Selling Girl Scout Cookies

[bkrickles1]

3 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Will the Girl Scouts somehow be punitive if you don't sell their cookies?

Lol !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[graphicguy]

I'm on a quest to find out why selling the most Girl Scout cookies is such a big deal...

 

This may be behind a pay wall....

 

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-02-12/editorial-the-problem-with-girl-scouts-as-cookie-bosses

 

In essence, parents are "guilted" into buying unsold cookies.  Girls get stuffed animals for selling so many and are shamed if they don't.  Girl Scouts say they are teaching entrepreneur ship.  Funny....AMWAY says the same thing.  

 

I think the only people benefiting from this are the cookie makers and corporate Girl Scouts, who sell 200 million packages of cookies for $800 million in revenue.  All the while, employing girls and their parents, for no money, to do their selling for them.  

 

Maybe I'm going to catch heck for this, but this smells to high heaven.

Edited March 7 by graphicguy

[cruiseny4life]

55 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Shocked they let "Cutco knife" lady on board with a cache of knives.  That should have set off alarms left and right as the luggage passed through security.

 

Girl Scout cookies....help me understand.  Why is it so imperative for the individual Girl Scouts to sell so many cookies?  

 

I didn't mind it when my neighbors girls would come to the door to take an order from me.  But, at the Mall?  At my church?  At restaurant entrances.  At Walmart entrances?  At Community Center entrances?  At public parks?

 

I just think it's bordering on the same nuisance type of selling as Kirby Vacuum sales.

 

Hate to sound like the guy who yells "get off my lawn", but Girl Scout cookie sales have reached the point I used to order $100 worth.  Now, I buy none because they've been such a pain.

 

Wish the Girl Scouts the best, but why or why would someone on a cruise want to sell them?  Will the Girl Scouts somehow be punitive if you don't sell their cookies?

In a previous life, I worked for the Boy Scouts after having been a Boy Scout for nearly my entire kid life. We had popcorn. Not nearly as yummy or as easy to sell as a box of baked crack. Gosh, those cookies are good! 

 

I'm pretty sure the way the cookies work is similar to how the popcorn works. Percentages might be different. For the popcorn, 33% went back to the vendor, 33% went to the local Boy Scout council (think of a council as a McDonald's franchisee), and 33% went to the local unit (that group of kids marching in the Memorial Day parade or cleaning the roadside). So, 66% of the profit went back to the local area. 

 

In our case, each unit decided how to divvy up their 33%. Some units gave each boy (I guess there are girls in the Boy Scouts now - it's been a few years) the entire 33% into their "Scout" account that could be used for a variety of things. Boys could use it to fund their week of camp. Or their participation at a local/national/international event. Some units allowed kids to purchase certain camping gear, like tents, knives, compasses, flashlights, etc. Kids that sold $5,000 worth of popcorn could really have no out of pocket expenses for the entire year as a Scout. It helped us poor (I was a poor kid too) kids go to camp, go on adventure outings like weeklong backpacking or canoeing trips, etc. It's how I funded a lot of activities I wouldn't have been able to on.

 

The council also gave prizes based on the amount of popcorn sold. Some were stupid, cheap little trinkets. But some were actually good prizes, like a backpacking stove, flashlight, the ever popular Swiss Army knife or leather man, and other items. 

 

Anyway....all that to say, it's very similar to what happens with Girl Scouts cookies. The girls keep some, the council keeps some, and ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers keep the rest. I don't know how they divvy up the percentages though as I'm not as experienced with cookies as popcorn.

 

You're welcome. I bet you never thought you'd know all that. 🙂 

 

BTW @thesnoopster2 - you should totally set a table up at the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. I bet us curmudgeons would love that...send me that girl's cookie link. I'll buy some so she can go on the cruise (actually, I think that would break the rules here, so probably don't). 

[graphicguy]

3 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

In a previous life, I worked for the Boy Scouts after having been a Boy Scout for nearly my entire kid life. We had popcorn. Not nearly as yummy or as easy to sell as a box of baked crack. Gosh, those cookies are good! 

 

I'm pretty sure the way the cookies work is similar to how the popcorn works. Percentages might be different. For the popcorn, 33% went back to the vendor, 33% went to the local Boy Scout council (think of a council as a McDonald's franchisee), and 33% went to the local unit (that group of kids marching in the Memorial Day parade or cleaning the roadside). So, 66% of the profit went back to the local area. 

