Bitter reports that Wal-Mart is making virtual clones of the famous Girl Scout Cookies. Not really believing this, we went out to Wal-Mart to seek out their versions of Thin Mints and Tagalongs. I have to admit, it’s an accurate and yummy facsimile. Needless to say, Girl Scout moms are furious, as they believe Wal-Mart is stealing from that organization. Personally, I just like the cookies, and if the Girl Scouts want me to have sympathy for them, they can start by coming into the 1990s with women’s rights, and letting the girls earn marksmanship badges like the Boy Scouts. Hey, I’m all about equality. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the cheap and yummy knockoff cookies.
19 thoughts on “Look to the Cookie”
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You mean we can finally buy those cookies year round instead of just when the Girl Scouts want our money?
Awesome!
*shrugs* no one bitches that places besides the Boy Scouts sell popcorn.
The “Rifle & Shotgun” merit badge was the first one I ever earned as in the Boy Scouts of America. I shot a Marlin .22 for the rifle part, and a Savage 20 gauge for the shotgun part, at the Ressica Falls Scout Reservation in Marshalls Creek, Pennsylvania.
Will the Girl Scouts ever develop a similar badge like this? I wouldn’t bet on it.
I say this because I have seen, heard, and read some things here and there about the current top leadership of this organization, one which happens to be of a rather left-winger ideology, which of course would naturally mean that they would be completely opposed to letting their impressionable young girls learn how to safely handle all those evil and vicious .22 and 20 gauge firearms in this world.
And it’s that same left-winger ideology that causes them to think they should be the sole cookie marketers for their most profitable types. Oh, and the same left-winger ideology that caused the above linked blogger to close comments when 90% of them were not agreeing with her that “ZOMG! The evil Walmart! It hates the little girls!”.
Like was pointed out in the comments there, Walmart is not the first to offer knockoffs. What I didn’t see mentioned there was the fact that Walmart is a retailer, not a manufacturer. Yes, I know that as the largest retailer they wield way more control over the manufacturing process then most. I used to date a buyer for a major high-end manufacturer that also sold in Walmart, so I’m fully aware of how much control Walmart often has over manufacturing. Still, someone else is making these cookies, and packaging them for Walmart. I’m sure they are already selling the same product under their own brand name. Same thing with the GS cookies. It’s been a LONG time since the girl scouts actually baked them. When I was younger, GS cookies (at least regionally) were baked by a cookie company named Burry’s (later named “Burry-Lu”) in Elizabeth, NJ. The company I worked for would purchase items from a warehouse nearby about once a month or so. We would have the driver swing by Burry’s, which had a small retail outlet where he could purchase 5lb boxes of “defective” thin mints (some were broke, most just had an uneven chocolate coating or were stuck together) for like $5 (this was about 25yrs ago). I’d eat those cookies until I was sick, then freeze the rest or give ’em away to friends.
Interesting read on Burry’s: http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/fb.ashx?m=480103
Seems like at one time they pretty much made ALL the GS cookies.
I always tho’t the cookie sale thing was a scam anyway. Most of the money goes back to the national org’ with little left locally. Much better to make a cash donation to the local troop and buy your cookies @walmart.
The damn girl scout cookies cost what now? $4/box? For like 15 cookies? And the scouts get to keep about $.50/box..
I stopped buying them about 5 years ago. Instead, I’ll usually stick a $5 bill in their donations jar a couple times during the fundraiser season.
I don’t mind paying a bit more for something used as a fundraiser, but in this case I’d rather just donate $10 or $15 and have the troop keep ALL of it rather than spend that on cookies and have them get $2 or $3 bucks….
The Boy Scouts keep most of the popcorn money. And the “ruby red” white chocolate/dried cranberry bits popcorn clusters are like freakin crack sprinkled with heroin…
Years ago, the Marksmanship or Rifle/Shotgun merit badges were split into Rifle Shooting (includes air rifle and muzzle-loader) and Shotgun Shooting, a good thing. There is a lot of hunter-safety text appended to the badges, feeding a happy rumor that a Hunting merit badge will emerge.
