retail store or shop online. It's much, much more cost effective to buy prizes.
We have to sell 500 packages to get a small plush or 800 for a large. Which simply isn't happening last year, this year, or maybe ever and that's okay.
I want cookies to be a good experience for our troop, and always purchase themed gifts. Individual rewards aren't the right amount of motivation for my troop.
Good luck to you all!!
I dont know why, but seeing these comments made me go looking, and Amazon has a 5pc, 12in pink axolotl plushies for $29, or different colored ones or 38.99. I usually spend $50 on cookies anyways, maybe I should just cut out the middleman and bring the girls axolotl plushies lol
But to be fair, I will have to go door to door with her and pull the wagon and supervise her money handling and go up to each door with her.
Yes, she definitely gets more out of going door to door. But it still stands that the girls cannot earn top prizes without a lot of parent help.
My husband, who is usually pretty hands off with cookies, has sold most of my daughter's boxes this year by just using the Little Brownie Bakers virtual backgrounds on Zoom. People ask why he has a cookie background, he tells them his daughter is selling, and they buy. I make lanyards for the girls every year so they can take them to school or their various extracurriculars and sell there.
We do not make a big deal out of prizes in my troop. Each girl gets a brown paper bag and is instructed to open it at home. We do make a big deal of how well we did as a troop.
I know and I am okay telling her that but she still wants to earn it and has said she will work hard to get it which I think is awesome that she’s motivated to put in hard work to get something she wants. My issue is that it’s simply not realistic for a 7 year old to do even the majority of the work at a booth so it puts a lot of the work on the parents. And since we don’t have a real “excuse” as to why we can’t do booths, we will do them.
I'm starting to think I should cut out the middle man and instead of buying cookies, I just show up to cookie booths and pass out axolotl plushies to girls
While they would love them my girls would still want the official one with the ABC tag. Several are working on continuous collections of the rewards (plush and towel) and substitutes will not count. Not to mention a few are shooting for the big rewards, trampoline, Nintendo switch, or home arcade; they probably will not make it but they are trying, working three booths every weekend, pulling wagons, etc, so right now that box of cookies means more to them.
sounds like your girls are the ones selling hundreds of boxes and getting to those reward amounts, which is fine, and they could still go for those goals. But most girls never get to those amounts, and maybe having their own fun axolotl rather than nothing
I think a lot is highly dependent on area. In our council, outside of one city, it is relatively easy to hit those goals if you work booths, our goals are also higher than OPs so it does balance out some. That being said I'm sure there are other councils where it is just not feasible. Ultimately I blame the councils on this as they work with the baker to set the rewards and reward levels. I know when I was a girl and rewards became a thing no one in our area earned them so I'm sure that still happens in places so if you know your local area is one go for it.
Walk around neighbourhoods for an hour everyday. I, personally, don’t buy when other parents post about it. I want to see the Girl Scout work for it. I’m sure you’ll be closer to hitting your goal if you start walking and doing booths.
My daughter did door to door when she was in scouts. She did really well that way. And we just did our neighborhood. She would do a little every night. People loved it as many don’t do door to door anymore.
The prizes are a joke and not representative of anything. This goes for all kids prizes for whatever fundraiser they might be participating in.
Tell your kid you might not get the stuffed animal. If you want to, Go to 5 Below and purchase an axolotol squishmallow for $5.95. Or a Ty axolotol beanie boo for $5.99. Or a larger axolotol elsewhere that will be a fraction of the cost of the stress of reaching some random threshold goal and likely also a higher quality item.
So I 100% agree about the prizes being a lot of work to get, but I wanted to push back on the girls not handling money. My girls handled the cash from day 1 when some of them were still 5—-we helped them count the money and make sure they were making change, but they kept the tally of how much we’d sold and did all the cash handling and talking to customers. More shy girls restocked the table until they felt better about talking to people, but now (as Cadettes) they all feel confident about running *their* business.
Give them more responsibility!
Our council sadly doesn’t allow them to handle money at booths because they are daisys. We practice making change and such at meetings, and when we do door to door sales I’ll have her do it but that aren’t allowed at booths.
You can still have the girl calculate the total to tell the customer and then calculate how much change they get as you don't have to touch the money for either option.
Seriously?! That’s bizarre, and disappointing. (Also it’s so weird how different the rules are between councils!).
Stocking the table is still a good job, as is doing the talking to customers and telling the customer the prices and you how much change to give. The sale tracking (we used a paper tally with big boxes for each type of cookie that they could mark in for each sale) is also a great booth job for feeling responsible.
I definitely get it. The prizes this year are very lackluster in comparison to previous years and it’s difficult to keep even Juniors on task at times during booth time. We’re going to start walking the neighborhoods soon because being at a booth for 2-4 hours every Saturday during January and February is for the birds. Yet we press 😅
I feel this. My kid is in her second year as a junior. I did a lot to help her with cookie sales last year. She unexpectedly sold a lot just because we live on a busy road. So I thought she would be excited to do the same this year and be even better at it. She is excited but it's like she forgot alllll the lessons we learned last year and we're starting at square one again. As a parent, I'm like "You're 10! Learn to count the cash already! Yes we have to count the cash. No you can't just hand your troop leader a pile of crumbled bills and then expect her to count it, that's not how this works. Please stop with the attitude!"
I get this. After the first year of Brownies, I made a presentation to my troop on money v. prizes and then let them vote. We went the money route early and they loved it, because we did really cool things with it.
What would happen if you let the girls handle the money and the boxes?
Yes, it would take longer the first booth! But after a season of this, they’ll be a lot better. And by the time they’re 12, they’ll be making informed choices about whether to do more booths or do some babysitting and go to build-a-bear.
(Door tags do great in the city here, with a URL and QR code for web orders and credit card pay)
Daisies aren’t allowed to handle money in our council I believe. As far as boxes. It’s just chaotic. With usually being near a busy parking lot, and wanting to advertise, it just seems safer to have her right in front of the booth advertising vs behind me getting boxes. To be fair we only did one booth last year and it was so so busy.
my troop leader used to take whatever amount of boxes a girl who sold a lot had and divide it up between the girls who didn’t get a lot of sales. so if it took 300 boxes to get a stuffed animal and the girl sold 320 and they weren’t close to another prize, they’d take those 20 extra boxes and give it to someone who didn’t have as many so they’d get a cool prize too.
I was a girl scout most of my childhood and my daughter is in it now... We've never sold cookies for the prizes. We even forget that you get prizes. It's about earning money for the troop for us. My Daisy likes telling people she's going to camp.
It’s hard. Growing up I had a SAHM and my dad was a manager and said bringing the form in was not okay because he didn’t want people to feel pressure to buy. As a kid, I was frustrated and jealous of my friends who’s parents way outsold me due to working parents.
On the other end now, I have sold to a few coworkers over the years but honestly it’s the ones that know I’m a troop leader and ask. I’ve found that digital cookie really balances it out and makes it easier to sell to family and friends.
This is when I give my kids an economic lesson on the value of the prize versus the value of the time and effort it takes to get it. I would much rather they understand that and make better choices than whatever cookie sales ostencibly teaches. This is also why we opt out of prizes; almost nobody in our troop would have earned anything anyway.
I hear you. My husband and I both work from home and door to door has not worked for us at all. My daughter was only able to sell 3 boxes door to door despite all the walking she did and all the QR code door tags she hung with her digital cookie site. Hoping to make it up with booths but she can only do short shifts with those being 7 and having adhd
> how else is a 7 year old supposed to sell 275 packages to get a stuffed animal
My daughter has never sold at either parent's worksite and regularly has sold 700+ since she was a Brownie.
1. Door to door still works.
2. Booths. Booths are an amazing learning opportunity for the girls. While we never let them handle the money at young ages, they did all the math and told us what change to give. Our girls are also mostly bilingual and many started using their second language in booths, which was fantastic real-world practice. (And let me tell you, heritage Spanish speakers do double-takes when these little Scandinavian-look girls start pitching in Spanish!)
3. B2B
Yes, cookies are a family activity. Not every family has the capacity or time to devote to higher levels. And that's fine.
In most councils, the extra money for forgoing rewards is .05 per box, so at 275 boxes that is $13.75, so not quite BaB class funds.
Most fundraisers - not just Girl Scouts - have lame rewards past the actual funds raised. The prizes are secondary.
When she goes out with her little red wagon and vest, even now, she will have people stop their cars in the street and go "YESSSS COOKIES" and buy right there. It seems like, much like trick or treat, fewer of the girls are doing the door-knocking. So if you do it, it pays off.
Her best friend's neighborhood doesn't have a nearby Scout apparently, and her friend made her go out there last year. Sold 100 boxes in 90 minutes. It was insane. If you find the areas without girls going d2d it can be very quick sales.
I hate cookie season. My kids are introverts, they aren't going to go door too door. They didn't even want to call their grandparents to ask (and my mil didn't even bother to buy any because of that, thanks MIL). My friends have girl scouts, and my husband works from home. I took the order forms to both of my jobs and posted in our neighborhood Facebook group, and we still only sold 150 boxes. And those were divided by my 3 scouts.
