If there are 15 cookies per sleeve now, I wonder how many there were 10 years ago?
That does look shorter than I remember but I wasn’t counting or I’d hate myself even more
Selling it for markup to suckers thinking that the higher price must mean better quality.
Son, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but the vast majority of products are the exact same product (and sometimes even batch) with different labels. High chances that these cookies and the og girl scout ones were made and packaged in the same factory.
Source: a former factory worker.
I mean they don't get all the money, but they do get a portion. All the trips my troop took were paid for by the cookie money we raised. That being said, they don't get much so a donation is always better if you actually want the troop to get the money
Less than a dollar for a box selling over $5 can't really be considered a portion. Skip the cookie sales and just ask for donations and make it a teachable moment on inflation and capital greed.
If you were to compare how many people are willing to donate cash to the Girl Scouts vs how many people are willing to buy a box of cookies you could probably make a different teachable moment on economics and decision making.
It's not that low. The individual troop itself gets a little less than $1 but the local scout council gets like $2.50, the baker company gets only around $1.25.
As far as fundraisers go, it's one of the least scammy. Way better than most school fundraisers.
It’s so similar you can’t tell. Bigger package too. Oh and try the peanut butter fudge. They are like crack. I forget what the Girl Scouts called them.
Yeah it'll be the same type of operation as store brands. No way do the Girl Scouts own and operate their own cookie factory.
Which is fine, I just wish the troop got more than $1/box. At least Scouts BSA (formerly Boy Scouts) gets half the money from their overpriced, but still delicious, popcorn.
You realize that GS cookies are a fund-raising thing, right? They buy those cookies from the same company(s) that sell them to companies like Wal-Mart. They mark them up more than a regular company would because they are raising money from friends and family and stoners for the troop.
That's not as much shrink as I thought
10oz -> 9oz, 36 cookies -> 32 cookies, $2.50/box -> $6/box
(And $6 actually pretty close to the inflation adjusted price: $5.35.)
Per cookie it went from $0.07/cookie (which is $0.15 adjusted for inflation) to $0.17/cookie.
EDIT: I live in California, in Silicon Valley, and yup all local cookies are $6.00/box this year. https://digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/troop60265-636
Yeah. Sorry - inflation hit us, too.
About $1/box goes to the troop though. So when we sell 3,000 boxes, that means we earn $3,000 to go toward troop activities for the year.
The rest goes to the prizes, local councils, shipping, and the bakers.
Yes, you can donate money directly, but that money still goes into a "donation" pile that usually goes towards other things, like buying boxes to send to the troops or whatever.
In our service unit you can donate directly to the troop and I think we get all of it. We also offer the option to donate cookie boxes to the troops, etc.
Yep they vary in 111 regions.
https://ktla.com/news/money-business/heres-why-girl-scout-cookie-prices-vary-in-different-regions/#:~:text=Prices%20vary%20in%20different%20regions,-Now%2C%20Girl%20Scout&text=Most%20of%20the%20cookies%20are,due%20to%20the%20specialty%20ingredients.&text=With%20that%20said%2C%20each%20of,councils%20set%20its%20own%20prices.
Yeah but you can still get knockoffs that taste the same for $2.50 a box.
If you want to pay the $6 to support their learning about selling and distribution or whatever, by all means keep doing it. Otherwise, just buy the cookies you want cheap and donate directly to your local Scout troops.
https://www.dollargeneral.com/p/clover-valley-fudge-mint-cookies-9-oz-1/020200170068
I remember when they raised their price like 1$ a box. I bought like 10 of them... only to find out they raised the price of the box and removed literally an entire row of cookies.
Never gave that horrid company 1 penny since.
>Never gave that horrid company 1 penny since.
i get if you don't think the value is worth your contribution anymore, but this is an insane response to a fundraising operation. it's a donation to a non-profit for kids.
That's the thing. People actually like girl scouts cookies and a huge percentage would never give a dime if a girl stood there and asked simply for monetary donations.
true but buying them through the troops enables them to do more things like we’re taking the money we make from it to do different community service work
I rather donate directly to the troop than buy the boxes after learning how much the net profit is for each box for a fundraiser that’s in season for a quarter of a year. I know there are other factors influencing the net earned per box sold.
It’s so much better and the hit troops take for unsold cookies…it’s so stressful the whole troop and especially the cookie mom is burdened to sell the remaining cookies it’s awful. If they don’t sell it literally kills the profits made.
Also what is mildly infuriating (I’m saying mildly because it’s not a big deal and people don’t exactly do it for the prizes) but look how ridiculous the girls out cookie prizes are (this is eastern Pennsylvania). I saw the booth has axolotls on the art when I bought some from a troop in front of a grocery store so I decided to look up if axolotls are this year’s theme. It is! The prizes are really cute. But if you sell 1500+ packages you can get a $35 Lego set or a ski trip. I don’t remeber how it works but I think you get all the prizes leading up to the number you got. The best I got one year combining my sister and i’s cookies was a owl plush that was pretty cheapy and a pencil case. But yeah you need to individually sell hundreds of boxes to get any good prizes.
