It’s that time of year again! Yes, it’s girl scout cookie season!
It seems like everywhere I turn there are tiny boxes of crappy cookies. That’s right, I said crappy. Come close and I’ll let you in on a little secret: girl scout cookies aren’t very good. I’ve known this for quite some time, but it seems like everyone else in the world loves them and I’m not quite sure why. To me, they’re just like every other mass produced cookie out there — boring and not worth the calories.
I think that for many of the girl scout cookie lovers out there it has something to do with nostalgia. I don’t have any fond childhood memories of thin mints or samoas, so the girl scout cookies just don’t hold the mystique that they hold for so many others. Maybe someone can explain to me why these cookies seem to be so popular. Is it because they only come out once per year? Is it nostalgia? Am I just picky?
Not only are they mediocre, but girl scout cookies are expensive. It seems that every year the boxes shrink and the prices go up. I would be a little more forgiving if the actual girl scout troops got more than 10% of each box sold. A more cynical person might even say they exploit the young girls who sell them… but not me, no sir, not me.
Plus, there’s the whole guilt factor. Maybe this is just something I feel, but I always feel obligated to buy the cookies. You have some little girl at your door with big doe eyes trying to sell you something. How can you say no? Well, I do every year, and then feel bad about it, which makes me resentful, which makes me hate the girl scout cookies even more. It’s a vicious cycle of hate and loathing, like so many other things in my life.
So go ahead: flame away. I know you want to tell me how wrong I am, how great the cookies are, how they are an American tradition. Well, to that I say one thing: I hate Oreo cookies too… but that’s for another post….
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Apr 09, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Oh Bob…. Let me try to enlighten you. The cookies are not gourmet quality delicious by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, they probably appeal to kids more than they do adults and why not? It’s kids who are selling them.
Honestly, one of my LEAST favorite parts of being a parent is having to approach co-workers, friends and family with requests to buy into every fund raiser their schools and activities come up with. Frankly, I’d just rather write a check, but they make it competitive for kids by teasing them with prizes (usually of the “crappy” variety) based on how much they sell. But having been a Bluebird / Camp Fire Girl when I was a kid, I think the whole endeavor is more about building self esteem and confidence in young girls. I remember how absolutely proud and delighted I was when I went to someone’s door (way back in the day when they allowed you to do that) and someone bought a box or two of cookies. If the whole selling process is done right, it’s more about building a sense of business etiquette and the joy of striving for a goal and those are wonderful things for children to learn. My girls’ Brownie troop voted early this year for a reward (a field trip, actually), if they did well enough with their cookie sales. They achieved it (though probably not by much as we are slightly lazy parents/troop leaders – which our kids might just be better off for in these “over-scheduled times!) and so they will receive their reward.
So next time you get cranky about buying “crappy” girl scout cookies, remember you are benefitting the confidence levels and experiences of young girls across America and maybe those cookies will taste a little less crappy.
p.s. – I’m not really a cookie person myself – I pretty much buy them for my kids – but the “Lemonades” this year were my favorite cookie yet – shortbread with a lemon frosting glaze. Believe me, it beats buying a book of useless coupons, unwanted wrapping paper or magazine subcriptions. Maybe that thought will help those “crappy” cookies taste a wee bit better
Darlene W.
Thanks for the different perspective.
I am with you Bob. I used to buy the cookies years ago when that “doe eyed” girl came to my door. Then I heard how little money they actually get. Now they sell them at the entrance to Stop and Shop and I feel no guilt passing them up. They are expensive and not really very good.
I agree. I don’t understand the mass hysteria that surrounds cookie season.
Yes, there are some that I do find quite tasty, but most of them contain hydrogenated fats.
Sometimes when the little girlies assault me outside a department store, I want to yell, “No! They’re full of poison!”
But I don’t do that. That would be mean.
I think you are my separated at birth twin….
I am going to admit right here that I am a thin mint addict. That alone made me excited for the cookie season. However then I grew up and started shopping for myself. Keebler sells thin mints in your supermarket all year for cheap! And there is more in the box. Plus I buy then by choice and not because I got ambushed walking out Starbucks. They give you fricken puppy eyes when you say no!
So Bob I guess I have begun to hate the girl scout process as much as you. Door to door girl scouts selling cookies now get the same treatment I give Jehova Witnesses, the vote for ____ people, and Christmas carolers: I look in the peephole, see them, and sneak back to my computer quiety so they think no one is home.