Girl Scout Cookie Sales and Entrepreneurship

[sent]

This is DD’s first year in Girl Scouts. She is in Juniors and the troop is a small group of 4th graders. It’s cookie season. The troop leaders order a few cases of inventory weekly and we have to go once a week to their homes to pick up boxes of any individual cookie sales DD makes. I don’t really want DD to go door to door so I went over there today and bought 14 boxes that DD can sell at the end of the driveway this weekend. She seemed excited about that.

However DD doesn’t understand anything about the sales process and how the money flows from the customer to the troop. There was no orientation session or anything with the scouts or the parents, just a few FB posts with some info and that we should set goals to sell a lot.It took me quite some time today online to even figure out what I wrote above. The website where I had to register for online sales and the flyers she received talk about teaching the girls all these wonderful financial skills through the cookie program. I’ve been trying to explain how sales and money works to DD and how I fronted the money for the 14 boxes that she has to sell to repay me. She is now in tears.

Does anyone have resources they could share that can help a 4th grader understand the financial stuff at her level? Also does the entire country sell them in February or do different states sell at different times because right now my feeds are flooded with parents hawking cookie sales online.

[cmeon]

Um. I haven't been a girl scout in a long, long time- but I'm pretty sure they have a VERY strict no resales policy. You should double check before you institute your plan.

Is the troop setting up weekend sales at store fronts? That's typically how they're done now here (outside of the preorders). That should be a good experience for her.

[Patsy Baloney]

I’m guessing because your daughter joined as a junior, your troop leaders probably are old hat at this and don’t plan to do the entrepreneurship badges/family pins.

I’m happy to forward you the junior level cookie badge work (Cookie collaborator and My Cookie Team) as well as the family entrepreneurship pin. Feel free to DM me your email, I promise I will only sign you up for 1 landsend catalog, lol.

Also, if you want to share what your council is (privately, of course) I’m happy to check out their website with my troop leader knowledge and find their scout resources for selling. I’m guessing they probably have a “how the cookie crumbles” graphic where your scout can see how much her troop gets to keep, how much her council keeps, etc.

Also also (lol) Daisy and brownie badges will have other opportunities for money counting. Does her council have a cookie rally? I can dig through my stuff and send cookie rally activities, too. I feel like I have a bunch saved from 2020 when everything was horrendous and canceled.

[Patsy Baloney]

Oh and there are some earlier sellers and late sellers around the country, but it’s all generally around the same timeframe. Shortages/supply chain issues have messed up cookie season big time.

[sent]

Jan 27, 2023 18:45:27 GMT -5 cmeon said:

Um. I haven't been a girl scout in a long, long time- but I'm pretty sure they have a VERY strict no resales policy. You should double check before you institute your plan.

Is the troop setting up weekend sales at store fronts? That's typically how they're done now here (outside of the preorders). That should be a good experience for her.

They are doing 4 storefront sales that were assigned by lottery to the troops in the area. I asked about the driveway sales because I’ve seen older girls at a house further down do it for the past few years. Both troop leaders said it was fine. The second troop leader who had the inventory only had 14 boxes he could spare so I figured we would start with this and order more from there.

If any cookies don’t sell, I will keep them.

[sent]

Patsy Baloney, I saw an email for a Cookie Rally and I didn’t understand what it is. Can you explain? 

I will answer your other questions when I get home and have my laptop. Thank you for offering to help! 

Now my parents are trying to explain sales and business to her by filling out her order form for a few boxes and she’s embarrassed LOL. At least they’ve realized financial literacy is a good thing. They never talked about money and business with us as kids!

[livinitup]

It’s Girl Scout cookie season? Yaay!! I’ve only ever ordered them on a big cookie sheet and paid in advance with a check or cash - and gotten the boxes later. But maybe times have changed or #itsRegional.

Setting up a stand at the end of your driveway sounds good. If it’s a yes from the troop leader. I’d stop my car and buy a box! I wouldn’t worry about her absorbing the details of a cash transaction too much. Just supervise the experience and encourage her to talk. She’ll learn plenty by just doing it.

Too bad you don’t live by my dad. He has a strict policy of biying4 boxes of Thin Mints from any Girl Scout who asks. He had multiple troops hit his house for a few years. Apparently, they freeze well.

Good luck.

[Patsy Baloney]

Jan 27, 2023 19:23:08 GMT -5 sent said:

Patsy Baloney, I saw an email for a Cookie Rally and I didn’t understand what it is. Can you explain? 

I will answer your other questions when I get home and have my laptop. Thank you for offering to help! 

