Your Guide to Girl Scout Cookies

I don't get it. I buy Thin Mints and Samoas from the Girl Scouts everytime they come buy, at least for the last 8 years.

Where does the fake cookies come in? Do they mean buying the store sold cookies or making your own? Seems pretty weak.

If they got more than a pittance per box I'd care more. As is, I'd rather just give them a donation of 3-4 bucks and call it a day, then buy the store brand or make my own.

Splint, like most items here at Neatorama, this is just a teaser. You'll get the full story by clicking the word "Link". But I'll splain it: the cookies are named differently in different regions, depending on which bakery produces them. Both grocery store knockoffs and home recipes are addressed. The picture here is just a small part of the image at Buzzfeed, and I think they were trying to be funny.

I actually did go to the link. I thought it was semi-serious, at least, and they were trying to show that certain kinds of cookies we all think are Girl Scout cookies actually aren't. That's why I couldn't follow.

yeah by the teaser, it made it sound like there was another group trying to sell "girl scout" cookies. I figured it was the store cookies, but all in all the teaser and the actual article could have been written better

Keebler has "Coconut Dream" cookies which are basically Samoas with milk chocolate. I just discovered them a few months back. But it's Girl Scout season and there's nothing like the real thing.

Basically, Girl Scout councils east of the Mississippi River get their cookies from one bakery (with one set of names and a few unique cookies) and those west of the Mississippi get theirs from another. I live in St. Paul, MN (east), a "twin city" of Minneapolis (west). A quick trip across the river or a short phone call to a friend and I can get Shout-Outs or Thank-You-Very-Muches.

As for the amount that goes to the girls, yes, there are more efficient ways to give the organization money. But that is not the only point of cookie sales. Girls learn sales skills, learn to organize, count change and talk to strange people. My college age daughter still credits cookie sales for teaching her valuable things. When I buy cookies, I always make the girls tell me what's new, what they recommend, and what the money will go for.

End of spiel.

The article doesn't refer to fakes at all, really. But the picture is misleading. I can see why Splint was confused. It doesn't make sense.

I call bull on the whole 'teaching money management' I don't remember the last time I saw a scout and not her mother managing said money and keeping track of orders.

When I was in GS (in PA) our cookies first came from Little Brownie. Then somewhere around the time I was in Juniors, we switched to ABC. They recently switched back to Little Brownie and I wish they didn't. There is a difference between PB Sandwiches and Do-Si-Dos. And between Shortbreads and Trefoils. I still buy from my Mom's troop but I prefer the plainly named cookies from ABC.

As a foreigner, I'd always assumed that 'Girl Scout cookies' were either home baked by the girl or her parents, or a collaborative effort by the whole troop. To realise now that they're a branded item that children are sent out to sell... wow. What a marketing strategy and a con. How much of that money goes to the girl and/or her troop? How much goes to the company that manufactures these? To advertising? etc etc.

As for these 'fakes' that the article addresses... I wasn't aware that these bakeries can claim that a round biscuit with a minty middle and dark chocolate outer coating was unique to the Girl Scouts. The packaging doesn't even try to fool you, they're just mint biscuits. What a ridiculous claim.

Manticore, sounds like a bit of confirmation bias. Granted, I was a cookie-slinger about 20 years ago, but my mother (a real estate agent at the time) gave me mini-seminars on pitching a sale, closing the sale, giving a good handshake, etc. I always knew exactly how much from each box of cookies I sold came back to my troop, and what sales thresholds I had to meet in order to get 'scholarships' to attend Girl Scout summer camps that my parents would've been otherwise unable to afford.

Helicopter parenting is a problem in all of modern US society currently, but definitely not a unique facet of Girl Scout cookie sales. There are still plenty of girls out there whose parents and troop leaders who are supportively hands-off.

I didn't see Pecan Sandies on their list. When I was little I sold them and they were my grandma's favorite and I haven't seen them since I've been grown. My hubby swears he's never even heard of those. They were a pecan shortbread cookie. Where we live is in the Little Brownie Bakers zone.

pecan sandies? That's a keebler cookie, my dear. i think you are misremembering your childhood.

Lewen- That would be entirely possible. There's been some other stuff over the years that felt pretty vivid, but turned out to be a bit confused. :)