Have you bought your Thin Mints yet? What about some Trefoils? You know what I’m talking about: Girl Scout Cookies!!!!
Every year from January through March you’ll run into Girl Scouts everywhere selling those boxes of delicious cookies. In fact, during those months, Girl Scout cookies are the number one brand of cookies in the U.S., beating out even Oreos, the most popular cookie the rest of the year. That’s a lot of Thin Mints!
The funniest story I’ve heard in a long time and a true stroke of genius is the one about some enterprising scouts in Colorado and California setting up shop outside marijuana dispensaries. Yep, it seems sales outside pot shops far out weight those outside grocery stores and restaurants. Hats off to the young ladies for capitalizing on some basic capitalism. Now that deserves a patch!
Okay…back to the actual cookies. Here then are some tips and tidbits on Girl Scout cookies for today’s Tuesday’s Tip blog:
- Most people agree that Girl Scout cookie sales began in 1917 in Muskogee, Oklahoma when a troop baked and sold cookies in its high school cafeteria as a service project.
- In 1942, Girl Scouts sold calendars instead of cookies due to sugar, flour, and butter shortages and rations during World War II.
- Nearly 200 million boxes of Girl Scout cookies are sold each year.
- Thin Mints are the biggest sellers, making up 25 percent of all sales, followed by Samoas/Caramel deLites at 19 percent.
- During peak bake times, Girl Scout cookie producers bake nearly 5 million Thin Mints per day.
- Shortbread cookies have been around the longest while Peanut Butter Patties have been sold for more than 30 years and are among the top 10 best-selling cookies in America.
- The same cookies may have different names (Samoas/Caramel deLites, Do-Si-Dos/Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Shortbread/Trefoils) because two licensed bakeries – ABC and Little Brownie- make the cookies and can choose the names.
- ABC is proud to report that all of it cookies are cholesterol free and have a trans-fat value of zero grams per serving; its Thin Mints, Thanks-A-Lot, Lemonades, and Peanut Butter Patties are vegan; and all of its cookies are certified kosher.
- Jennifer Sharpe of Dearborn, Michigan holds the record for the most cookies ever sold. The then 15-year-old sold 17,328 boxes in 2008 and of the $21,000 her troop raised for a 10-day tour of Europe, $14,000 was thanks to Sharpe.
- For every box of cookies purchased, more than two-thirds is used by local Girl Scout councils.
- As of 2005, 71 percent of women in the U.S. Senate and 67 percent of women in the House of Representatives are Girl Scout alums.
My daughter was a Girl Scout and I remember her selling cookies. I always made of point of making sure she was selling the cookies and we always liked going to places where twenty-somethings ate, as they might not have Girl Scouts in their apartment buildings or neighborhoods. They ate them up…literally! I still think a college dorm would be the perfect place to sell the cookies as college kids love them and the price of one box is right in their budgets!
Yes, you may be still working on dropping those extra pounds you gained over the holidays, but take a break and support your neighborhood scouts. Where else can you buy an incomparable and beloved Thin Mint and support an American tradition at the same time? Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?
Beyond Words 