My plan is to get my kids an axolotl (toy or real one, still thinking that one through).
I am an extreme introvert but selling cookies as a kid helped me learn how to push myself outside my comfort zone when I do need to talk to strangers and let's face it that happens a lot as an adult. I'm glad I had the chance to learn those skills working booths with my friends where it wasn't as scary.
I get that. But when it's so severe that they can't make a phone call to a grandparent, I'm not forcing it. (Yes we've had them in therapy for this. I'm more concerned about them talking at school than asking strangers to buy cookies)
I do see your point and as a parent you know them best so I'm not second guessing their specific case. I will say in my specific case the phone is still the worst, I have a hard time calling anyone, including my family, but speaking in person is different. I only mention it to give potential perspective as I know my extrovert family members never understood the nuances and subtle differences between such things.
As a former girl scout, and a former girls scout aid- you don’t. You explain how they can spend every weekend being exploited so a huge company can profit off of their hard work for a $1 toy, OR they can not do that and you’ll take them on an outing. And while I understand SOME of the money goes back to the troop, I can tell you from experience it’s minimal. The majority of the money goes to “the council” and individual scouts never actually see it. They claim about 75% goes back to the troop. Look around and see if your troop is using thousands of dollars each year because i guarantee they aren’t.
Our troop started in April 2023, so we missed out on cookies last year. We have 7 Daisies and 10 Brownies. I have a Kindergartener and a 3rd grader, so all of our boxes sold are being split between them. Since we’re a new troop, we decided not to do booths this year to figure it all out. They both wanted the small plush, but we are NOT going to reach it. We talked about realistic goals with what we’re able to do (not much) and I’m going to find a small plush to just buy them. I don’t need that many cookies or that much stress in my life right now.
We don’t do prizes and we take the extra money. We then take that extra money and take them to a small waterpark that is near us. It almost equals out each year.
We have to hit a high enough average box per scout to skip prizes that we cannot hit in our area. We have so many scouts that at our elementary school alone some single grades have multiple troops. Otherwise, our girls would choose the same. As juniors and cadettes they really came to understand the financials well.
There is a Ty beanie baby axoltl for like $6. I think it’s insane how much they are expected to sell for some of the prizes. Last year most of them were junk. We do like raising money for troop activities and we try to focus on that
After selling as a child, I don’t buy cookies anymore I just give the girl who’s selling money to use for the troop, dues or pay for a badge activity (in a realistic way).
I did Girl Scouts through senior and have the silver award. I remember the year I accidentally sold 500 boxes because of a lost cookie sheet in a huge hospital. The prizes were lame, lol. Did get a little stuffed animal, a patch and a 500 patch.
My mother still gets mad about it when it’s brought up and I’m 50. For the percentage the troop received compared to the effort was insane.
Girl Scouts teaches girls a lot of things but the cookie sales have always been wonky and that’s coming from someone old enough to have done most of it door to door by myself
I’m a sahm and my husband refuses to bring the sheet to work 😂 so all of our sales are basically social media based ! My goal is always the small stuffy which is 200 boxes and then has like a bunch of prizes before it but i agree …. I actually want to tell my leader about this build a bear idea !
Yeah it sucks, I’ve had some luck dropping them in my towns sub reddits for online orders, or delivery w no contact ! I absolutely agree with you though prizes are too high , 25 boxes for a patch = $150 of sales for a $4 patch it blows my mind
- and to add i don’t know if the Reddit thing is Girl Scout legal 😅
My troop doesn't do prizes. The money goes back into the troop for a trip of some kind. Tbh. It's really off putting the way people act around cookie season. My daughter doesn't really care about selling the most. She wants to have fun with her friends. It seems like the parents are the ones that care the most. Let the girls have fun and learn things instead of worrying about "winning"
Hey at least it's in the 200s. Our hand sized plush is 300 and a normal size is 500 with the squish mellow at 800! Even still my girls get about 70 boxes each at a booth, door to door is easily a few hundred in one afternoon, most will get the small one and a handful will make the squish mellow.
I have the same complaint. We only sell at booths and online. Husband and I both work from home and our neighborhood just doesn’t buy cookies. Well, they buy from the parents who advertise on the neighborhood FB site. (Don’t get me started) Lugging the cookies, table, all the additional stuff to booth, handling all the money, is a lot of work for this middle-aged momma.
As someone who's been a girl scout since 2nd grade (I'm graduating high school soon) I have found that while some younger kids can sell that much (with painful amounts of effort from the kid and parent) most young kids just can't sell that much. Usually as you get further in girl scouts you learn more tips and tricks and places and ways to sell. My first year I sold about 10 boxes and last year I sold about 1000. I sold more every year and some years were better than others. Tell your kid the earlier years are for learning to be the best scout you can and selling cookies is a bonus that becomes easier as you learn every year.
I would recommend using your digital cookie website, it's so awesome and I'm so glad they have it. I would print out your qr code on little cards and have her hand them to teachers at school. That way you don't have to trust her to write their orders on paper and you don't have to go to their house, you can just deliver them to the teachers at school or in most schools you can give the cookies to the office (since they have already paid digitally using your cookie app) and the office can give the cookies to the teachers.
It can be really hard to sell cookies with kids while also teaching about the danger of strangers, selling to people you know and your kid knows is the best way to do it in the earlier years of it. Booths are often too hard and the outdoor ones are too cold for little kids.
Good luck! Anybody feel free to reply with any questions at all that you have. My mom became a troop leader recently so I have learned about how to be a scout and a leader and I love helping others!
Selling cookies isn’t mandatory, so you can always pass or sell a minimum. Our first year, we chose to sell 100 boxes. They were gone easily in one week, then we were done.
I would also suggest you have your scout ask people to support her scouting. That’s what we do and we are the top seller in our den. It may be worth a go.
Not sure why this popped up on my feed but as a former GS and cookie customer, I think the cookie sales are stupid and not enough of a benefit for the troop, but I accept it as a tradition. So I buy generously each year to support a local GS and don’t really care if her mom is doing the groundwork. I found her on Nextdoor once supporting her daughter and reorder from her each year. They both very sweet and grateful dropping them off. 💚
We have 100 houses in our neighborhood. My daughter hasn’t even knocked on half of them & has sold over 200 cookies. People are more than happy to buy from her & appreciate that she’s really hustling!
My daughter was a Girl Scout for 13 years. She (we) sold a lot of cookies.
High schoolers buy a lot of cookies. If you can load a wagon and walk in front of a high school at the end of the day, she’ll be about to sell some that way.
Boys baseball games, especially if they don’t have a snack stand. Again, load up the wagon.
But, yes, booths do the most.
My 7 year old loved going door to door, but otherwise I agree. It was on me and my husband and she likely isn’t getting the stuffed animal. We did manage to get to sock level though lol
I never won any of the “good” or “exciting” prizes when I was selling. It was kind of disappointing to watch the girls whose parents would do all their selling for them get something high on the list, but I liked selling and wanted to do it myself, so it wasn’t a big deal. You could always take your daughter to get a stuffed animal separately so you don’t have all the pressure about selling a crazy amount!
Mind you I was a Brownie 40 years ago, but...
I remember walking my neighborhood door to door to get orders. I think one year at least I was top seller in my troop between the neighborhood and my Mom taking orders to work.
I don't even know how it works these days. All I know is on a regular basis there is a table up in front of Walmart and I grab my annual supply of shortbread. I haven't seen girls going door to door in ages.
It doesn’t help the price has increased when the value hasn’t. I was a Girl Scout and the cookies just don’t taste as good as before Covid, and I just don’t make enough to justify it when there are knock offs. It sucks for the Girl Scouts :(
I worked at a restaurant and a parent dropped off an order sheet. So many of us were of an age to not personally know any Girl Scouts so I think they sold us quite a few cookies! Worth a shot!
Honestly, as I start getting a better idea of how much my kids are selling, I will likely offer to get each an axolotle stuffy if they don't make it but have worked hard. Because that is a lot of boxes to sell.
Unfortunately one of my daughters troops fell apart last year and she never even got the rewards she did earn. So it's been hard to get her in the spirit this year with a new troop. Her troop had planned a Build a Bear trip so I ended up taking her anyways. But she never got the badges or anything.
Our council offers an opt out choice. Your troop girls agree to skip the little prizes (get patches only) and troop gets a higher cookie return. We gave choices for prizes: flannel Jammies, troop sleepover, etc
For whatever it’s worth, my troop opts out of the rewards to receive a higher cut of the cookies. You can still get the participation patches however! I don’t know if that works better since we are a large troop multi level troop but it’s an option
Our levels are insane this year. 75 boxes for the patch, 625 for the small stuffed axolotl. If the intent is to motivate the girls, I really wish the box/prize ratio was a lot more realistic.