 

In our case, each unit decided how to divvy up their 33%. Some units gave each boy (I guess there are girls in the Boy Scouts now - it's been a few years) the entire 33% into their "Scout" account that could be used for a variety of things. Boys could use it to fund their week of camp. Or their participation at a local/national/international event. Some units allowed kids to purchase certain camping gear, like tents, knives, compasses, flashlights, etc. Kids that sold $5,000 worth of popcorn could really have no out of pocket expenses for the entire year as a Scout. It helped us poor (I was a poor kid too) kids go to camp, go on adventure outings like weeklong backpacking or canoeing trips, etc. It's how I funded a lot of activities I wouldn't have been able to on.

 

The council also gave prizes based on the amount of popcorn sold. Some were stupid, cheap little trinkets. But some were actually good prizes, like a backpacking stove, flashlight, the ever popular Swiss Army knife or leather man, and other items. 

 

Anyway....all that to say, it's very similar to what happens with Girl Scouts cookies. The girls keep some, the council keeps some, and ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers keep the rest. I don't know how they divvy up the percentages though as I'm not as experienced with cookies as popcorn.

 

You're welcome. I bet you never thought you'd know all that. 🙂 

 

BTW @thesnoopster2 - you should totally set a table up at the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. I bet us curmudgeons would love that...send me that girl's cookie link. I'll buy some so she can go on the cruise (actually, I think that would break the rules here, so probably don't). 

I was a Boy Scout, too.  Albeit a few decades ago.  I don't recall us being forced to sell anything. Our Den Mother showed us how to make crafts (like a little wooden race cars we'd enter into tournaments) and gave us "home baked" cookies.  But, aside from the uniforms (which my Father complained about buying for me), I don't recall any particular fund raising at all.

 

Even today, I haven't heard nor seen any sort of Fund raising for Boy Scouts that even remotely approach Girl Scout cookies.

[graphicguy]

11 hours ago, expectthebest said:

Last year on the breakaway the neighbors in the stateroom to our left and ourselves were invited to our neighbor on the right for drinks on their balcony.
 

So after about 2 hours of nice talk and getting to know our new friends the wife says oh since you are all here I have a surprise for all of you. She goes in the closet and comes back with a small trunk and opens it on their small end table.. my wife and I were perplexed..turns out that the woman packed an entire sales pack of Cutco knives..

 

she insisted she demonstrate how the worlds greatest knife set to never be sold in an actual store will change your life. My wife picked out the 13 piece set she had with the natural wood block and kitchen scissors to boot!!
 

Best $2,300.00 we ever spent!! We still keep in touch with her and we laugh that she invited us to her balcony but all 3 couples were actually in inside cabins !!! Fun times for all of us. 

I'd be so ticked off......

[mjkacmom]

24 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

I was a Boy Scout, too.  Albeit a few decades ago.  I don't recall us being forced to sell anything. Our Den Mother showed us how to make crafts (like a little wooden race cars we'd enter into tournaments) and gave us "home baked" cookies.  But, aside from the uniforms (which my Father complained about buying for me), I don't recall any particular fund raising at all.

 

Even today, I haven't heard nor seen any sort of Fund raising for Boy Scouts that even remotely approach Girl Scout cookies.

No $$$$$ popcorn? I always purchased when they came to my door, but give me $4 cookies any day. https://scoutsmarts.com/bsa-boy-scout-popcorn-costs/#:~:text=Why is Boy Scout popcorn,troops and individual Scouting careers.

[bedfordmom]

No but I am sure folks would pay a high price after a week of no cookies in the buffet. I suppose one could do a clandestine operation with secret codes in dark alleys or hallways.  

[bkrickles1]

I suggest setting up a table outside the DBH at around midnight and catch the drunkards on their way out.

I'd definitely buy some thin mints for my walk back to the cabin! Lol!!!!!😆

I hope they accept obc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[G-DawgMN]

18 hours ago, david_sobe said:

If you can smuggle a lobster tail you could dine in your cabin and heat your tail while baking cookies!  I can see NCL having a naughty room for all the easy bake ovens smuggled on board.  As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures 😁

 

 Maybe do a little pop up stand out in the hallway, sell some cookies and lobster tails before security swoops in.

 

[PATRLR]

12 hours ago, expectthebest said:

My wife picked out the 13 piece set she had with the natural wood block and kitchen scissors to boot!!
 

Best $2,300.00 we ever spent!! 

Is this serious?  You sepnt $2300 for knives purchased from someone on a cruise ship you never met before and invited you over on false pretenses?

I also agree with someone else who asked how these knives got onboard.  I had the Swiss army knife from my toiletries kit confiscated on one cruise.
 