Now my parents are trying to explain sales and business to her by filling out her order form for a few boxes and she’s embarrassed LOL. At least they’ve realized financial literacy is a good thing. They never talked about money and business with us as kids!

Cookie Rally is really good for younger scouts/scouts new to selling. Usually, they’ll earn the entrepreneurship badges, practice selling, set goals, learn about prizes, play games, etc.

I took my troop a few years ago. Once is enough, but it was a good tool for learning the ins-and-outs.

[bee20]

When we were selling the grocery store opportunities were plentiful and that's how I sold 90% of my cookies. If that's not an option, and your troop is only giving you 14 boxes, then the driveway idea sounds great.

We always had the girls create a poster to tape on the table that was customized and wear their uniforms, it seemed to drive more sales. For your driveway, maybe have her post a sign that says "Girl Scout Cookies sold here-Saturday 9-11" so people know to swing by if they want some. I've never seen girls do that here and I'd love to walk by and buy from a neighbor!

In my town there is a scout who drops off flyers at every door with her online sales code and says she is one of the top 10 sellers nationwide. I don't buy from her because I've never actually seen the girl, but tons of people must.

[sporklemotion]

One thing my older daughter’s Brownie troop did was select a goal for the money and we set a budget based on that. So they have a specific field trip and some sense of the cost. They also know that they make roughly $1 a box and have some sense of how many boxes will get them to their goal.

I know that there are strict rules in my area about setting up booths outside of commercial areas, but I think your driveway is ok. I’m not sure if it counts as a resale; we were told that we could buy boxes and take them door to door, but we were advised not to because you could get stuck with boxes you don’t want.

Can you print out her QR code from the app and have people preorder that way? If they’re neighbors, you could maybe pickup and drop off the cookies at the next pick up. That way, you won’t have to keep pre purchasing them. My girls also got a form, but the nice thing about the app is customers can use a credit card and you won’t have to collect money upon delivery.

I’m not sure what other questions she has, but hopefully she can find answers.

Not directly related, but my daughter liked the podcast Million Bazillion, which covers some financial topics for kids. They may have an episode that could help.

[lindyanne]

Jan 27, 2023 19:18:33 GMT -5 sent said:

Jan 27, 2023 18:45:27 GMT -5 cmeon said:

Um. I haven't been a girl scout in a long, long time- but I'm pretty sure they have a VERY strict no resales policy. You should double check before you institute your plan.

Is the troop setting up weekend sales at store fronts? That's typically how they're done now here (outside of the preorders). That should be a good experience for her.

They are doing 4 storefront sales that were assigned by lottery to the troops in the area. I asked about the driveway sales because I’ve seen older girls at a house further down do it for the past few years. Both troop leaders said it was fine. The second troop leader who had the inventory only had 14 boxes he could spare so I figured we would start with this and order more from there.

If any cookies don’t sell, I will keep them.

Maybe you could take orders for pickup next weekend if you have a decent amount of traffic and that would sell more but avoid door to door.

[SusanBAnthony]

Every council does it slightly differently. But at a high level, she can sell them door to door, on your driveway, etc, and collects 5$ for each box. I'm not sure what the PP was concerned about with reselling, your daughter is the girl scout so how is that reselling?

We can either get a stock of cookies to sell, or go around and sell them and come back later with cookies to collect money. Who wants to come back twice? No one! Haha. So we order a hundred boxes or whatever and DD goes and sells them all, and we get more if needed. Then we pay the troop leader for them.

DD walks around the neighborhood with an adult with the cookies in our wagon. But the two most lucrative ways to sell have been going to breweries that don't sell food (asking their permission first) and standing near the entrance of a liquor store at 4-7 pm on a Fri or sat. An adult is with her in all of these scenarios.

[ohgillian]

Jan 27, 2023 18:45:27 GMT -5 cmeon said:

Um. I haven't been a girl scout in a long, long time- but I'm pretty sure they have a VERY strict no resales policy. You should double check before you institute your plan.

Is the troop setting up weekend sales at store fronts? That's typically how they're done now here (outside of the preorders). That should be a good experience for her.

No, I don’t think this is the same thing. It’s now very common for troops to have parents buy inventory in advance and then sell that inventory. I don’t do that with my DD, and we are in the minority in my area.

[sent]

Jan 27, 2023 21:52:27 GMT -5 lindyanne said:

Maybe you could take orders for pickup next weekend if you have a decent amount of traffic and that would sell more but avoid door to door.