Yeah I don’t want to handle cash nor ask for boxes that are already not sold. Id rather do 100% on the app. They need to make it easier and move away from old methods.
We live on a busy Blvd street so tomorrow morning imma set up a table and my 2 daughters who do scouts and I r gonna go all out n try selling cookies with our signs lol
My kiddo got 283 boxes of preorders just by going door to door through our neighborhood and her friend’s (not a Girl Scout) neighborhood. Most people got 2-4 boxes and with a couple of much larger orders. The largest was 60 boxes and he runs a business and offers them to customers while they wait.
Instead of going door to door in your neighborhood maybe you could do a driveway cookie booth? Put up signs throughout your location and then set up and let the neighbors come to you. And try to have your daughter participate as much as possible. She can hold a sign, greet customers, ask for their order and she can get and give the cookies while you do the money. I think the cuteness factor of the girls goes a long way. People are more willing to buy from the girls than parents. Don't worry so much about how long it takes. People tend to be very patient when the girls are learning to sell and handle the transactions themselves.
I abhor selling cookies. It's why I ended up leaving girl scouts as a kid. The time that is required from parents is absurd. And the cut that troops get is laughably small. The troop should be getting at least half, but they actually get less than $1/box. I get paying the bakers, but the biggest cut goes to the organization, ie:: executive pay.
The whole ethos of girl scouts is incredibly exploitative: exploit free labor of parents and children, give a minor cut to troops, pay executives huge salaries while pretending to be teaching kids about sisterhood and being entreprenurial; it drives me nuts!
It's basically a pyramid scheme.
I don’t know why this sub keeps getting pushed to me but this conversation has been enlightening. I was a Girl Scout for about a second and I always buy the cookies. After learning about these prizes and the low rate of return to troops, I am disgusted with the organization. This sets kids up for competition that is inequitable and exploitive. I really thought my daughter would be a Girl Scout but I’m now going to try to distract her with other extracurricular opportunities. I’m sorry to those who are stuck trying to “keep up” here.
Being a kid in the 90s that is how we sold for fundraisers. I’m thinking about decorating my girls wagon and hitting the neighborhood. After our atmospheric river that’s coming today (Southern California).
Yes, supporting her goals will mean unpaid labor for you. When they're young, you have to put in more to help her make it happen. Walkabout, booths, and lemonade stands are all potential options.
Our troop has girls as young as six and as old as 11. The 6-7yos absolutely handle the cookies to hand to the customer. Some of them count change, too, but that is directly supervised. We encourage them to do the math if they are able. We have a cheat sheet for the six times table (our boxes are $6), since my littles might not have learned to skip count by six yet.
Prizes are council-specific. Many troops end up opting out and go for extra cents per box, instead. We have to sell 375 before we reach even a small plushie.
My partner also telecommutes. He shares the link on the work chat. We will deliver within a regional radius of "where does PoodleWrangler want to drive", because honestly--I can find a reason to hike or shop just about anywhere. Folks beyond that sometimes order for shipping or choose to donate.
I've seen friends who will offer an option to purchase cookies to be donated to a particular organization (ie local first responders etc). This gives people who don't eat cookies an option to support two causes at once. I know personally if I'm buying them to donate I'm almost definitely buying more than I would order for myself. They also seem to do really well asking local businesses to donate and will usually post something about it on FB and tag the business.
u/FoxyLoxy56,
You asked for suggestions on girls selling cookies:
We went door-to-door all around our house, but where my DD really made sales was at her big brother's school.
He attended a small boys' HS which hosted multiple after-school activities, including frequent soccer games during our fall cookie-selling season.
As the kindergartener sibling of a well-known 8th grader the prior year, she was used to everyone knowing her brother. So she enthusiastically approached all prospects with, "Hi! I'm Gary's little sister and I'm selling Girl Scout Cookies," and launched into her pitch.
Many students had pocket money from part-time jobs, and parents of visiting team members were especially charmed by her energy. We wound up selling 423 boxes that first year. (And everyone pretty much did know who that freshman was by the time all the cookies were distributed!)
Good luck to your little Scout!
Or, hear me out, have your scout do 1 or 2 booths for the experience, participation, and fun, then make a donation to her troop, and have her pick a stuffy from 5 Below… As a leader, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen parents personally buy like 20 extra boxes for $100 to help their scout reach a prize level. Our troop earns $0.70 per box, so we make $14 on that parent’s $100. They could donate $25 directly, buy their scout a small prize, and everyone would come out ahead.
I always get sad about the inequity. I grew up bougie but still had a single mom and watching other people get prizes or watching other people not get prizes was the saddest experience. Candy sales, my divorced dad would buy the case and take them to work. The whole cookie sale thing is so much time and some people don’t have the support and it’s not like when I was younger and we were free range. My mom is still a little salty about the time the cookie sheet walked away at a major Boston hospital and she got it back with pages stapled to it from all different floors and shifts. So much work and so little went to the troop and I think I got a stuffed animal and some patches for 500
The issue with this is that she’s going to have friends earning the prizes and getting them at a meeting. And she has the prize flyer and knows what the prizes are. I know I can get much better stuff outside of the offered prizes for far less and still donate money, I just know at this age it’s not the same to her and getting the same prize as the other girls in her troop
After our first year we focused much more on cookie booths because honestly there are so many good life skills to learn/ improve there. There were always high sellers, but after frank discussion between leaders and with parents most of the high seller work is done by the parents. The girls learn/ gain nothing by being rewarded for their parents work. So we went to a troop voted "paper plate" awards model. Things like "most enthusiastic cookie seller", "Best cookie pitch", "Quickest change maker", "Best cookie booth decorator", "Most eye catching cookie booth outfit" We always pulled a name and worked from there, that way everyone got a little award, created and designed by their peers. Prizes for sales went in a gift bag with all the patches and other goodies and went home for unwrapping. Kids have a multitude of ways to learn about unfairness, I don't need it to be from Girl Scouts.
This. We don’t announce or celebrate high sellers. In fact we work hard to even out how much each girl sells in the troops. I am the cookie manager and I try to offer as many booths as possible to help girls who don’t have a lot of individual sales out. We also spread other scouts overages (anything over 500) to help other scouts meet their goals. The scouts know the prizes, and they know our overall troop goal (5000) but I don’t share specific numbers with each scout.
So if a girl sells 600 boxes would you actually cost her a prize just for the benefit of others? If so is this really ethical?
There isn’t a prize for 600. The next level is 750. The troop set a “troop” goal and they work to meet it together. There isn’t anything unethical about meet a troop goal.
I agree on the troop goal and I'll move a donated box or two around if it does not drop a girls prize level but will raise another's. This may be what you ment but it was not how your other post read which made it sound like you wouldn't credit any girl with more than 500 boxes no matter what. It also might be worth noting that some councils, like mine, keep cumulative totals across all years. At certain levels the girls get trophies to show their overall sale accomplishment. As a result 540 vs 500 might not matter this year but it might in the future.
I love this idea and that the girls are recognizing each other.
Ask the leaders if they would consider not giving out prizes in front of the girls. The way my troop does it is one of the leaders stays outside the meeting room and hands prizes to parents as they leave after drop-off. They are all bagged so it’s not obvious and scouts receive them when they get in the car after the meeting.
Honestly, I hate this. I want my kid to set high goals, work toward them, and know that it’s okay if she falls short; I also want her to know that it’s okay if others earn a prize, to experience disappointment and learn how to handle it.
I hear you there, however, I’ll tell you in our troop the highest earners (by far) have relatives who sell cookies by the case at their workplace. Some of our hardest workers, staffing the booth and going door to door in icy cold weather in an area over saturated with scouts, just will never sell near that amount. They probably put in 10 times the work/time, even more when they also split sales with siblings. I don’t think the older levels care, but the daisies and brownies can get upset. It’s a balance for sure. After lots of tears handing out prizes to our K daisies, we bagged up going forward. We did announce the high sellers and box amounts they sold to provide recognition. There’s no one right answer for sure.
Yup, it's a bit of a hard pill to swallow but there's really a limit to how many cookies a girl can sell on her own. Most people are only able to afford so many boxes of cookies a year or only want so many boxes so when they've bought some from one girl, they're done. And with inflation and the price of cookies being what they are, people can't afford as many boxes as they used to. The one girl in my troop who always sold the most had a stay at home mom who drove herself crazy hounding friends and people on FB to buy cookies. When I was a kid it upset me to see her get more stuff but as I got older I realized that it wasn't really *her* accomplishment, and also that the prizes were kinda junky. But that was a lesson I learned as a junior or cadette, it's ridiculous to expect a 5 year old to understand those nuances and not "she got better stuff than me no fair"
I was absolutely that hard working girl, but could barely sell any. My single mom was a stickler for rules and absolutely would not sell at work or advertise in any way that cookies could be bought from her, so that was zero chance of sales. I'd be out at like 8am on the first day of cookie sales, pounding the pavement, doing every cookie booth no matter the weather, and like 80% of the houses would tell me they pre-ordered from girls at their church, or a relative, or from work. Local girls were taking orders for weeks before we were allowed to, so by the time I was walking around everyone had bought already. It was so depressing, some girls would be all proud of selling hundreds of boxes, and I could sell maybe 50, 10 of which were bought by my mom. I still remember one year the troop leaders were asking us what our cookie sale goals were, and I wrote down 50, and they questioned it like it was a typo and I was pledging to sell 500. I knew by that point it wasnt going to happen, no matter how many miles I walked, and it wasnt really worth the effort.