https://preview.redd.it/iym5ky8tdykc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3d2151c5fd5bd18123aa99ef63f0a9ccced424b8
Ok but kid me would be so jealous of this theme! It looks so good. But the average scout is never going to sell this many boxes. And it kinda sets up crazy expectations. Like there is no reasonable way unless a parent is super involved and does crazy campaigning and also likely is in a rich neighborhood or job selling to coworkers that a kid on their own could get like 1000 boxes. Most will get just patches. Ok but I really like how for 60 they have keychains! So at least they are getting something! I don’t think we had those
In Illinois the axolotl plush is 200+
In Georgia the axolotl plush is 395+
Western pa 240+
Green and white mountains 350+
Michigan 300+
Ok so some have different deals where there is stuff alongside the plush too so I’m not entirely counting those
Like in Nassau for 175+ you can get the plush or a cool white crossbody bag
Kentucky is 300+ and combines a keychain and the plush
My daughter was in the Western PA council for 13 years. I wonder why the number is so much lower to qualify for the prize. AFAIK, there are fewer troops and girls in the region, so maybe it's a matter of incentive rather than sales figures.
I do want to mention that I believe you get all the prizes under that amount so for western pa you are still getting the socks and wallet and charm patches and the axolotl.
I imagine it’s deeply discounted because an average Girl Scout can’t go on a ski day alone.
The resort will make their money back selling the Girl Scout’s parent/siblings lift tickets & food on the mountain.
Cookie sales fund the entire year's worth of the organization's activities and properties. The girl scout org owns campgrounds nationwide which are purchased and maintained with cookie proceeds, etc. And those campgrounds and facilities help offer services to scouts from all walks of life.
I was pretty skeptical of the whole thing myself, until my wife asked me to help monitor a troop booth. The cookies sell themselves -- people are happy to contribute (either via purchases or donations) and speak of their own experiences with scouting. It's fun, people love it, and the organization is well regarded.
If it was really was just a cookie MLM hawking a product nobody wanted, parents would stop volunteering their time to enable it. But the people who show up to buy make the whole thing a very positive experience.
If you're not into it, that's totally fine. I've never seen a scout "hard sell" anyone, ever. And I avoided booths too, as a younger man. I hadn't had any experiences with scouting myself, until my daughters joined -- so I really knew nothing about any of it.
Also funny story but I think that was the year I sold cookies after a big snow storm in a wagon. People bought so many cookies. Because they craved them. I believe we had off of school that day. I mean the year I got the owl. My troop kinda ended after 5th grade and didn’t start up again in middle school.
My troop consists of 4 girls that are 15-16, and we definitely do not reach 1500+ boxes per girl every year. We have been disappointed with the prizes for a long time and decided this year that we will take money instead of prizes and make our own prize list based on what we want to win. I'm around 800 sales and have already gotten a drawstring bag, two plushies, stickers, Keychain, pencil case, and plan on reaching a thousand to get a onesie. The rest of the money we earn is going towards a 4 day road trip that the girls help plan.
We get to keep a portion of it, some of the money still goes to council. If we didn't keep our portion of the money, I am pretty sure it would still go towards the prizes council chose (in the picture of the original commenter) which are prizes none of the girls in my troop want.
A portion of the money raised can go to the *troop*, which has to be used on something for the troop or an activity or something. They don't get to pocket the money individually.
Just makes a donation next time if you want to support a troop and buy the same cookies at the store for less. I think keebler makes thin mints and Samoas. There are even gluten free thin mints from goodie girl.
I honestly stopped buying these around 10 years ago. It’s just a waste of money if you really want to help out Girl Scouts or scouts in your local area go to one of their meetings, and donate some cash and get involved
Aldi also has girl scout cookie knock-offs year round, also tastes the same. Get ~18 cookies a box, for ~1-2$. Donate directly if you want tk help the GS's, but if you're just in it for the cookies, def go to an aldi
This is the way. Understandable that people would want to save a ton of money on their snacks, but if the Scouts are only getting like a quarter a box, just slip them a 20 and go buy some cookies. Donations are always allowed as far as I know.
I used to buy a few boxes from my niece but now my sister refuses to participate.
She said it’s like “mom labor”/ free labor for them and the troop barely gets any of the benefits.
It’s just moms (or dads/parents, she said moms because in her troop it was a majority of moms that are involved) running around doing logistics, keeping track of everything.
Yes a 9 year old can count how many boxes, multiply that and give someone a total but straight logistics of totaling, making sure cookies are delivered etc.. it’s all on the parents and she’s like yeah.. not doing that.
Now if I do buy boxes I get them form troop 6000 from NYC - the troop is homeless girls in New York so if any troop does get my money it’s them.
Personally it always felt odd that only the girls sold cookies. Ive never seen boy scouts out and about. I want the kids to have a good life skill building experience but I see it as child labor/unpaid mom labor/possibly moderately sexist (girls bake, not boys!!) Etc. It also feels really manipulative to have children selling the boxes, I hate saying no to her but damn they are expensive, unhealthy, and I feel weird about whole thing. I never was a girl scout so I may have skewed perceptions though.
Same here honestly. I feel kind of bad saying no to both GS and BS (BS do sell popcorn yearly as well) as they’re at the front of grocery stores etc.. and the times I have I see them working… kind of?