1 hour ago, graphicguy said:

I think the only people benefiting from this are the cookie makers and corporate Girl Scouts, who sell 200 million packages of cookies for $800 million in revenue.  All the while, employing girls and their parents, for no money, to do their selling for them.  

I couldn't get to your link, but, I've read similar things in the past - the people making all the money are the cookie company and the high level corporate GS.  For that reason, I stopped buying quantity of cookies years ago.  I'll still buy a one or two if some kid comes knocking but that's it.  

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

I'm pretty sure the way the cookies work is similar to how the popcorn works. Percentages might be different. For the popcorn, 33% went back to the vendor, 33% went to the local Boy Scout council (think of a council as a McDonald's franchisee), and 33% went to the local unit (that group of kids marching in the Memorial Day parade or cleaning the roadside). So, 66% of the profit went back to the local area. 

You wrote profit - I assume you mean revenue?

[cruiseny4life]

13 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

You wrote profit - I assume you mean revenue?

Yes, technically. That's not quite how we marketed it. The 33% that went to the company was the cost of the popcorn, plus whatever revenue the company (Weaver Popcorn Company and Ramsey) kept from the sale. The 66% was net revenue as I never saw a council that I worked for (for one of them I was the lead on the popcorn sale) budget to account for staff time on the sale. And, of course half that went to the units that are all led by volunteers.

 

So, absolutely some of the 66% did go to covering expenses in the council's budget. It was never accounted for in the budget as a direct cost. It was treated more as a philanthropic gift. 

 

Hopefully that wasn't far too confusing. I definitely feel like I'm not explaining it well. Oh well! 

 

EDIT: I just read the article @mjkacmom posted. It's a FAR FAR better explanation that I provided. 

Edited March 7 by cruiseny4life

[graphicguy]

#61   

Posted 15 minutes ago

   12 hours ago,  expectthebest said: 

My wife picked out the 13 piece set she had with the natural wood block and kitchen scissors to boot!!
 

Best $2,300.00 we ever spent!! 

Is this serious?  You sepnt $2300 for knives purchased from someone on a cruise ship you never met before and invited you over on false pretenses?

I also agree with someone else who asked how these knives got onboard.  I had the Swiss army knife from my toiletries kit confiscated on one cruise.

 

I'm with you.  Somehow I don't think this was a "thing".  I can't see anyone getting knives on board a cruise ship....especially several of them...even more unlikely if they had to get them through airport security.
 

[trivia addict]

Like Graphic guy, I’d be so ticked off. I would have immediately said thanks for the drinks but I gotta go now. I really would have felt used.

It seems tho that this sort of selling technique is not unusual on ships.

 

Years ago my young adult daughter and I spent a few days in Florida before our cruise. On our first day it became apparent that she had been badly bitten by those pesky no see ums, and had a very bad reaction. We looked for  Benadryl  on the ship but the shops had nothing. ( of course now I wonder why we didn’t go to the infirmary!)

Anyway, a woman we met by actually doing a favor for her young daughter, said that she had a cream in her cabin that would help.

She took us to her cabin where she had a full case of skin creams that she was taking orders for. She gave us a sample, and darn if it didn’t give immediate relief!

[PTC DAWG]

22 hours ago, KSSS2013 said:

 

  Do you know this from personal experience? 

 

   Also my response was totally tongue in cheek...little humor is good around here.

 

 

Easy Bake oven never got hot enough for my Sister when we were growing up...yes, we are around 60.

[graphicguy]

It never ceases to surprise me, no matter how many cruises I take, the inexplicable behavior of some cruisers.

 

Girl Scout Cookies?

 

Cutco Knives?

 

Pretty soon people will be wanting to set up Herbalife tables.

 

They walk among us.

[thesnoopster2]

1 hour ago, graphicguy said:

It never ceases to surprise me, no matter how many cruises I take, the inexplicable behavior of some cruisers.

 

Girl Scout Cookies?

 

Cutco Knives?

 

Pretty soon people will be wanting to set up Herbalife tables.

 

They walk among us.

 

One thing that doesn't change with cruising is the elitists that are better than others....

Edited March 7 by thesnoopster2

[UKstages]

i think it's a truly frightening thought to know that the people who post on this board walk among us. not you, of course, you're swell. and so are you. and you, over there, you're just fine. but, you know, those other folks.

 

of course, once on board, they will presumably act like normal people, when they can no longer hide behind their cloak of anonymity. 

 

ha!

 

whom am i kidding?

 

my best guess is that they'll be the exact same folks they are in here.

[LongIsland-Cruiser]

Sometimes I will be on a cruise and see some extremely trashy behavior.  And I will say to myself “what are these people thinking!!??”