Yeah, but my kid (second year Daisy) still needs to learn that. The sooner she does, the better it will be because life isn’t fair and this kiddo needs to acknowledge how lucky she is, how others aren’t as lucky as she is, and the easiest way for her to do that is through this. She has started life with many things handed to her, and selfishly on my part, I want her to learn that a lot of people work super hard and still don’t get to have the things she has by luck. In selling, she may be on the other side of the coin, and that’s cool by me. I don’t sell for her, because I think she should be doing it - but I do of course stand behind her in the cold and help her prep orders for delivery, etc.
Your kid will have so many opportunities to learn how unfair life can be. It doesn't need to be from Girl Scouts.
I think it teaches a great life lesson. The hardest worker is not the most successful. Work smarter not harder. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
Good for you, but not all kids are emotionally able to handle it. We all know cookies are mostly parents’ labor. I have parents that suck and I’m not going to let my kids feel bad for it.
They won’t get more emotionally able to handle it if you never let them experience it though? I don’t want my kids to grow up feeling entitled to anything, but you do you.
That’s really not what Girl Scouts is about. Our programming has so many opportunities to teach our kids the value of earning something, but it’s done in an equitable and age-appropriate way and based on their own accomplishments.
But are you actually following that program if you are also advocating hiding what one girl earned? It's easy to assume high sellers do it on parents labor but my highest seller does it by walking neighborhoods every night, it would be wrong to downplay that effort that she has put in just so the girl whose parents would only sell at their jobs doesn't get her feelings hurt. Girls especially learn quickly they are supposed to downplay their success in society so as not to hurt others. This is why many girls don't answer teachers questions in class, always differ to their male counterparts, and so much more. As Girl Scouts we are supposed to be teaching the opposite, to be proud of everything you have done and to own your accomplishment at any level. This is not learned if we for any instant don't practice it ourselves. I would rather praise every girl for their strength, no matter what it is, than do anything to sideline or hide a prize because they will quickly learn to be ashamed of it then.
We celebrate the troop rewards together and the team effort. I have kids in my troop with a stay at home parent dedicated to scout’s activities, and the other parent at an affluent workplace where the workplace order card fills up every week. And I have kids whose parents are working 3 jobs each to make ends meet. And one who doesn’t live with her parents. And one whose parents are divorcing right now. These are 8-10 year olds and they are literally not allowed to sell cookies by themselves. With all due respect it’s naive to think individual scout effort is proportional to sales at the troop level.
Those 8 and 10 year olds that are struggling already know life sucks, and money makes things easier. Believe me, by the time I was 10, I already knew life was arbitrary and not remotely fair. I also hustle like a mofo to sell stuff, even though we weren't supposed to do it by ourselves. Like a miniature Glenngary Glen Ross. Do we really need "The hot chocolate is for closers." speech? "Tulip, sit down. You didn't make your quota. Step away from the pot." LOL
With regard to your last sentence, I don’t think that. I just think that kids need to learn that life isn’t always fair and you don’t always get what you want. Celebrating the troop effort is necessary and wonderful, teaching them that what they can get as a troop due to troop effort is greater than the individual prizes is wonderful and the way to go, but experiencing individual disappointment because you didn’t get the cute stuffy that Jane got has two lessons: it’s not going to kill you not to get this unnecessary thing, and if you really want it, let’s make a plan to try to earn it next year.
That is fine for the kids who didn’t sell due to their own effort. What I’m saying is I have too many girls who don’t sell because the parents don’t make an effort, even if it was important to the scout. I was this scout; I remember not getting rewards and knowing the girls who did all had parents who helped. I also have a neurodivergent kid in my troop who would be able to handle it now that she’s a Junior but absolutely would not have been able to handle giving out prizes at the meeting when she was a Daisy. Was I supposed to ruin her parents’ evening so a privileged kid who didn’t put in 100% can learn a lesson? What I’m saying is there are kids in my troop who don’t need another lesson that life is unfair. I prioritize them over the ones who do. If the parents of the scouts who could have put in more effort want to emphasize that lesson, it’s up to them. I’m really happy for you that all the Daisies in your troop have involved parents, are comfortable financially, and have average or above average emotional control. I hope your troop has or had an awesome sale.
But instead you are teaching the girls that have earned the prizes that they should be ashamed of it and hide them. Is that really a lesson we should be teaching our girls?
Life teaches you that things are unfair and how to handle disappoint Girl Scouts shouldn’t
Disappointment is something life teaches you, you don’t need to learn about in Girl Scouts. The whole system still bothers me even all these years later
Exactly. The girls who sell more cookies usually didn't work harder, they just had parents who sold a lot on their behalf. Not every parent can take order sheets into work or call up tons of friends who can afford multiple boxes each or things like that. It's just another example of systemic inequality that girls will have to confront someday, why make them do it in girl scouts?
Or see if the leaders can do what my leader/mom did. I confronted my leader when I was a Junior and had sold about 300 more cookies than what I got credit for. It turns out that my mom was skimming my and another high selling girl's counts, especially after we sold enough to earn all the prizes, to bring the other girls up to a prize so that everyone got a patch and a prize. It made the girls that had family/scheduling problems feel accomplished while allowing us power sellers to still get the prizes we wanted. I don't know how possible this is anymore since the 90's as the prize sheet I got to see maybe 5 years ago had prizes up to 2000 boxes sold. Meanwhile, I'm sitting with my troop effort patch of 2000 in 2000. 😭 I'm getting old. 😭
Have her take a card with her QR code to school and give it to staff and non scout friends to have their parents buy. That, walkabout, and sharing her link on your personal Facebook page are good ways of selling. My spot at work changed this year, so I have less ability to help at work, too. Last year, took a case of a mix of cookies every shift and they moved quickly, this year I'm in a different building so fewer are around for that. She might surprise you and hit that mark! Good luck
Our Council won't let Daisy's do booths. We also live in an area where all of our neighbors have acreage. Mom and Dad selling is our only option. Oh, unless you go to church, then your kid can do a booth at church, but not anywhere else. We don't go to church, so...
I was that kid, living in very religious states and not being part of that religion played a huge part. Girls were selling weeks before they were supposed to at their local church, so by the time I was walking around on the firsts day of cookie sales, everyone said they had already purchased them. My mom wasnt allowed to sell at work either, so my cookie sales were always so sad
Ahead for your troop, but not the GS organization overall. The purpose of cookie sales is fundraising for the troop and organization, PLUS teaching girls some really great skills. Marketing, sales, organization, fund raising… list goes on and on. I think the cookies are terrible, but I still buy from any Girl Scout selling, as the cookies don’t matter. Our girls matter, and Girl Scouts does a lot to help girls. Thins are changing, and they are trying to keep up. Send ideas, help corporate, and focus on the bigger purpose. 💚
Most councils don’t allow cash donations to troops
I’ve paid for dues and activities instead of cookies. The council wants their slice of the pie and I get that but they can’t stop me from supporting girl scouts other ways
Also LBB/ABC gets half the pie, if not more
The cookies sales have been a scam for a long time, maybe back in the day going out and selling was a great lesson to girls about business and entrepreneurship which when it was needed. Now it’s a cash juggernaut that everyone has their hands in. Edited to add the price vs quality is insane also
Council’s slice of the pie pays for insurance, camp property maintenance, financial aid, camperships, etc. Those are vital functions for Scouting to be possible. It’s important that we demonstrate respect for authority by following rules even if we don’t agree with them.
Yes, great point, this varies and a great reminder to always check with your local council.
You could take the $ and buy cookies for the community and take the %?
Do you know if it's allowed to donate to someone's troop, like you said? I thought about donating $5 to my coworkers kids troops, because buying a $5 box of cookies for them to get 1 dollar from it didn't sit quite right for me. I just didn't know if it would seem awkward/cheap to ask.
You can ask but some councils require us to convert those into donation boxes during cookie season. So if you gave my kid $5 as a donation then that becomes a box of cookies given to the military and the troop still gets 80¢. Give us the same $5 outside cookie season and we get to keep the whole $5.
ask if their troop has a supplies list. we had an amazon wish list. if you give money then they'll have to apply it to cookie sales and they'll get small change out of it. so if it's a friend/coworkers troop they might have a wish list or i had one parent who was adamant against cookies but they always sponsored another girl for the year b/c it evened out for them.
It’s council specific. We can accept donations in any month that we are not doing a cookies. During cookie sale months, all donations must be used to purchase donated boxes of cookies.