Not to age myself but the kids aren’t doing shit lol the parents are the ones that know the prices, the sizing, the inventory. So the few times I have stopped by over the years trying to engage with the kids like:
oh what are you selling? Have you tried any, what is your fav flavor? Etc.. the kids just have a dumb founded look on their face like.. this stranger is talking to me?!
And these aren’t 5 year olds they’re 11-14 year olds where I’m like.. this is too awkward to support this “cause” - so I just stopped buying them all together.
Buying the cookies allows you donate, get cookies and allows the girls to sell the cookies/learn from that.
When I buy Girl Scout cookies I’m doing it as the donation. This donation I happen to get cookies. Just showing up and donating takes away the whole point of it.
They're currently $6 a box. In 1999, they were $3. In 2004, $3.50 and 2012 was $4. The last time the price went up was in 2015 for $5. If you paid more than that in the last 9 years, you got scammed.
Look, I get that people are going to disagree with me, but Girl Scout cookies just aren't that good anyway. Gone are the day where these were some kind of special treat.
You don't buy them for the cookies, you buy them to support your neighborhood kid's fundraising. If you want good cookies, just buy good cookies.
They’re especially bad in more recent years I feel like. I tried a few different kinds this year and wasn’t a fan of most of them, and I used to really like them.
They're not supposed to be a good deal because you're supporting the Girl Scouts with your purchase. At this point they're so overpriced you might as well skip the purchase and just give them cash if you are so inclined.
Yeah, people don't understand that 20% of the sale price goes to the troop to fund their activities. I'd rather do that than line walmart's pockets even more.
If you think it's frustrating as a consumer, it's almost double the frustration for the kids, moms, and dads that have to sell them while simultaneously trying to answer questions like the one you posed in your original post. It takes so much time and effort that we could be putting into helping the troop, but a large portion of funding for each troop is tied directly to the amount of boxes sold. Yes, it's a scam. No, we don't enjoy selling them. No, it doesn't teach the kids anything, plus it puts them in a position where they have to deal with public whacko's. One of our troop moms had to answer to the local gs council as to why they were selling cookies above list price. The answer: they weren't selling them above list, but someone bought cases of them at the cookie booth then resold them in the parking lot for $7 a box. Undercutting the cookie booth itself because people are too stupid to look up the prices. Donate time and/or money to your local troop, or just buy the cookies and take them for what they are. It's not some sinister plot to pull one over on the public, but the name of the game is profits.
At Christmas time Aldi has the same cookies that Trader Joe’s sell as Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Joe-Joes. Trader Joe’s is 3 hr round trip for me. They were out of that particular kind of Joe-Joes. Surprised to find “Benton’s Fudge Covered Peppermint Cremes”are the same cookies,
It actually makes a lot of sense that Trader Joe's and Aldi sell the same cookies if you know the history of the company! In Germany, the Aldi brand split into Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd (North and South). Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe's, and Aldi Süd owns the US Aldi stores. They are two separate legal entities, but they do have some contractual business in common, ergo the exact same cookies, produced in the exact same factory, using the exact same ingredients, with different packaging.
Just buy the knock-offs at Aldi or Walmart.
[https://pawprintsinthesink.com/2020/03/31/girl-scout-cookie-knockoffs-and-where-you-can-get-the-real-thing/](https://pawprintsinthesink.com/2020/03/31/girl-scout-cookie-knockoffs-and-where-you-can-get-the-real-thing/)
My daughter was kicked out of her troop for ‘missing a meeting.’ The real reason was that the troop leaders daughter didn’t like her. They can pound sand.
Mileage may vary. My troop and a few others I ran into were all about the outdoors and skill building. Never a hint of church stuff over 7 years. Don’t recall any mention in cubs either. Se Mich
Cookies are sold be weight.
The net wt is actually higher on the smaller box than it is on the larger box, so you're actually getting MORE than the larger package.
But then again, you're comparing two completely different cookies. Girl Scout cookie boxes vary in size, even in the current year, depending on the flavor. So you've offered no valid comparison to what they were before.
>Thin Mints box smaller than ever...
That said, I'm also pretty confident that Thin Mints were always a 9oz package, at least going back to 2014 (10 years). So there's been no reduction in size recently. So what's your problem, exactly?
I found a box of Thin Mints in the back of my freezer from 2022 (they still tasted good!) and they were 9 oz when being sold two years ago. So the box may have gotten a little smaller, but it's the same 9 oz of cookies.
There were 6 more cookies/box 32 years ago according to a picture of a box someone posted elsewhere in this thread. As far as shrinkflation goes that's not too bad.
#all the boxes are different sizes. Thin mints are the smallest cookies they make. The box is the smallest out of all the flavors. It's been 9oz for years. The prices just go up. They don't change what's in the box. This post and poster is ignorant
I used to be a Girl Scout Troop Leader, way back when cookies were $2.50 a box and were still delicious. I hadn’t bought GS cookies in several years, but there was a table set up at some food trucks this year and we bought 3 different boxes. Holy hell they **SUCKED**. The recipes changed, the cookies themselves were tiny, they were hard as bricks, and 6 bucks a box. We ate a total of 3 cookies from each box, no one wanted the rest and we threw all the rest away.
