Forget about basketball, we are in the midst of Girl Scout cookie season, my friends! Who doesn't love Girl Scout cookies? If you don't, you're definitely lying (or just haven't found the kind you like yet). I remember selling Girl Scout cookies as a child, and it brings back some great memories of being part of an incredible organization for young girls.
Here's a Girl Scout cookie fun fact for you: Girl Scouts uses two different bakeries in the U.S., ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers, and each bakery has different names for the cookies. That's why you might call the caramel and coconut cookies Samoas, but someone else calls them Caramel deLites. Or, you might call the chocolate and peanut butter cookies Tagalongs, but someone else calls them Peanut Butter Patties. Check out this map to see which bakery your cookies come from:
Now here's a not-so-fun fact for you: According to the official Girl Scout website, "On average, Girl Scout council net revenue is approximately 65-75 percent of the local retail price, and the amount that is shared with participating Girl Scout troops and groups, referred to as troop proceeds, is approximately 10-20 percent of the local retail price." In other words, the local Girl Scouts troop you purchase your cookies from only receives between 40 and 80 cents from each $4 box of cookies.
Kind of sad, right? These girls truly believe they're helping their troop when they go door to door for hours on end and sell hundreds, possibly even thousands of boxes of cookies (or maybe they're just motivated by the silly prizes offered to the top sellers of each troop, but that's an article for another day). Unfortunately, customers just don't realize that most of the cookie profits pay for the packaging, the cost of physically making the cookies and the Girl Scouts national headquarters.
Therefore, if you actually want to help your local Girl Scouts troops, feel free to donate some cash, write a check or simply provide them with some snacks or drinks for their weekly meetings (things like crackers, cookies, juice pouches), so the troop itself doesn't have to purchase these. Just think, even if you donate $10, that's a full $10 of profit the troop gets to keep; whereas if you bought two boxes of Girl Scout cookies, the troop would only make a whopping total of $1 from your purchase.
However, with all of this said, of course, I will still purchase Girl Scout cookies not only because I can totally eat an entire box in one sitting, but also because I remember how it feels to try your hardest to sell as many boxes as you can (OK, if I'm being completely honest, my parents sold a lot of my boxes at their workplaces. Thanks, Mom and Dad.) Just keep in mind that there are smarter ways to help if you really want your Girl Scouts troop to succeed financially.