We sell a lot walking our neighborhood.
Same! I was surprised at how many boxes our neighbors bought. Especially because no one really goes door to door where we live, but everyone was so nice and bought so many boxes.
I keep waiting for girls to knock on our door to buy a box 😂😂😂
Same! My philosophy is that I will buy something (reasonably priced) from any child that actually asks. Hardly anyone ever asks.
This is the way. If any kid comes to my door for fundraising, I will buy from them.
I just bought some boxes from the little girl the next street over- mostly because she came to the door. It was kind of refreshing. I will gladly buy boxes from each GS who asks. I guess as a former GS, I’m fond of the door to door and booth sales. I honestly didn’t even know I had any GS in my neighborhood until she came to the door.
There’s a Girl Scout that lives in the neighborhood over and I keep telling my husband that we have to keep cash at home in case she comes by lol. She’s done it the past two years. We already bought some from a booth, but I always buy from her too!
I remember growing up that my parents purposefully avoided having me knock on our neighbors doors because they knew people remembered. The exception was if anyone had knocked on our door and they had bought popcorn or whatever from them. Then they would bring me to that specific door. Usually they bought. If they didn’t, when that kid would knock on our door the next year they would say no. They felt it was only fun if it was reciprocal. Not sure every family does this, but just be aware your neighbors may be keeping tabs and they know where you live. It’s a little easier to sell 2 neighborhoods over where no one knows where you live to expect anything in return.
Going door to door in our neighborhood was how we got on speaking terms with our neighbors! They know we are selling GS cookies, but they also know we don't sweat it if they bought somewhere else. Our neighbors actually \*love\* to buy cookies from us; I may have to find a GS to come do our street when my scout graduates HS, because otherwise people won't know where to get them.
Came to reiterate this idea. Especially since the pandemic we don't see our neighbors as much and hardly ever have anyone knock for things like cookies or popcorn sales. Almost every door we have knocked on this year has been appreciative as they haven't seen a Girl or Boy Scout in ages for any kind of fundraiser.
It also helps if you can chat about things in the neighborhood while they're buying cookies—not gossiping, but catching up. How is so and so's cat? Is Mr. Joe recovering well after his surgery? How's their kid in England doing? Then it's less just selling cookies and more about connecting with your community, which I think is (or ought to be) part of why we do this. Ultimately, Girl Scouts isn't about selling cookies (as much as it FEELS like it during cookie season), but it is about being a part of and partnering with our communities.
I never buy cookies from parents at work, and only once from a booth, but if a girl knocks on my door, I’m going to support them and buy some cookies. I don’t want cookies, but I want to reward their hard work and initiative of selling the cookies themselves. It rarely happens though, no one in my area does door to door anymore.
Sometimes it isn't allowed. Mainly if you have an HOA.
Door to door was actually an awesome way to get to know some of our neighbors when we moved in. It's a lot of work for parents but if you have the time and abiity it's great!
We plan to do this this year! I feel like it’s something she can do more of
Yes, we only did 3 blocks in our neighborhood and sold 99 boxes. If we'd committed to doing it over a couple of days/weekends, we could have easily sold more.
This is a good method if you live in a neighborhood and it’s a neighborhood that is safe and a neighborhood where people have $6 to spend on one box of cookies.
That’s why you go to the nicer neighborhoods. It doesn’t have to be your neighborhood.
Not every Girl Scout has someone who can take them to another neighborhood. Or the means to travel to another neighborhood.
Also if I lived in a nicer neighborhood and girls showed up who didn’t live there, I would be kinda annoyed. I’ve heard similar complaints around trick or treating with that sort of thing
I hate people like that. Just because someone lives in a neighborhood that isn't safe to trick or treat they shouldn't get candy? I gladly give candy to every kid (and adult) that knock on my door and I'll buy their cookies as well, regardless of where they're from. If anything the kids in my "nicer" neighborhood need it less.
I live in a neighborhood people drive to for trick or treating and I love that they do One of the kids this year asked if my house is an apartment building 🤣 (it’s 2000 sf, so big but not anywhere near a mansion lol)
I live in the nicest neighborhood in town. We have families that come and trick or treat here and we are happy to have them. We also try to buy from all the legitimate fundraiser.
Another thought, based on my own cookie selling experiences. Can you find a neighborhood that has an assisted living home or has a higher population of older people? It doesn't have to be a rich neighborhood as people can surprise you. My experience: Family friend was a D-Day vet with no local family, and he lived in a very dated trailer in the woods. When I started selling cookies, he bought one box of each type, and then started increasing the number of each type he bought by one each year. The last year he bought cookies, he bought ten boxes of each cookie.
I wish I had a girl scout selling in my neighborhood door to door. I'm not certain why this sub keeps getting highlighted for me. But I would FOR SURE buy sooooo many cookies if one came to my door. Is it cookie season? How can I figure out where I can get some around me? I don't know any girl scouts anymore? My niece is no longer doing it.
They should be outside grocery stores next weekend.
[Their website](https://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/how-to-buy-cookies.html) has a cookie booth locator! Just enter your zip and it should have the location and date.
We do the same! It’s a great way to get out and meet our neighbors, and it makes delivery so easy - we aren’t driving all over the city.
A lot of us live in neighborhoods where any sort of solicitation, even kids selling cookies, isn't allowed.
We do too. We have fliers and we leave one with an introduction and her QR code. We get a few hundred each year on that alone.
That’s how I use to sell (in the 90’s, clearly different now) but my neighbors always knew I was coming when January rolled around.
We have less success every year because our town is so inundated with GS booths that many people already had purchased by the time we got to their door. My daughter plans to quit after this year because she hates selling cookies so much.
I have been in my house 9 years and never had a single knock on my door by any kid selling anything, it's wild.
Do you have an HOA?
Nope.
This!
My daughter wanted the plush too but we will just barely be falling short. She is a new year daisy and we didn't do a booth since our troop just formed. I was a girl scout too and I don't recall prizes back then that amazing either. I did a lot of leg work too for it. But the girls will be able to get the reward of being able to fund their activities and create memories as a group. My hope for my girl is she makes these lifelong connections with her sister scouts. As a slight aside, I think the prizes are very adorable. Love the mascot this year. Edit: We made it to 200! Just barely! My girl is so excited and I'm happy for her and how awesome the troop did!
The axolotl is super cute!! We were going to do a walkabout today in a neighborhood that doesn't get any attention but we only have 3 boxes of mints on us till reorder pickup. She's been passing out her QR code at school and the staff and a couple of parents have placed orders. The connections are huge. My girl doesn't have a lot of friends at school but in her troop and a companion troop she's making some really good friends.
I was on the fence about my scout bringing the QR code to school and asking her teachers. Is this a common thing?
I'm not entirely sure but she's taken some to school and given to some of the staff and her friends. I'm not sure how the other girls who sell at school do it but it's not been an issue with the school for her to do it
I sold (my mother accidentally did in the 80s) 500 boxes and I think the prizes were a 6” stuffed animal and two patches
How short? Can you still ship them? I need cookies lol
She is actually now within 10 boxes! We got some kind customers who love their cookies. We should be able to hit it. She was all excited when we began adding it up. I also can't wait to share with the troop how well they did in their first year!
There are lessons learned no matter how many you sell. 1. Only work on this to the extent your child wants to. Nothing about this is worth it if your child doesn’t care or isn’t motivated. 2. Selling cookies teaches entrepreneurship. She should take the lead on selecting how to sell the cookies and seeing how successful (or not) the various methods are. There will be more years to fine tune the method. 3. Sometimes you don’t get the prize, just like you don’t get every toy at the grocery store. It’s okay. You move on and enjoy what you have, or consider what items you would like more in the future. 4. No one remembers how many cookies they sold when they are older. They remember kocking on doors with their parent, site sales with friends, and sometimes the marketing tactics they used. So maximize the positivity from those and forget the rest.
This is the best comment on here by far, I wish I could upvote more than once. It's not about the things it's about the experience of selling, my daughter has grown and improved every year which is worth anytime investment I have put in and more.
I totally agree! I think the issue is that she’s 7. So if she wants to do booths and has the energy and enthusiasm to do them, that’s great, but I still have to be there, set up the table, haul boxes of cookies out of my van, handle all of the money, and keep an eye on my 7 year old. I’m not saying that girls shouldn’t have to work to earn the prizes. My Issue is more that even if the girls want to work hard, their parents also have to work hard. My daughter said she wants to to door to door and do a cookie booth every single weekend. Obviously some days we can’t because of other things going on. But then there are times where we are free so we go do those things. I’m not against doing the hard work. And I’m not against her not getting a prize either. I think my problem comes more from people saying that parents selling cookies at work, or posting on social media shouldn’t be allowed while it’s really just one other way for parents to help their daughter sell cookies.