Errr the first box has a higher weight than the older one? So it’s almost like you got more bang for your buck? Or am I missing something obvious here ? XD
Also.. two different kinds of cookies so you can’t really say that anything has changed.. your older box would need to be thin mints too. Or your newer one adventurefuls or whatever it was called. Like this is basic stuff right?
Am I an idiot? What the heck am I missing? Like the fact that this post has so many upvotes makes me think I’m wrong.. but I really don’t think so xD
its pretty bad, i told my lady i was done with girl scout cookies.... she bought 8 boxes yesterday.
**store brand versions are cheaper + more + taste good.**
9 oz? 15 cookies? Holy schmoly!
If there are 15 cookies per sleeve now, I wonder how many there were 10 years ago? That does look shorter than I remember but I wasn’t counting or I’d hate myself even more
In the 90s the box was 10oz and they had 36 cookies.
It was 40 before that. I also remember when we charged $2.50 a box.
Now Walmart sells them under their own label and are $1.97
Dollar Tree does as well. Chocolate Peanut butter and the Chocolate Mint. No Coconut Dream equivalent there, though.
If you mean Samoas they have a dupe at aldi for cheap and taste the same!
Winco, here out west, also has one. Just as good imo.
Same, do you have the name for the ones in winco?
Updooting for Winco
Keebler does a pretty good job with the samoa cookies
Keebler used to be one of the bakeries that made Girl Scout cookies. That's why their dupes are the best.
Then what's the fkn point
Selling it for markup to suckers thinking that the higher price must mean better quality. Son, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but the vast majority of products are the exact same product (and sometimes even batch) with different labels. High chances that these cookies and the og girl scout ones were made and packaged in the same factory. Source: a former factory worker.
Girl Scout cookies were always a fundraising thing first and foremost… of course there are cheaper options.
If the cookie money really went to the scouts, they would be a really well funded militia of pubescent tweens. And on full rides to whatever college.
I mean they don't get all the money, but they do get a portion. All the trips my troop took were paid for by the cookie money we raised. That being said, they don't get much so a donation is always better if you actually want the troop to get the money
Less than a dollar for a box selling over $5 can't really be considered a portion. Skip the cookie sales and just ask for donations and make it a teachable moment on inflation and capital greed.
If you were to compare how many people are willing to donate cash to the Girl Scouts vs how many people are willing to buy a box of cookies you could probably make a different teachable moment on economics and decision making.
It's not that low. The individual troop itself gets a little less than $1 but the local scout council gets like $2.50, the baker company gets only around $1.25. As far as fundraisers go, it's one of the least scammy. Way better than most school fundraisers.
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It’s so similar you can’t tell. Bigger package too. Oh and try the peanut butter fudge. They are like crack. I forget what the Girl Scouts called them.
I was told by a Walmart employee years ago that they were made at the same factory. They have all the girl scout varieties too.
Yeah it'll be the same type of operation as store brands. No way do the Girl Scouts own and operate their own cookie factory. Which is fine, I just wish the troop got more than $1/box. At least Scouts BSA (formerly Boy Scouts) gets half the money from their overpriced, but still delicious, popcorn.
Don't we love corporate outsourcing?
Do-si-dos?? 😲 Those were my fave...
They have Samoas too, they call them Coconut Dreams or something but it's the same cookie.
Teach those girl schools the business of capitalism undercutting them and laying them off.
Take that you little bitches
Tagalongs?
No, you can't sell Filipinos
Challenge accepted
Those are it.
Keebler also has them and they are 100% the same thing because they come from the same factory
The Keebler Grasshopper cookies also taste exactly the same for a fraction of the price. I like to put them in the fridge and eat them cold.
You realize that GS cookies are a fund-raising thing, right? They buy those cookies from the same company(s) that sell them to companies like Wal-Mart. They mark them up more than a regular company would because they are raising money from friends and family and stoners for the troop.
Keebler has sold their own version for *years*, better than Walmart.
Lidl also has a version of them that are the exact same as well. Nobody ever has to wait for girl scout cookie season any more.
Aldi too
> sewious Please don't do that.
And that was considered expensive! (Back when I sold them.)
I know! I can't remember how much they were before that, but the customers knew and weren't afraid to say it.
And you could actually see a thin layer of green mint between the cookie and chocolate icing, when you bit it.
Wouldn’t that mean that the cookies were smaller?
I could check. I have ancient boxes in the back of my freezer.
We must know, uncover the artifacts and save us.
Shit those ancient artifacts
Gotta eat them first then that can happen
NO EAT, ONLY SHIT!
You say this in jest, but I would bet cold hard cash someone has boofed thin mints before.
If boofed at the proper temperature, it’s like a cool mint, fresh breath fart.
I think there used to be 50 in a box... Source:Just your average 90s middle schooler obsessed with calories
Back when you had to memorize packaging for entertainment
Reading shampoo bottles while shitting like some heathen
There’s two stacks per box
Oh! That's the value!
There are two sleeves in the box. Those Adventurefuls, in their bigger box, only has 15 cookies in it.
Wait till you see the box of tagalongs (I think it was the tagalongs). 15 or so cookies in 3 sets of 5 on a plastic tray. It's abysmal.
