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I'm in the "No thanks" camp when it comes to the cookies. We honestly aren't cookie eaters here. But last year the little girl who came to the door told me I could donate a few boxes to the military. I almost always write a check in lieu of making a purchase, but that seemed like a nice way to support both groups.
I seriously HATED being pressured to sell things when I was a Girl Scout.
My high school band had numerous fundraisers, also...candy bars to defray the annual band trip, fruit sales at Christmas to defray...God knows WHAT that the school district wouldn't cover...uniforms? Music royalties? Who knows? I truly despised being pressed to go out and ask people for money.
You need to stop looking at it as a shopper (what do I get for my money) and look at it as a supporter (how nice to get cookies for my financial help!).
That's how fundraising works.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheesesteak Cravings
Sounds like the cookie makers are counting on your graciousness.
Give that $5 directly to the local troop.
This is a sad lesson in capitalism these girls are learning.
That's what I was thinking too. If it's truly about the support and not the so much cookies, then it would behoove us to just donate something like $3, and use the remaining $2 to buy a box of cookies for ourselves. Otherwise, you pay $5 for about $1 or $2's worth of cookies, the troop gets 50c of that. As another poster put it, the ol' cutting out the middleman.
Ironically enough, I wonder if that's what they're ALSO counting on .... that we'll see how expensive they've gotten and just say "**** it, just take a direct donation!". Either way, they seem to win.
The Girl Scouts are selling cookies, the Boy Scouts are peddling popcorn and wreaths, the football team is selling coupon booklets, the band has boxes of oranges and grapefruit, 6th graders are raising money for the class trip to Washington DC by selling wrapping paper and chocolate in the shape of CDs... Then there are the raffle tickets.
Add this to the fundraisers for the uninsured father with pancreatic cancer, the requests for donations to help build homes for disabled vets, the Salvation Army requests to help the less fortunate, Kiva loans that change lives, Samaritan's Purse relief work, Red Cross appeals...
Rarely a day goes by that we aren't asked to support some worthy cause - Walk for MS, breast cancer research, protect the bees, help the refugees...
I'm disheartened by some of the replies. GSA and BSA are youth leadership programs, and the cost to run camps comes from a big chunk of these sales. The units benefit from these camps, so regardless of the amount kept at unit level, the kids still do benefit. But it is what it is, I guess.
It has nothing to do with not supporting GSA or BSA. It's the fact that someone else is making a big profit off of these kids pushing the cookies, popcorn, etc. and a lot of times they are relying on the guilt of people to give to a "kid". I would much rather the kids go out and ask for any donation to support their troop. Why are kids asked to "make" money for someone else? Like all fundraising and a lot of charities…it is just too scammy and the majority of the donations "don't" go to the cause or the people in need. It's actually pretty sad and kind of disgust me.
I won't buy them either. My husband used to get them behind my back, but now that I work at home, he can't sneak cookies in here anymore. No way.
Now that's funny. My wife buys all sorts of sweets and has a sickening amount of self control. She weighs 100 pounds and when she eats sweets, she'll eat three or four cookies or a tiny piece of cake and that's it for a month. Sometimes the snacks even go stale on her. Not me. I get into her cake or cookie stash and before I know it, the entire candy bar or box of cookies has magically disappeared. So she hides her stuff all over the place: in her work bag, behind the healthy food in the pantry, etc. It works. Most of the time.
In some areas of the country, the girl scouts are raising the price of the cookies by a dollar... so now they are going to be $5.00 a box! So now we get 10 cookies for $5.00
Here is the article if you want to read it...
I won't be buying any cookies. I think there is some kind of child labor law violation going on. I will donate directly to the troops so that the CEOs can't get their greedy hands on the money that is "suppose" to go the girls.
Here is a 2013 article about how much one of them made.
Mod Note: As you mention in your OP this is happening in some parts of the country but not all. This is not the case in East TN. The prices are not being raised from last year. I will be altering the title of this thread (since it is a bit misleading) and moving it from Food and Drink as this is more about consumerism than Food and Drink.
You need to stop looking at it as a shopper (what do I get for my money) and look at it as a supporter (how nice to get cookies for my financial help!).
That's how fundraising works.
I don't mind supporting the scouts, but have a problem with the CEO's salary of almost $400,000 a year. .52 going directly to the scouts and the rest going into someone's pocket doesn't seem right.
It has nothing to do with not supporting GSA or BSA. It's the fact that someone else is making a big profit off of these kids pushing the cookies, popcorn, etc. and a lot of times they are relying on the guilt of people to give to a "kid". I would much rather the kids go out and ask for any donation to support their troop. Why are kids asked to "make" money for someone else? Like all fundraising and a lot of charities…it is just too scammy and the majority of the donations "don't" go to the cause or the people in need. It's actually pretty sad and kind of disgust me.
Of course GSA and BSA make profit from it- they have to run camps and pay for programs, and the top of the chain should be staffed by competent and well trained and educated persons in running 2 of the largest non-profit organizations in the country…
However that does not detract from the need to run local camps and programs.
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.... that we'll see how expensive they've gotten and just say "**** it, just take a direct donation!". Either way, they seem to win.