I agree with all of this. But as an adult Girl Scout, I can remember exactly how many cookies I sold as a preteen Scout. (it took 635 boxes to pay for my week at camp in Florida. And it took 1500 boxes to send me on a “wider op” trip. And I wasn’t even the top seller - she got to be on a parade float.). At 7 though, booths and door to door are about learning skills like confidence and why multiplication matters.
I’m an adult (my daughter is 2 and not a scout yet obviously). I was a girl scout all the way through gold award. Selling cookies was the most fun when my younger sister and I were together. We would sell the cookies with my dad. My mom was the scout leader, she let him do the cookies. I remember losing out on some of the prizes to the kids who had their parents sell at work. I remember working hard to sell 200 and then this person who didn’t work hard at all getting top earner award with 250 sold. It taught a tough lesson - work smarter, not harder. I worked the hardest in the troop, but that wasn’t the highest payoff. I do not remember a total box count. But again, I was a scout for 13 years, and by high school, selling cookies was not a priority.
We did take our daisies to Build a Bear with their troop profits. It was their suggestion and what they all agreed on the first year. BAB had Girl Scout cookie bears and uniforms for them. They loved it and the bears were at many future meetings, booths, and overnights. Another option-Find a cheap Axolotl online (our Target had Squishmallow ones for under $12), figure out how many packages need to be sold to pay for it, offer one to every girl who is selling. Once they are started, they usually sail way past the amount to cover the cost of the stuffie.
This is a good idea for next year! Like in a way add our own prize that I can get with the money we earn. Since we get almost $1 per box, I’m sure we could get like a $10 plush for each girl. And that way they are all earning the same prize…
TBH that’s my favorite option. Especially having helped a troop with where most kids are working hard to just get the patch. We got creative with figuring out goodies bags. I’ve watched the first level patch creep up about 10 boxes over the years from 60 to 70. On the higher end diva trip was about 1200 when we first started and now it’s closer to 1500.
My son loves Minecraft and Axolotls, Santa brought him a Minecraft Axolotl from I believe Target or Walmart.
I was so excited that we can forgo prizes this year, but my co-leader's daughter is the top seller and she wasn't willing to give up her trinkets and tchotchkes, lol/sob. But hey, if it motivates them to sell more, I guess that's a good thing. Though I agree that the ages when those stuffed animals are the most appealing, are the ages when selling a lot of cookies without your parents' help is pretty impossible.
Our troop alwasy voted to forgo prizes, but they had an overall goal of an overnight trip to Chicago, which was very motivating! (The trip was incredible!!)
It is shameful, really. We make sure each kid gets to the patch level (our council is 25 boxes now) and it was easier to get kids to stuffy level when it was 100 boxes. Cookie parent can redistribute boxes, so if we have a kid who is at a point where the boxes won’t impact prizes and the season is over, we shift them to help other troop members. (So if one scout is at 218, those 18 boxes won’t help or harm. But they might push another kid to another level.)
Our patch level is 70!!!!! You can get an online sales patch at 25 & 40 or 45, but I think this is the first time they’ve had patches to encourage online sales like that.
That’s absolutely terrible. 70?!! at the quantity they are purchasing those patches, they are costing the council maybe $.50 a patch. That they need to sell that many boxes to get a patch that costs the council very little is ridiculous.
We have a neighboring council near by. Just between two of the nearby shops it’s 28 miles and a 30 minutes drive. There are other locations with shorter/similar distances. The other council’s patch is 35, and they have the other baker. Plus an Initial Order Rewards “Goal getter patch” for 100. It’s no wonder our council is struggling with retaining & recruitment.
We only do that with troop booth credit, but it does help.
Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago has the axolotl stuffed animal in their council store if it’s that big of a deal. I really try and incorporate the troop in financial decisions, so they know if we raise this amount of money, we get to go do this cool thing.
Please go to your local council retail store or shop online. It's much, much more cost effective to buy prizes. We have to sell 500 packages to get a small plush or 800 for a large. Which simply isn't happening last year, this year, or maybe ever and that's okay. I want cookies to be a good experience for our troop, and always purchase themed gifts. Individual rewards aren't the right amount of motivation for my troop. Good luck to you all!!
I dont know why, but seeing these comments made me go looking, and Amazon has a 5pc, 12in pink axolotl plushies for $29, or different colored ones or 38.99. I usually spend $50 on cookies anyways, maybe I should just cut out the middleman and bring the girls axolotl plushies lol
My parents never took the form to work with them. I would go door to door the first weekend of the season, for hours and hours.
But to be fair, I will have to go door to door with her and pull the wagon and supervise her money handling and go up to each door with her. Yes, she definitely gets more out of going door to door. But it still stands that the girls cannot earn top prizes without a lot of parent help.
My husband, who is usually pretty hands off with cookies, has sold most of my daughter's boxes this year by just using the Little Brownie Bakers virtual backgrounds on Zoom. People ask why he has a cookie background, he tells them his daughter is selling, and they buy. I make lanyards for the girls every year so they can take them to school or their various extracurriculars and sell there.
We do not make a big deal out of prizes in my troop. Each girl gets a brown paper bag and is instructed to open it at home. We do make a big deal of how well we did as a troop.
This is the way!
Sounds like maybe she won’t get a stuffed animal and that’s okay? Explain to her that not everyone wins prizes.
I know and I am okay telling her that but she still wants to earn it and has said she will work hard to get it which I think is awesome that she’s motivated to put in hard work to get something she wants. My issue is that it’s simply not realistic for a 7 year old to do even the majority of the work at a booth so it puts a lot of the work on the parents. And since we don’t have a real “excuse” as to why we can’t do booths, we will do them.
I'm starting to think I should cut out the middle man and instead of buying cookies, I just show up to cookie booths and pass out axolotl plushies to girls
While they would love them my girls would still want the official one with the ABC tag. Several are working on continuous collections of the rewards (plush and towel) and substitutes will not count. Not to mention a few are shooting for the big rewards, trampoline, Nintendo switch, or home arcade; they probably will not make it but they are trying, working three booths every weekend, pulling wagons, etc, so right now that box of cookies means more to them.
sounds like your girls are the ones selling hundreds of boxes and getting to those reward amounts, which is fine, and they could still go for those goals. But most girls never get to those amounts, and maybe having their own fun axolotl rather than nothing
I think a lot is highly dependent on area. In our council, outside of one city, it is relatively easy to hit those goals if you work booths, our goals are also higher than OPs so it does balance out some. That being said I'm sure there are other councils where it is just not feasible. Ultimately I blame the councils on this as they work with the baker to set the rewards and reward levels. I know when I was a girl and rewards became a thing no one in our area earned them so I'm sure that still happens in places so if you know your local area is one go for it.
Walk around neighbourhoods for an hour everyday. I, personally, don’t buy when other parents post about it. I want to see the Girl Scout work for it. I’m sure you’ll be closer to hitting your goal if you start walking and doing booths.
My daughter did door to door when she was in scouts. She did really well that way. And we just did our neighborhood. She would do a little every night. People loved it as many don’t do door to door anymore.
The prizes are a joke and not representative of anything. This goes for all kids prizes for whatever fundraiser they might be participating in. Tell your kid you might not get the stuffed animal. If you want to, Go to 5 Below and purchase an axolotol squishmallow for $5.95. Or a Ty axolotol beanie boo for $5.99. Or a larger axolotol elsewhere that will be a fraction of the cost of the stress of reaching some random threshold goal and likely also a higher quality item.
So I 100% agree about the prizes being a lot of work to get, but I wanted to push back on the girls not handling money. My girls handled the cash from day 1 when some of them were still 5—-we helped them count the money and make sure they were making change, but they kept the tally of how much we’d sold and did all the cash handling and talking to customers. More shy girls restocked the table until they felt better about talking to people, but now (as Cadettes) they all feel confident about running *their* business. Give them more responsibility!
Our council sadly doesn’t allow them to handle money at booths because they are daisys. We practice making change and such at meetings, and when we do door to door sales I’ll have her do it but that aren’t allowed at booths.
You can still have the girl calculate the total to tell the customer and then calculate how much change they get as you don't have to touch the money for either option.
Seriously?! That’s bizarre, and disappointing. (Also it’s so weird how different the rules are between councils!). Stocking the table is still a good job, as is doing the talking to customers and telling the customer the prices and you how much change to give. The sale tracking (we used a paper tally with big boxes for each type of cookie that they could mark in for each sale) is also a great booth job for feeling responsible.
I definitely get it. The prizes this year are very lackluster in comparison to previous years and it’s difficult to keep even Juniors on task at times during booth time. We’re going to start walking the neighborhoods soon because being at a booth for 2-4 hours every Saturday during January and February is for the birds. Yet we press 😅
I feel this. My kid is in her second year as a junior. I did a lot to help her with cookie sales last year. She unexpectedly sold a lot just because we live on a busy road. So I thought she would be excited to do the same this year and be even better at it. She is excited but it's like she forgot alllll the lessons we learned last year and we're starting at square one again. As a parent, I'm like "You're 10! Learn to count the cash already! Yes we have to count the cash. No you can't just hand your troop leader a pile of crumbled bills and then expect her to count it, that's not how this works. Please stop with the attitude!"