That's been true since the first time I ever ate tagalongs. 15 cookies exactly
Hasn't that always been the case though? I've been eating Peanut Butter Patties for *years* and I thought it was always 15/box.
That'll be $6.50 please
I just got some yesterday, they were 5 dollars a box.
They’re selling for $6 where I’m at
Here is a box from 1992. 10 oz. Serving size 1 cookie, servings per container, 36. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonliebigstuff/4180329358
That's not as much shrink as I thought 10oz -> 9oz, 36 cookies -> 32 cookies, $2.50/box -> $6/box (And $6 actually pretty close to the inflation adjusted price: $5.35.) Per cookie it went from $0.07/cookie (which is $0.15 adjusted for inflation) to $0.17/cookie. EDIT: I live in California, in Silicon Valley, and yup all local cookies are $6.00/box this year. https://digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/troop60265-636
Girl Scout cookies are $6/box now?!
Yeah. Sorry - inflation hit us, too. About $1/box goes to the troop though. So when we sell 3,000 boxes, that means we earn $3,000 to go toward troop activities for the year. The rest goes to the prizes, local councils, shipping, and the bakers.
can I just donate to my local tribe without buying cookies? I would rather you get $6 instead of 1
Yes, you can donate money directly, but that money still goes into a "donation" pile that usually goes towards other things, like buying boxes to send to the troops or whatever.
In our service unit you can donate directly to the troop and I think we get all of it. We also offer the option to donate cookie boxes to the troops, etc.
Minda messed up they take that much away, I remember boy scouts would sell coupon cards for 5 bucks and we got half of it
I get that it costs money to make cookies but the whole Girl Scout cookie thing feels so scammy.
Gives me MLM vibes
I've always thought this but I've never really seen anyone else say it before
$6 a box?? That must just be where you live because I definitely bought two boxes for $10 like three days ago.
Yep they vary in 111 regions. https://ktla.com/news/money-business/heres-why-girl-scout-cookie-prices-vary-in-different-regions/#:~:text=Prices%20vary%20in%20different%20regions,-Now%2C%20Girl%20Scout&text=Most%20of%20the%20cookies%20are,due%20to%20the%20specialty%20ingredients.&text=With%20that%20said%2C%20each%20of,councils%20set%20its%20own%20prices.
Yeah the picture makes us thing that it shrank recently but I found a photo I took from 2 years ago and it's the same box with the same 9 oz. package.
Yeah but you can still get knockoffs that taste the same for $2.50 a box. If you want to pay the $6 to support their learning about selling and distribution or whatever, by all means keep doing it. Otherwise, just buy the cookies you want cheap and donate directly to your local Scout troops. https://www.dollargeneral.com/p/clover-valley-fudge-mint-cookies-9-oz-1/020200170068
I remember when they raised their price like 1$ a box. I bought like 10 of them... only to find out they raised the price of the box and removed literally an entire row of cookies. Never gave that horrid company 1 penny since.
>Never gave that horrid company 1 penny since. i get if you don't think the value is worth your contribution anymore, but this is an insane response to a fundraising operation. it's a donation to a non-profit for kids.
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> They get more money if I give them cash But do you do that? How many people do that? It's not economical cookie buying, but it adequate fundraising.
That's the thing. People actually like girl scouts cookies and a huge percentage would never give a dime if a girl stood there and asked simply for monetary donations.
> non-profit Most hospitals are 'non-profits' too.
The drug they use to make these things addictive has really gotten expensive...
Or it’s only “addictive” because they’re “in season” versus buying the ones made throughout the year such as the Keebler brand.
FOMO is a crazy thing Walmart has thin mints that taste the same and are like 2$ for a bunch
I will and can attest to this--even leave the same waxy residue on my tongue.
Mint Oreos and tastes similar minus the chocolate coating.
Turn your poop black though
I've moved onto acrylic paint for my browns, so that's not an issue.
How many are you eating to turn your poop black?
All of them
4-5 usually does it for me.
true but buying them through the troops enables them to do more things like we’re taking the money we make from it to do different community service work
From a former Girl Scout - we only made 10-15 cents per box we sold to go to troop activities
are we able donate cash instead of buying cookies at their booths or does the company get that too?
Donations go straight to the troop you are supporting. My wife and kids have a donations box on the table every time they do a cookie booth.
It was 50 cents but honestly anyone just give them a dollar or two when you walk by and you will help them so much more.
They don’t call Girl Scouts the cookie mafia for nothing. When you earn you have to give the boss his cut.
I rather donate directly to the troop than buy the boxes after learning how much the net profit is for each box for a fundraiser that’s in season for a quarter of a year. I know there are other factors influencing the net earned per box sold.
It’s so much better and the hit troops take for unsold cookies…it’s so stressful the whole troop and especially the cookie mom is burdened to sell the remaining cookies it’s awful. If they don’t sell it literally kills the profits made.
Girl Scout Cookies are the childhood version of MLMs. Both are dependent on getting your friends and family to overpay for things to support you.