 

Then I read cruise critic and go “oh.”

 

The venn diagram of people who think it’s ok not to tip, to hog chairs, to smoke on their balconies, to bring illegal drugs on board, and to push their way onto elevators would be a circle. 
 

And now a new behavior that would not have occurred to me in a million years.  “Why shouldn’t I force my child to set up a booth in peoples vacations and hock cookies?”  And Half the board thinks it’s brilliant.  
 

Forced Amway presentations are next!  This isn’t your vacation, it’s theirs!

[UKstages]

selling girl scout cookies onboard is absurd, ridiculous, insensitive and inconsiderate.

 

and that's why i've switched to fundraising by selling "the world's finest chocolate" onboard every NCL ship, to support my local rotary club.

 

it's delicious, i can earn up to $30 a box, and it's available year round... none of this seasonal girl scout nonsense. i encourage you to do the same.

[EngrJones]

I find it truly frightening how many people live in glass houses but don't seem to realize it.

 

(yes, "truly frightening" is extreme hyperbole)

Edited March 7 by EngrJones

[LongIsland-Cruiser]

1 minute ago, EngrJones said:

I find it truly frightening how many people live in glass houses but don't seem to realize it.

 

(yes, "truly fightening" is extreme hyperbole)

 Glass house or not, I’m not buying your knife set.  I don’t care if it can cut thru a can.  
 

 

[UKstages]

>>yes, "truly fightening" [sic] is extreme hyperbole<<

 

there are no degrees of fear in your glass house?

 

there isn't something you are frightened of and then something you are even more frightened of?

 

"fright" is not like "hyperbole."

 

when something is "frightening," the concept of degree is not inherent as it is with hyperbole; "fright" often takes a modifier to indicate how frightening something truly is.

[EngrJones]

And there you go again.

[baflagg]

8 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

In a previous life, I worked for the Boy Scouts after having been a Boy Scout for nearly my entire kid life. We had popcorn. Not nearly as yummy or as easy to sell as a box of baked crack. Gosh, those cookies are good! 

 

I'm pretty sure the way the cookies work is similar to how the popcorn works. Percentages might be different. For the popcorn, 33% went back to the vendor, 33% went to the local Boy Scout council (think of a council as a McDonald's franchisee), and 33% went to the local unit (that group of kids marching in the Memorial Day parade or cleaning the roadside). So, 66% of the profit went back to the local area. 

 

In our case, each unit decided how to divvy up their 33%. Some units gave each boy (I guess there are girls in the Boy Scouts now - it's been a few years) the entire 33% into their "Scout" account that could be used for a variety of things. Boys could use it to fund their week of camp. Or their participation at a local/national/international event. Some units allowed kids to purchase certain camping gear, like tents, knives, compasses, flashlights, etc. Kids that sold $5,000 worth of popcorn could really have no out of pocket expenses for the entire year as a Scout. It helped us poor (I was a poor kid too) kids go to camp, go on adventure outings like weeklong backpacking or canoeing trips, etc. It's how I funded a lot of activities I wouldn't have been able to on.

 

The council also gave prizes based on the amount of popcorn sold. Some were stupid, cheap little trinkets. But some were actually good prizes, like a backpacking stove, flashlight, the ever popular Swiss Army knife or leather man, and other items. 

 

Anyway....all that to say, it's very similar to what happens with Girl Scouts cookies. The girls keep some, the council keeps some, and ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers keep the rest. I don't know how they divvy up the percentages though as I'm not as experienced with cookies as popcorn.

 

You're welcome. I bet you never thought you'd know all that. 🙂 

 

BTW @thesnoopster2 - you should totally set a table up at the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. I bet us curmudgeons would love that...send me that girl's cookie link. I'll buy some so she can go on the cruise (actually, I think that would break the rules here, so probably don't). 

Our troop gets .98 for each box sell. We only earn that much because we got a bonus for renewing memberships early in 2023, sold a certain amount of fall products and our girls are older so we can opt out of prizes.   Each troop starts at .75 per box then you can increase the amount based on various qualifications.  Cookies are sold for $6 per box

[thesnoopster2]

42 minutes ago, baflagg said:

Our troop gets .98 for each box sell. We only earn that much because we got a bonus for renewing memberships early in 2023, sold a certain amount of fall products and our girls are older so we can opt out of prizes.   Each troop starts at .75 per box then you can increase the amount based on various qualifications.  Cookies are sold for $6 per box

that sad....When we sold chocolate bars in school we made 50/50 with the manufacturer