More Cookies Anyone?

Since every aspect of life right now( including my blog world), includes mass quaintly of sweetish style delights, that accompany several not so sweetish little lasses, as we try to pawn them (the sweetish delights, not the lasses) off on unsuspecting consumers that only ran to the grocery store for the diapers their young one so needed. Yes I am once again taking Cookies.

Girl Scout cookies started as homemade shortbread cookies. We now call them Trefoils and they are currently made by two manufactures; Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Bakers. Little Brownie Baker is our current supplier. Go check out their sites, there are some vast differences.

Another interesting fact is the Samoa’s have been on the market for 36 years and in Alaska the sales are equal if not greater, than the Thin Mints. I don’t remember them as a kid but I do remember when the Mints were two cookies with mint between them.

Cookies sales, can sometimes be a scary scene, there are many overzealous cookie mom’s out there. I know one leader that holds on to all the best sellers, until the last minute, then she will SELL them to other girl scout troops when the run out. By Selling them to other troops her troop gets the money and the credit. You could ask… why would a troop do that? In most instances, the other troops are forced to buy, if they are out of Samoa’s and Thin Mints most customers will turn away. You need the popular cookies to get rid of large stocks of non-sellers. There have been instances of fights between troops, because someone sold cookies outside of their Service Unit area, yet there are no rules of where you can sell, just that you may not sale them online.

Theft is also a problem, the number of uncollectible checks alone, is enormous. A few years ago I knew a leader that took off with $8,000 worth of product or money. I have also heard that one year a leader had a fire in her garage, burning $5000 of product and cash, sad story… until the next year when the same leader had someone break into her home, the crooks only happened steal the cookies. I just recently heard of a troop who sold $40 worth of cookies to a lady, she paid with a fake $100, and one year a case of cookies were stolen from a booth sale.

People don’t realize that the Girls buy their stock of cookies, if something is stolen, money is lost, cookie sales are down, or if one girl doesn’t turn in money, it could mean all of the troop’s profits. While 75% of the sales go to Girl Scouts in some way shape or form the troop receives just over 10%. The other 65% goes to GSUSA, the local council, the service unit, prizes, scholarships, and camp credits. The majority of Girl Scouts funding comes form cookie sales. Juliette Lowe was a smart lady; she found a way to fund a national organization on volunteers and child labor.

We (as in me) have conducted our own marketing analysis; we have found that we must target all consumers. With homosexual women ages 30 to 60, cookies seem to be purchased to help support their still ongoing saga of woman’s liberation. With single males 35-60 sales vary year to year, this demographic profile sales tend to be one of the toughest sales, these sales tend rely on whether a single gold band is placed on the sales chaperone hand. If a band is present sales tactics must harden. These figures also seem to fluctuate with the sex appeal level of the current sales chaperone. People on strict diets or weigh loss plans must also need coxing in to purchasing, as the adverting for reduced fat and 0g trans fat, have increased.

Our number one consumer, though, is older males ages 60 and over. Most often they purchase cookies against doctor’s orders - psychiatric study has shown it gives a sense of self, a boost, if you say, by defying authority and daring death. It I still unknown if they purchase it as the only chance they have to talk to pretty young ladies, or if it is truly an addiction. Since the rise of Viagra, sales, the sales of cookies to this demographic group have dropped dramatically. As we are currently studying this trend, we are still in debate on the cause. Most likely it is due to the fact that with their fixed income, money that once went to support local charities and religious tithe is not going towards recreational pharmaceuticals, such as Viagra.

To overcome some of our marketing issues we have resorted to asking people to buy cookies to donate to Kids Kitchen in the name of our long lost Brownie, Chelsea, and making up tall tales about T being attacked by a bear at GS camp resulting in a large wound, several broken bones, and the cast, we are now raising money to send her back to camp, as part of her emotional therapy.