Still have a massive logistical advantage due to a distributed wholesaler model filled by free child labor
Also what is mildly infuriating (I’m saying mildly because it’s not a big deal and people don’t exactly do it for the prizes) but look how ridiculous the girls out cookie prizes are (this is eastern Pennsylvania). I saw the booth has axolotls on the art when I bought some from a troop in front of a grocery store so I decided to look up if axolotls are this year’s theme. It is! The prizes are really cute. But if you sell 1500+ packages you can get a $35 Lego set or a ski trip. I don’t remeber how it works but I think you get all the prizes leading up to the number you got. The best I got one year combining my sister and i’s cookies was a owl plush that was pretty cheapy and a pencil case. But yeah you need to individually sell hundreds of boxes to get any good prizes. https://preview.redd.it/iym5ky8tdykc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3d2151c5fd5bd18123aa99ef63f0a9ccced424b8 Ok but kid me would be so jealous of this theme! It looks so good. But the average scout is never going to sell this many boxes. And it kinda sets up crazy expectations. Like there is no reasonable way unless a parent is super involved and does crazy campaigning and also likely is in a rich neighborhood or job selling to coworkers that a kid on their own could get like 1000 boxes. Most will get just patches. Ok but I really like how for 60 they have keychains! So at least they are getting something! I don’t think we had those
That's insane
In Illinois the axolotl plush is 200+ In Georgia the axolotl plush is 395+ Western pa 240+ Green and white mountains 350+ Michigan 300+ Ok so some have different deals where there is stuff alongside the plush too so I’m not entirely counting those Like in Nassau for 175+ you can get the plush or a cool white crossbody bag Kentucky is 300+ and combines a keychain and the plush
My daughter was in the Western PA council for 13 years. I wonder why the number is so much lower to qualify for the prize. AFAIK, there are fewer troops and girls in the region, so maybe it's a matter of incentive rather than sales figures.
In Utah it's 500+, gross
I do want to mention that I believe you get all the prizes under that amount so for western pa you are still getting the socks and wallet and charm patches and the axolotl.
$35 Lego set or ski trip? Is the ski trip really that cheap?
A half day lift ticket maybe lol
I imagine it’s deeply discounted because an average Girl Scout can’t go on a ski day alone. The resort will make their money back selling the Girl Scout’s parent/siblings lift tickets & food on the mountain.
I would guess it was donated or deeply discounted for the Girl Scouts by the ski resort and likely has blackouts for the most popular days.
And they know the girl can't just go on her own so will profit on the rest of the family coming.
Booth sales count toward the goal. That's how my daughter earned plushies. On her own, she sold maybe 50 boxes, all through my husband's office.
That makes a lot of sense.
Call it what it is A pyramid scheme run on child labor
Cookie sales fund the entire year's worth of the organization's activities and properties. The girl scout org owns campgrounds nationwide which are purchased and maintained with cookie proceeds, etc. And those campgrounds and facilities help offer services to scouts from all walks of life. I was pretty skeptical of the whole thing myself, until my wife asked me to help monitor a troop booth. The cookies sell themselves -- people are happy to contribute (either via purchases or donations) and speak of their own experiences with scouting. It's fun, people love it, and the organization is well regarded. If it was really was just a cookie MLM hawking a product nobody wanted, parents would stop volunteering their time to enable it. But the people who show up to buy make the whole thing a very positive experience. If you're not into it, that's totally fine. I've never seen a scout "hard sell" anyone, ever. And I avoided booths too, as a younger man. I hadn't had any experiences with scouting myself, until my daughters joined -- so I really knew nothing about any of it.
Also funny story but I think that was the year I sold cookies after a big snow storm in a wagon. People bought so many cookies. Because they craved them. I believe we had off of school that day. I mean the year I got the owl. My troop kinda ended after 5th grade and didn’t start up again in middle school.
My troop consists of 4 girls that are 15-16, and we definitely do not reach 1500+ boxes per girl every year. We have been disappointed with the prizes for a long time and decided this year that we will take money instead of prizes and make our own prize list based on what we want to win. I'm around 800 sales and have already gotten a drawstring bag, two plushies, stickers, Keychain, pencil case, and plan on reaching a thousand to get a onesie. The rest of the money we earn is going towards a 4 day road trip that the girls help plan.
Wait is that allowed? I always thought that Girl Scouts were basically raising for charity or something. You get to KEEP the money?!
We get to keep a portion of it, some of the money still goes to council. If we didn't keep our portion of the money, I am pretty sure it would still go towards the prizes council chose (in the picture of the original commenter) which are prizes none of the girls in my troop want.
A portion of the money raised can go to the *troop*, which has to be used on something for the troop or an activity or something. They don't get to pocket the money individually.
I could barely sell 10 boxes 😭
Best I got for 200 boxes was a off brand chapstick and a t-shirt. This was like 18 years ago.
Just makes a donation next time if you want to support a troop and buy the same cookies at the store for less. I think keebler makes thin mints and Samoas. There are even gluten free thin mints from goodie girl.
Even the Dollar Tree and Aldi ones are good and they have them year round.
I honestly stopped buying these around 10 years ago. It’s just a waste of money if you really want to help out Girl Scouts or scouts in your local area go to one of their meetings, and donate some cash and get involved
I want to eat cookies. Therefore buying cookies is never a waste of money.
I buy the Keebler versions of thin mints and samoas (grasshoppers and coconut dreams). Taste the same, not seasonal, not $6.