We live on a neighborhood cut-through road that gets busy on the weekends so the people driving by aren't necessarily local to our neighborhood. I'd rather have boxes available for purchase right then and there. I'm guessing this is probably why the older girls further up the street used to do this though I think our section is even busier than their section. Today I have DD doing a "study" of how many cars drive by and people walk by in a 15 minute duration every hour, starting at 9 am. Obviously it's to figure out the most optimal time frame to sit out there with the table. But she was annoyed that I was making her do it because she was certain it was busier in the morning, "just because" and didn't comprehend that she needs data to support her hypothesis. Now that she's done 2 time periods this morning, I noticed she didn't separate out cars vs walkers. I emphasized she needs to track the cars versus walkers separately since walkers are more likely to notice and stop. 

It has been math lessons galore over here since last night. 

[sent]

Jan 27, 2023 18:59:41 GMT -5 Patsy Baloney said:

I’m guessing because your daughter joined as a junior, your troop leaders probably are old hat at this and don’t plan to do the entrepreneurship badges/family pins.

I’m happy to forward you the junior level cookie badge work (Cookie collaborator and My Cookie Team) as well as the family entrepreneurship pin. Feel free to DM me your email, I promise I will only sign you up for 1 landsend catalog, lol.

Also, if you want to share what your council is (privately, of course) I’m happy to check out their website with my troop leader knowledge and find their scout resources for selling. I’m guessing they probably have a “how the cookie crumbles” graphic where your scout can see how much her troop gets to keep, how much her council keeps, etc.

Also also (lol) Daisy and brownie badges will have other opportunities for money counting. Does her council have a cookie rally? I can dig through my stuff and send cookie rally activities, too. I feel like I have a bunch saved from 2020 when everything was horrendous and canceled.

I looked again and the Rally emails I've been getting are to sign up for a website. The Rally event held by her troop was to make posters for the sales they'd be doing in front of the stores. When she went to that, she says they didn't discuss anything about sales. 

It's all making more sense now. The troop leader said she places orders on Thursdays and the cases come the following Friday. I guess I'm the only parent asking to pre-buy cases of inventory vs picking up boxes that were ordered so they were confused with me as well. If I get her my order for next Thursday, DD should be very prepared by the time the boxes come to sell sell sell! Hopefully the weather holds up on the weekends so she can be out at the table. 

I'll send you my email. Landsend catalogs are ok. I draw the line at MLMs haha. 

[Patsy Baloney]

SusanBAnthony your council allows those sales? We can’t sell at bars, breweries, dispensaries, etc.

Even if we’re at a grocery store selling, we need to be stationed far away from liquor, tobacco, etc. sales.

Every council is truly different in their rules!

[jinkies]

Interesting! I know our council allows sales at beer distributors, and it's a coveted booth spot, especially super bowl weekend. We weren't allowed to set up our own booths though. It all had to be organized centrally through the council, which makes sense when you consider what a hassle it would be for stores to have to organize booth requests from 20 different troops.

We did the same thing as sent where we bought the boxes from the cookie mom so that we had inventory on hand. Then DD would take orders at school or whatever, and we'd fill them from our inventory. This was the encouraged method, and definitely not against any rules.

Having said that, my DD never really mastered the concept that I had already paid the troop for the cookies and she had to give me the sales money. We had a lot.of arguments over who was keeping the money, and it led to a lot of the sales money not being tracked closely and was kind of a hassle.

Last year was the first year our troop did booths and it was so much easier. She is not in scouts this year, but Id probably push her to majority booth sales if she were doing it this year. It's more straightforward and easier for the girls to make the connection between the sales and then handing the money into the cookie mom when they were done.

[waverly]

I feel like I do most of the work with sales. I take the order sheet into work and DD calls relatives. I post on FB. DD does booth sales.

So anyway we haven’t gotten too much into the finance. I collect the money from co-workers and pocket it because we are told to put everything online and I pay for it all. The troop gets $1 per box.

DD got upset she isn’t getting awesome prizes but I said well you have to walk door to door for that and she thought about and decided no. So we are sticking with our troop minimum goal which is 30 boxes. I offered to take her door to door but it’s cold here and my heart is not into it, so I’m not pushing it. They have a lot of fun at the booth sales and I don’t have to do anything. I just drop off and pick up. There is usually 4-5 girls per hour and we are set up for 3-4 hours. We’ve done restaurants, travel plazas, grocery stores and more.

[brooklyn]

Does she have a cookie selling website? The mom of the Girl Scout on our block sent out the link to us, and when the cookies come in, her and her Girl Scout will hand deliver the boxes to us.