I have a question for Americans...

[FriendlyNeighbourhoodAccountant]

...and I'm too embarrassed to ask the Americans I know in real life as it's a strange question and kinda pointless.

What's the deal with girl scout cookies?

Are they the same types of cookies every year?

Are they only sold at certain times of year or are they sold all year round?

What types can you get? I know on Friends they've mentioned thin mints, The Office has mentioned Shortbread.

Are they actually nice or do people buy them to help the girl scouts?

Can you buy the same kinda cookies in supermarkets or are they literally just sold via the girl scouts?

How much does a box cost nowadays?

Former Girl Scout leader here. The cookies are sold by the Girl Scouts to fund their activities. You cannot buy them in stores. They are commercially baked from high-quality ingredients. The bakeries are not allowed to sell cookies made from Girl Scout recipes to other vendors, so if you like a particular cookie, you can only buy them from a Girl Scout. Most of the flavors remain the same from year to year, but each year there is also a new cookie which may be included in future years if it sells well. Girls Scout cookies are popular because they are very good and in some cases, addictive. (Thin Mints, I'm looking at you.)

Also - the troop got a very small fraction of the cost of each box of cookies. The lion's share went to ABC.

I think we got 87c per box and the rest of the $4 (the price has risen since then) went to ABC, Inc.

We still grossed between $400 and $500 per year from the sale, and it was usually spent partially on a charitable contribution decided by the troop and partially on an outing for everyone. Over the years the troop were able to go horseback riding, go-carting, trampolining, and other local attractions (carpooling there and back).

Wayyy back in the mists of time the Girl Scouts baked the cookies and schlepped them door to door to sell.

It's five bucks a box now where I am.

We used to be on the border between two different GSA regions (the regions have since merged), and the neighboring region undercut us by about $1.50, with girls from basically a few blocks away poaching potential customers. Since the merger, customers have to fork over top dollar if they want cookies.

"Girl Scout cookies" suggests they are actually made of, not by, Girl Scouts....

www.girlscoutsni.org/en/cookies-and-fall-product/find-cookies/cookie-flavors-lbb.html

Here are the flavours available this year in my region.

Only the thin mints, samosas, and lemon ones are any good, imo. The rest have a vague flavour of crisco, sugar, peanut butter, etc.

The parents have to actually take a set amount of cases of the cookies and then sell them at work or in booths etc. Any unsold cookies must be purchased by the parents at least in my area so the pressure is very high to sell all the cookies possible.

@mirro - we asked the girls to do their best to sell as many as they could, with no minimum. Some girls sold hundreds of boxes (by bringing the order form to parents' workplaces, so basically the parents sold them). Some sold a few boxes to next door neighbours.

We always did site sales and ordered popular varieties (no new cookies, lots of thin mints, samosas, and tagalongs).

Hence Wednesday's question

This is unexpected!

I have to say, as an American, I love Girl Scout cookies and they are not any worse than your average UK supermarket biscuits.

Canadian here. ☺️
Unless things have changed, we don't have the variety they have in the States. IMHO the only ones worth buying are the original with one row chocolate and one row vanilla. I've heard that it can get pretty crazy with sales, but I haven't heard of any pressure to buy x amount if your child doesn't sell x amount. Bringing boxes to work to sell for your kid is common and typically welcome since most people like them. Kids with their mums will be outside grocery and liquor stores selling, too.

There are no Girl Guides in the ingredients list

@mirro In my area the parents did not have to commit to buying any or be responsible for selling a certain amount. The troop would be responsible to sell the cases that they had ordered however.
I think it's important to also note that in my opinion the US does not have nearly the quality of quantity of "biscuits" or cookies that the UK does, so Girl Scout cookies are more desirable and unique here and sort of fill a gap in the market.

Also a Canadian. We only see the choc/vanilla box and the chocolate coated mint ones.

Another big box fundraiser here are chocolate coated almonds. They are sometimes sold by parents as an alternative to volunteer hours. Parents buy a large box from the organiser and get to keep the sale proceeds, so they get their money back if they sell “their” supply. I know a few parents who have simply dumped the box in their lunch room at work and don’t really care about selling them. They just want them gone.

I've actually never heard of this practice.

Wednesday Adams’ ones were.

No way!! Didn't know there were prizes, let alone crazy big ones!!

Great questions @FriendlyNeighbourhoodAccountant by the way. Ones i have wondered too. (Though I'd always figured they weren't homemade by the girl guides. Well, assuming if TV and films were portraying the truth!)

Speaking of things portrayed by TV and films, my burning question for Americans would be, on TV people in the big houses are often shown to have people (or one part of arguing couples) sleep on the couch and not in a spare/guest room despite there only being a few people in the house. Is that just for dramatic affect or do the big houses generally have fewer bedrooms than the size suggests they do?

(Apologies for piggy-backing on your thread OP!!)

Omg yes!!! The chocolate almonds were amazing, better than the cookies. Cookies were the chocolate/vanilla box or full boxes of either. Use to go door to selling those bad boys. And, the cookies as well. I think they came out one year near valentines and mom and I set up out the local Liquor store. The Almonds were gone with in an hour. I sold so much that year I was "won" 4 tickets to a theme park. Dad also definitely sold cases at his work for me.

I think back in the day 1995/96 they were $3.00 a box and cookies were $4.00 a box. Or it was the other way around. It was a small fortune.

Very interesting thread. I love American traditions. I have been to the States a couple of times in the past on holiday and it was fascinating.,, the sheer size of it. (Compared to the UK) I sometimes secretly wish I was American 😍😅)

American here!

I was at a Major League Baseball game 2 weeks ago and there were about 10 Girl Scout Troops out on the field. These troops were the ones that sold the most in our area. They all sang the National Anthem together, and the girl that sold the most threw out the first pitch. There were a few other things they did on the field, but this was definitely part of the 'experience' of selling the most amount of cookies.

My favorites are Thin Mints and Peanut Butter Patties, but I haven't bought any in years. If I were to buy some, I would purchase them from the troops that sell them in front of the grocery store.

No they're Samoas if they're from Little Brownie Bakers and Caramel deLites if they're from ABC. Each council contracts with one of the two.

They're no worse than your average supermarket biscuit made with palm oil, which is to say mediocre. I do like the Thin Mints, though, they're very nice if you put them in the freezer. I learnt when our local council switched bakeries that the recipes vary slightly depending on which company does them!

Never knew. Wonder where the Canadian ones come from. The packaging was identical. Lived and was a girl guide in both countries

That was my reaction too!