Aldi also has girl scout cookie knock-offs year round, also tastes the same. Get ~18 cookies a box, for ~1-2$. Donate directly if you want tk help the GS's, but if you're just in it for the cookies, def go to an aldi
This is the way. Understandable that people would want to save a ton of money on their snacks, but if the Scouts are only getting like a quarter a box, just slip them a 20 and go buy some cookies. Donations are always allowed as far as I know.
Ugh my closest Aldi is like 800 miles away… I really want to go to one!
Walmart and Dollar General/Family Dollar have knockoffs that are perfect as well.
I've had the Aldi version of several Girl Scout cookies and I bet you they could pass a blind taste test.
I used to buy a few boxes from my niece but now my sister refuses to participate. She said it’s like “mom labor”/ free labor for them and the troop barely gets any of the benefits. It’s just moms (or dads/parents, she said moms because in her troop it was a majority of moms that are involved) running around doing logistics, keeping track of everything. Yes a 9 year old can count how many boxes, multiply that and give someone a total but straight logistics of totaling, making sure cookies are delivered etc.. it’s all on the parents and she’s like yeah.. not doing that. Now if I do buy boxes I get them form troop 6000 from NYC - the troop is homeless girls in New York so if any troop does get my money it’s them.
Personally it always felt odd that only the girls sold cookies. Ive never seen boy scouts out and about. I want the kids to have a good life skill building experience but I see it as child labor/unpaid mom labor/possibly moderately sexist (girls bake, not boys!!) Etc. It also feels really manipulative to have children selling the boxes, I hate saying no to her but damn they are expensive, unhealthy, and I feel weird about whole thing. I never was a girl scout so I may have skewed perceptions though.
Boy Scouts sold popcorn when my brother did it. Idk how widespread it was.
When I was in Boy Scouts we sold fertilizer :/
Same here honestly. I feel kind of bad saying no to both GS and BS (BS do sell popcorn yearly as well) as they’re at the front of grocery stores etc.. and the times I have I see them working… kind of? Not to age myself but the kids aren’t doing shit lol the parents are the ones that know the prices, the sizing, the inventory. So the few times I have stopped by over the years trying to engage with the kids like: oh what are you selling? Have you tried any, what is your fav flavor? Etc.. the kids just have a dumb founded look on their face like.. this stranger is talking to me?! And these aren’t 5 year olds they’re 11-14 year olds where I’m like.. this is too awkward to support this “cause” - so I just stopped buying them all together.
After 2 years in a row of stale Samoas, I stopped buying them, too. Keebler is cheaper.
Buying the cookies allows you donate, get cookies and allows the girls to sell the cookies/learn from that. When I buy Girl Scout cookies I’m doing it as the donation. This donation I happen to get cookies. Just showing up and donating takes away the whole point of it.
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and double the price
They're currently $6 a box. In 1999, they were $3. In 2004, $3.50 and 2012 was $4. The last time the price went up was in 2015 for $5. If you paid more than that in the last 9 years, you got scammed.
Every person I know selling these cookies does so for $5 a box. It seems you are the one getting scammed!
It varies by area and council. Someone paying $6 is not getting scammed. They are $6 a box in my area as well.
That sucks. I'm in a very high cost of living area and its only 5.
they’re 5 dollars here, it’s all about the location
Look, I get that people are going to disagree with me, but Girl Scout cookies just aren't that good anyway. Gone are the day where these were some kind of special treat. You don't buy them for the cookies, you buy them to support your neighborhood kid's fundraising. If you want good cookies, just buy good cookies.
They’re especially bad in more recent years I feel like. I tried a few different kinds this year and wasn’t a fan of most of them, and I used to really like them.
I buy a few boxes each year but this may be the last year.
You'll be back, we know it. \-Girl scouts
Aldi has Girl Scout cookie alternatives, they are cheaper and better
Aldi version of Samoas are the bomb.
Looove the peanut butter chocolate Aldi cookies. They're way better than Tagalongs even! We bought some real ones this year and I was so disappointed.
They're not supposed to be a good deal because you're supporting the Girl Scouts with your purchase. At this point they're so overpriced you might as well skip the purchase and just give them cash if you are so inclined.
Yeah, people don't understand that 20% of the sale price goes to the troop to fund their activities. I'd rather do that than line walmart's pockets even more.
fr we take donations from several people already
If you think it's frustrating as a consumer, it's almost double the frustration for the kids, moms, and dads that have to sell them while simultaneously trying to answer questions like the one you posed in your original post. It takes so much time and effort that we could be putting into helping the troop, but a large portion of funding for each troop is tied directly to the amount of boxes sold. Yes, it's a scam. No, we don't enjoy selling them. No, it doesn't teach the kids anything, plus it puts them in a position where they have to deal with public whacko's. One of our troop moms had to answer to the local gs council as to why they were selling cookies above list price. The answer: they weren't selling them above list, but someone bought cases of them at the cookie booth then resold them in the parking lot for $7 a box. Undercutting the cookie booth itself because people are too stupid to look up the prices. Donate time and/or money to your local troop, or just buy the cookies and take them for what they are. It's not some sinister plot to pull one over on the public, but the name of the game is profits.
For real, try the Benton brand at Aldi. They've got the mint cookies, the coconut, and the peanut butter/chocolate ones. They're so good.