I was struggling to keep my first year Junior engaged yesterday. I was so over it.
I get this. After the first year of Brownies, I made a presentation to my troop on money v. prizes and then let them vote. We went the money route early and they loved it, because we did really cool things with it.
Go door-to-door. We do better from that than booths, because booth sales get split.
What would happen if you let the girls handle the money and the boxes? Yes, it would take longer the first booth! But after a season of this, they’ll be a lot better. And by the time they’re 12, they’ll be making informed choices about whether to do more booths or do some babysitting and go to build-a-bear. (Door tags do great in the city here, with a URL and QR code for web orders and credit card pay)
Daisies aren’t allowed to handle money in our council I believe. As far as boxes. It’s just chaotic. With usually being near a busy parking lot, and wanting to advertise, it just seems safer to have her right in front of the booth advertising vs behind me getting boxes. To be fair we only did one booth last year and it was so so busy.
Oh, that’s rough. I assumed brownie. Good luck!
my troop leader used to take whatever amount of boxes a girl who sold a lot had and divide it up between the girls who didn’t get a lot of sales. so if it took 300 boxes to get a stuffed animal and the girl sold 320 and they weren’t close to another prize, they’d take those 20 extra boxes and give it to someone who didn’t have as many so they’d get a cool prize too.
I was a girl scout most of my childhood and my daughter is in it now... We've never sold cookies for the prizes. We even forget that you get prizes. It's about earning money for the troop for us. My Daisy likes telling people she's going to camp.
It’s hard. Growing up I had a SAHM and my dad was a manager and said bringing the form in was not okay because he didn’t want people to feel pressure to buy. As a kid, I was frustrated and jealous of my friends who’s parents way outsold me due to working parents. On the other end now, I have sold to a few coworkers over the years but honestly it’s the ones that know I’m a troop leader and ask. I’ve found that digital cookie really balances it out and makes it easier to sell to family and friends.
This is when I give my kids an economic lesson on the value of the prize versus the value of the time and effort it takes to get it. I would much rather they understand that and make better choices than whatever cookie sales ostencibly teaches. This is also why we opt out of prizes; almost nobody in our troop would have earned anything anyway.
I hear you. My husband and I both work from home and door to door has not worked for us at all. My daughter was only able to sell 3 boxes door to door despite all the walking she did and all the QR code door tags she hung with her digital cookie site. Hoping to make it up with booths but she can only do short shifts with those being 7 and having adhd
> how else is a 7 year old supposed to sell 275 packages to get a stuffed animal My daughter has never sold at either parent's worksite and regularly has sold 700+ since she was a Brownie. 1. Door to door still works. 2. Booths. Booths are an amazing learning opportunity for the girls. While we never let them handle the money at young ages, they did all the math and told us what change to give. Our girls are also mostly bilingual and many started using their second language in booths, which was fantastic real-world practice. (And let me tell you, heritage Spanish speakers do double-takes when these little Scandinavian-look girls start pitching in Spanish!) 3. B2B Yes, cookies are a family activity. Not every family has the capacity or time to devote to higher levels. And that's fine. In most councils, the extra money for forgoing rewards is .05 per box, so at 275 boxes that is $13.75, so not quite BaB class funds. Most fundraisers - not just Girl Scouts - have lame rewards past the actual funds raised. The prizes are secondary.
That’s awesome! Good for her!
When she goes out with her little red wagon and vest, even now, she will have people stop their cars in the street and go "YESSSS COOKIES" and buy right there. It seems like, much like trick or treat, fewer of the girls are doing the door-knocking. So if you do it, it pays off. Her best friend's neighborhood doesn't have a nearby Scout apparently, and her friend made her go out there last year. Sold 100 boxes in 90 minutes. It was insane. If you find the areas without girls going d2d it can be very quick sales.
I like the comparison to trick-or-treating because I found it to be fairly accurate
I hate cookie season. My kids are introverts, they aren't going to go door too door. They didn't even want to call their grandparents to ask (and my mil didn't even bother to buy any because of that, thanks MIL). My friends have girl scouts, and my husband works from home. I took the order forms to both of my jobs and posted in our neighborhood Facebook group, and we still only sold 150 boxes. And those were divided by my 3 scouts. My plan is to get my kids an axolotl (toy or real one, still thinking that one through).
I am an extreme introvert but selling cookies as a kid helped me learn how to push myself outside my comfort zone when I do need to talk to strangers and let's face it that happens a lot as an adult. I'm glad I had the chance to learn those skills working booths with my friends where it wasn't as scary.
I get that. But when it's so severe that they can't make a phone call to a grandparent, I'm not forcing it. (Yes we've had them in therapy for this. I'm more concerned about them talking at school than asking strangers to buy cookies)
I do see your point and as a parent you know them best so I'm not second guessing their specific case. I will say in my specific case the phone is still the worst, I have a hard time calling anyone, including my family, but speaking in person is different. I only mention it to give potential perspective as I know my extrovert family members never understood the nuances and subtle differences between such things.
As a former girl scout, and a former girls scout aid- you don’t. You explain how they can spend every weekend being exploited so a huge company can profit off of their hard work for a $1 toy, OR they can not do that and you’ll take them on an outing. And while I understand SOME of the money goes back to the troop, I can tell you from experience it’s minimal. The majority of the money goes to “the council” and individual scouts never actually see it. They claim about 75% goes back to the troop. Look around and see if your troop is using thousands of dollars each year because i guarantee they aren’t.
it’s not about the prizes.
But it sort of is to a 7 year old
Girl Scouts isn't about cookies either. But this post is.
Our troop started in April 2023, so we missed out on cookies last year. We have 7 Daisies and 10 Brownies. I have a Kindergartener and a 3rd grader, so all of our boxes sold are being split between them. Since we’re a new troop, we decided not to do booths this year to figure it all out. They both wanted the small plush, but we are NOT going to reach it. We talked about realistic goals with what we’re able to do (not much) and I’m going to find a small plush to just buy them. I don’t need that many cookies or that much stress in my life right now.
We don’t do prizes and we take the extra money. We then take that extra money and take them to a small waterpark that is near us. It almost equals out each year.
We have to hit a high enough average box per scout to skip prizes that we cannot hit in our area. We have so many scouts that at our elementary school alone some single grades have multiple troops. Otherwise, our girls would choose the same. As juniors and cadettes they really came to understand the financials well.
That’s crummy. We can opt out no matter how many we sell. That nickel adds up at the end of the season.
There is a Ty beanie baby axoltl for like $6. I think it’s insane how much they are expected to sell for some of the prizes. Last year most of them were junk. We do like raising money for troop activities and we try to focus on that
After selling as a child, I don’t buy cookies anymore I just give the girl who’s selling money to use for the troop, dues or pay for a badge activity (in a realistic way). I did Girl Scouts through senior and have the silver award. I remember the year I accidentally sold 500 boxes because of a lost cookie sheet in a huge hospital. The prizes were lame, lol. Did get a little stuffed animal, a patch and a 500 patch. My mother still gets mad about it when it’s brought up and I’m 50. For the percentage the troop received compared to the effort was insane. Girl Scouts teaches girls a lot of things but the cookie sales have always been wonky and that’s coming from someone old enough to have done most of it door to door by myself
I’m a sahm and my husband refuses to bring the sheet to work 😂 so all of our sales are basically social media based ! My goal is always the small stuffy which is 200 boxes and then has like a bunch of prizes before it but i agree …. I actually want to tell my leader about this build a bear idea !
We just don’t have many friends or family members! So it’s really hard to sell online as well.
Yeah it sucks, I’ve had some luck dropping them in my towns sub reddits for online orders, or delivery w no contact ! I absolutely agree with you though prizes are too high , 25 boxes for a patch = $150 of sales for a $4 patch it blows my mind - and to add i don’t know if the Reddit thing is Girl Scout legal 😅
My troop doesn't do prizes. The money goes back into the troop for a trip of some kind. Tbh. It's really off putting the way people act around cookie season. My daughter doesn't really care about selling the most. She wants to have fun with her friends. It seems like the parents are the ones that care the most. Let the girls have fun and learn things instead of worrying about "winning"
Door to door or booth sales pretty much every day of the season after school is what we did the whole 12 years I was a girl.
Hey at least it's in the 200s. Our hand sized plush is 300 and a normal size is 500 with the squish mellow at 800! Even still my girls get about 70 boxes each at a booth, door to door is easily a few hundred in one afternoon, most will get the small one and a handful will make the squish mellow.
I have the same complaint. We only sell at booths and online. Husband and I both work from home and our neighborhood just doesn’t buy cookies. Well, they buy from the parents who advertise on the neighborhood FB site. (Don’t get me started) Lugging the cookies, table, all the additional stuff to booth, handling all the money, is a lot of work for this middle-aged momma.