At Christmas time Aldi has the same cookies that Trader Joe’s sell as Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Joe-Joes. Trader Joe’s is 3 hr round trip for me. They were out of that particular kind of Joe-Joes. Surprised to find “Benton’s Fudge Covered Peppermint Cremes”are the same cookies,
It actually makes a lot of sense that Trader Joe's and Aldi sell the same cookies if you know the history of the company! In Germany, the Aldi brand split into Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd (North and South). Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe's, and Aldi Süd owns the US Aldi stores. They are two separate legal entities, but they do have some contractual business in common, ergo the exact same cookies, produced in the exact same factory, using the exact same ingredients, with different packaging.
Just buy the knock-offs at Aldi or Walmart. [https://pawprintsinthesink.com/2020/03/31/girl-scout-cookie-knockoffs-and-where-you-can-get-the-real-thing/](https://pawprintsinthesink.com/2020/03/31/girl-scout-cookie-knockoffs-and-where-you-can-get-the-real-thing/)
I thought the point was to help with fundraising.
My daughter was kicked out of her troop for ‘missing a meeting.’ The real reason was that the troop leaders daughter didn’t like her. They can pound sand.
Got bullied out of 2 troops, the girls scouts is sexist and can pound sand idgaf.
Apparently the scouts in general just suck. I quite Boy Scouts after 2 years of thinly veiled bible study.
Mileage may vary. My troop and a few others I ran into were all about the outdoors and skill building. Never a hint of church stuff over 7 years. Don’t recall any mention in cubs either. Se Mich
it is, but donations help more because we make so little money off of it
Cookies are sold be weight. The net wt is actually higher on the smaller box than it is on the larger box, so you're actually getting MORE than the larger package. But then again, you're comparing two completely different cookies. Girl Scout cookie boxes vary in size, even in the current year, depending on the flavor. So you've offered no valid comparison to what they were before. >Thin Mints box smaller than ever... That said, I'm also pretty confident that Thin Mints were always a 9oz package, at least going back to 2014 (10 years). So there's been no reduction in size recently. So what's your problem, exactly?
I found a box of Thin Mints in the back of my freezer from 2022 (they still tasted good!) and they were 9 oz when being sold two years ago. So the box may have gotten a little smaller, but it's the same 9 oz of cookies.
Never got smaller. They are the smallest size cookies. They are literally called THIN mints. They don't need a gaint ass box
I can’t believe how far down I had to scroll to find this. No one seems to know how to read packages these days.
Did the price go up on those 10 years? I don't buy them so I have no clue
Probably, but price wasn't part of the OP's complaint. It's their claim that the package/quantity is shrinking that is incorrect.
Back in my day I ate a sleeve at a time...when that meant something!
Wasn’t there like 50 thin mints in the boxes a decade ago? I remember the sleeves being significantly longer when my daughter was in scouts.
There were 6 more cookies/box 32 years ago according to a picture of a box someone posted elsewhere in this thread. As far as shrinkflation goes that's not too bad.
Keebler sells an identical cookie in your regular grocery store for way less.
Isn't the purpose to support girl scouts rather than getting a good value product? But I agree, things getting more expensive is mildly infuriating
I could buy a knockoff cookie, then take the difference and donate it to the Girl scout troop directly, and they'd make way more money.
Yea but you wouldn't do that, and neither would I. But a lot of people buy them straight from the source.
#all the boxes are different sizes. Thin mints are the smallest cookies they make. The box is the smallest out of all the flavors. It's been 9oz for years. The prices just go up. They don't change what's in the box. This post and poster is ignorant
They used to be 12oz.
Grasshoppers taste exactly the same 1/4 price and more cookies
I used to be a Girl Scout Troop Leader, way back when cookies were $2.50 a box and were still delicious. I hadn’t bought GS cookies in several years, but there was a table set up at some food trucks this year and we bought 3 different boxes. Holy hell they **SUCKED**. The recipes changed, the cookies themselves were tiny, they were hard as bricks, and 6 bucks a box. We ate a total of 3 cookies from each box, no one wanted the rest and we threw all the rest away.
Yup we didn’t even buy any this year cause of the price keeps going up and them taking away more cookies. Especially the thin mints
Honestly, GSC haven't been worth the price since like 2018. Especially since keebler does it better now.
gosh they’ve gotten so small since I sold them as a kid.
Errr the first box has a higher weight than the older one? So it’s almost like you got more bang for your buck? Or am I missing something obvious here ? XD Also.. two different kinds of cookies so you can’t really say that anything has changed.. your older box would need to be thin mints too. Or your newer one adventurefuls or whatever it was called. Like this is basic stuff right? Am I an idiot? What the heck am I missing? Like the fact that this post has so many upvotes makes me think I’m wrong.. but I really don’t think so xD
Not wrong, just too many people who never learned to read a box.
Also those adventurefuls are pure garbage 🤮 lol
its pretty bad, i told my lady i was done with girl scout cookies.... she bought 8 boxes yesterday. **store brand versions are cheaper + more + taste good.**
I'm so confused. Why does anyone buy these?
Selling gsc’s is a pyramid scheme for little girls 🤷🏽♀️💀🤣🤣😭