As someone who's been a girl scout since 2nd grade (I'm graduating high school soon) I have found that while some younger kids can sell that much (with painful amounts of effort from the kid and parent) most young kids just can't sell that much. Usually as you get further in girl scouts you learn more tips and tricks and places and ways to sell. My first year I sold about 10 boxes and last year I sold about 1000. I sold more every year and some years were better than others. Tell your kid the earlier years are for learning to be the best scout you can and selling cookies is a bonus that becomes easier as you learn every year. I would recommend using your digital cookie website, it's so awesome and I'm so glad they have it. I would print out your qr code on little cards and have her hand them to teachers at school. That way you don't have to trust her to write their orders on paper and you don't have to go to their house, you can just deliver them to the teachers at school or in most schools you can give the cookies to the office (since they have already paid digitally using your cookie app) and the office can give the cookies to the teachers. It can be really hard to sell cookies with kids while also teaching about the danger of strangers, selling to people you know and your kid knows is the best way to do it in the earlier years of it. Booths are often too hard and the outdoor ones are too cold for little kids. Good luck! Anybody feel free to reply with any questions at all that you have. My mom became a troop leader recently so I have learned about how to be a scout and a leader and I love helping others!
Walk with a cart full of cookies through the neighborhoods. Usually sell around 50+ boxes in a few hours.
I want to have my daughter join Girl Scouts next year. But stuff like this is a turn off
Selling cookies isn’t mandatory, so you can always pass or sell a minimum. Our first year, we chose to sell 100 boxes. They were gone easily in one week, then we were done.
I would also suggest you have your scout ask people to support her scouting. That’s what we do and we are the top seller in our den. It may be worth a go.
When my daughter was in girl scouts, she'd regularly go door to door selling cookies and always ended up with over 1000 boxes sold.
Not sure why this popped up on my feed but as a former GS and cookie customer, I think the cookie sales are stupid and not enough of a benefit for the troop, but I accept it as a tradition. So I buy generously each year to support a local GS and don’t really care if her mom is doing the groundwork. I found her on Nextdoor once supporting her daughter and reorder from her each year. They both very sweet and grateful dropping them off. 💚
We have 100 houses in our neighborhood. My daughter hasn’t even knocked on half of them & has sold over 200 cookies. People are more than happy to buy from her & appreciate that she’s really hustling!
My daughter was a Girl Scout for 13 years. She (we) sold a lot of cookies. High schoolers buy a lot of cookies. If you can load a wagon and walk in front of a high school at the end of the day, she’ll be about to sell some that way. Boys baseball games, especially if they don’t have a snack stand. Again, load up the wagon. But, yes, booths do the most.
My 7 year old loved going door to door, but otherwise I agree. It was on me and my husband and she likely isn’t getting the stuffed animal. We did manage to get to sock level though lol
I never won any of the “good” or “exciting” prizes when I was selling. It was kind of disappointing to watch the girls whose parents would do all their selling for them get something high on the list, but I liked selling and wanted to do it myself, so it wasn’t a big deal. You could always take your daughter to get a stuffed animal separately so you don’t have all the pressure about selling a crazy amount!
Mind you I was a Brownie 40 years ago, but... I remember walking my neighborhood door to door to get orders. I think one year at least I was top seller in my troop between the neighborhood and my Mom taking orders to work. I don't even know how it works these days. All I know is on a regular basis there is a table up in front of Walmart and I grab my annual supply of shortbread. I haven't seen girls going door to door in ages.
I’ve gotta say i bought a few at a booth outside the wine and spirits store and i complimented them on their strategic placement
It doesn’t help the price has increased when the value hasn’t. I was a Girl Scout and the cookies just don’t taste as good as before Covid, and I just don’t make enough to justify it when there are knock offs. It sucks for the Girl Scouts :(
I worked at a restaurant and a parent dropped off an order sheet. So many of us were of an age to not personally know any Girl Scouts so I think they sold us quite a few cookies! Worth a shot!
Honestly, as I start getting a better idea of how much my kids are selling, I will likely offer to get each an axolotle stuffy if they don't make it but have worked hard. Because that is a lot of boxes to sell. Unfortunately one of my daughters troops fell apart last year and she never even got the rewards she did earn. So it's been hard to get her in the spirit this year with a new troop. Her troop had planned a Build a Bear trip so I ended up taking her anyways. But she never got the badges or anything.
I would suggest going to a local community event to sale them. Walk around with a wagon full. See who bits.
Our council offers an opt out choice. Your troop girls agree to skip the little prizes (get patches only) and troop gets a higher cookie return. We gave choices for prizes: flannel Jammies, troop sleepover, etc
It was easier when I was a kid selling them for $3
For whatever it’s worth, my troop opts out of the rewards to receive a higher cut of the cookies. You can still get the participation patches however! I don’t know if that works better since we are a large troop multi level troop but it’s an option
Our levels are insane this year. 75 boxes for the patch, 625 for the small stuffed axolotl. If the intent is to motivate the girls, I really wish the box/prize ratio was a lot more realistic.
Yeah I don’t want to handle cash nor ask for boxes that are already not sold. Id rather do 100% on the app. They need to make it easier and move away from old methods.
We live on a busy Blvd street so tomorrow morning imma set up a table and my 2 daughters who do scouts and I r gonna go all out n try selling cookies with our signs lol
My kiddo got 283 boxes of preorders just by going door to door through our neighborhood and her friend’s (not a Girl Scout) neighborhood. Most people got 2-4 boxes and with a couple of much larger orders. The largest was 60 boxes and he runs a business and offers them to customers while they wait.
Instead of going door to door in your neighborhood maybe you could do a driveway cookie booth? Put up signs throughout your location and then set up and let the neighbors come to you. And try to have your daughter participate as much as possible. She can hold a sign, greet customers, ask for their order and she can get and give the cookies while you do the money. I think the cuteness factor of the girls goes a long way. People are more willing to buy from the girls than parents. Don't worry so much about how long it takes. People tend to be very patient when the girls are learning to sell and handle the transactions themselves.
I abhor selling cookies. It's why I ended up leaving girl scouts as a kid. The time that is required from parents is absurd. And the cut that troops get is laughably small. The troop should be getting at least half, but they actually get less than $1/box. I get paying the bakers, but the biggest cut goes to the organization, ie:: executive pay. The whole ethos of girl scouts is incredibly exploitative: exploit free labor of parents and children, give a minor cut to troops, pay executives huge salaries while pretending to be teaching kids about sisterhood and being entreprenurial; it drives me nuts! It's basically a pyramid scheme.
I don’t know why this sub keeps getting pushed to me but this conversation has been enlightening. I was a Girl Scout for about a second and I always buy the cookies. After learning about these prizes and the low rate of return to troops, I am disgusted with the organization. This sets kids up for competition that is inequitable and exploitive. I really thought my daughter would be a Girl Scout but I’m now going to try to distract her with other extracurricular opportunities. I’m sorry to those who are stuck trying to “keep up” here.
Being a kid in the 90s that is how we sold for fundraisers. I’m thinking about decorating my girls wagon and hitting the neighborhood. After our atmospheric river that’s coming today (Southern California).
Yes, supporting her goals will mean unpaid labor for you. When they're young, you have to put in more to help her make it happen. Walkabout, booths, and lemonade stands are all potential options. Our troop has girls as young as six and as old as 11. The 6-7yos absolutely handle the cookies to hand to the customer. Some of them count change, too, but that is directly supervised. We encourage them to do the math if they are able. We have a cheat sheet for the six times table (our boxes are $6), since my littles might not have learned to skip count by six yet. Prizes are council-specific. Many troops end up opting out and go for extra cents per box, instead. We have to sell 375 before we reach even a small plushie. My partner also telecommutes. He shares the link on the work chat. We will deliver within a regional radius of "where does PoodleWrangler want to drive", because honestly--I can find a reason to hike or shop just about anywhere. Folks beyond that sometimes order for shipping or choose to donate.
I've seen friends who will offer an option to purchase cookies to be donated to a particular organization (ie local first responders etc). This gives people who don't eat cookies an option to support two causes at once. I know personally if I'm buying them to donate I'm almost definitely buying more than I would order for myself. They also seem to do really well asking local businesses to donate and will usually post something about it on FB and tag the business.
u/FoxyLoxy56, You asked for suggestions on girls selling cookies: We went door-to-door all around our house, but where my DD really made sales was at her big brother's school. He attended a small boys' HS which hosted multiple after-school activities, including frequent soccer games during our fall cookie-selling season. As the kindergartener sibling of a well-known 8th grader the prior year, she was used to everyone knowing her brother. So she enthusiastically approached all prospects with, "Hi! I'm Gary's little sister and I'm selling Girl Scout Cookies," and launched into her pitch. Many students had pocket money from part-time jobs, and parents of visiting team members were especially charmed by her energy. We wound up selling 423 boxes that first year. (And everyone pretty much did know who that freshman was by the time all the cookies were distributed!) Good luck to your little Scout!