There is no connection between the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts. To the extent that a neighborhood-oriented organization can maintain an ideology, it’s fair to say, as above, that the two belong to entirely different movements. Without saying a lot, I’d just note that the horrifying issue of excluding openly practicing adult homosexuals from leadership roles which so plagued Boy Scouting has never been an issue in the Girl Scouts. Take that for what you will.
However, BSA studiously avoids ideological stances. There is no “military-style” drill in Boy Scouting–it was banned to avoid appearing to be paramilitary, a tension that goes right back to the merger that founded American scouting. This is why Scout color guards appear so inept. By a back-door rule (giving jurisdiction to camp directors) the fixed-blade knife has been effectively prohibited, despite the old BSA-logo hunter you may carry in your sheath. And leave-no-trace, don’t get me started.
Best example: At a scoutmasters’ round table, several scouters complimented my council-wide scout shooting program (camp director: “Good! It’s about time somebody shot the little b****ards”!) and lamented that their troops would be unable to participate. Asked why, they said they were chartered by churches, and therefore of course couldn’t have anything to do with guns, because a parishioner might complain (I know guys who shoot on a church-league rifle team). That right there is how policy is made: not in national debate, but by placing fear in the hearts of honest men. Any rate, Scout working policy always reflects the mouthier tenets of the surrounding community, not any stated principle of national HQ. They seek not to offend.
Ironic, since here, about the only place that welcomes the Girl Scouts to sell cookies on their property is Wal-Mart (and Sam’s Club).
There isn’t a cookie in the world worth what the Girl Scouts charge. What we know is that we’re giving the Scouts a donation, and in return receiving a token of their appreciation.
To avoid national, council, and district taking their share of our profits when we sold popcorn, we’d just have our own fundraiser for “Friends of Troop xyz,” and buy our own stuff with it.
All I have to say is you all better PRAY that Wal-Mart doesn’t decide to get into whatever business you do to support yourselves/family.
Girl Scout cookies are an addiction… If they would just sell the damn things all year long, then the “underground” wouldn’t one in on their recipes, but NNNoooooooo, they want it locked up.
Make them more available… Until then, I’m off to Wall Mart!!!
I don’t think there’s any risk of Wal-Mart getting involved in pharmaceutical research.
So, has Nabisco (for example) complained about the Girl Scouts selling vanilla-creme cookies? No?
Um, did a quick search. Seems the Girl Scouts used to offer badges: Rifle Shot 1913, same as Marksmanship 1916.
http://www.vintagegirlscout.com/badgefelt.htm
Which I shall add to the snapshots of the Washington D.C. Girl’s Rifle Club of the early Twenties (search http://www.shorpy.com/).
tecjack said:
“Um, did a quick search. Seems the Girl Scouts used to offer badges: Rifle Shot 1913, same as Marksmanship 1916.”
But its not likely under the present regime. Girl Scouting has a really poor retention rate for older girls, and the Boy Scouts now offer a coed program for older youth called Venturing, for youth from age 14 to 20, which emphasizes high adventure outdoor activities.
It is largely youth led, and I asked our Council’s Venturing President some years ago, knowing she had been in Girl Scouts before moving over, what had induced her to make the change.
Her answer: “All we ever did in Girl Scouts was to sit in a circle and get in touch with our feelings.”
No, I don’t think we’ll see Girl Scout marksmanship in the foreseeable future.
When I was in boy scouts and my sisters were in girl scouts in the 70s The girls didn’t get to go camping, hiking or shooting. My mother had my two best friends and I take her girl scout group on a weekend camp out. According to the council leader at the time she thinks that those 10 girls were the only girls in the council who left girl scouts knowing how to pitch a tent, build a fire, cook over that fire, or hike off into the woods then find your way back again.
My daughters have been in girl scouts now for several years. They go on one camp out a year and sleep in a cabin. My son has been in boy scouts now for 2 years and had been on 20 camp outs, and has earned both his rifleman and shotgun shooting merit badges.
Not much has changed in 30 years.
Some good comments there. My kid met his first girlfriend in the Boy Scouts (Venture Crew! Venture Crew!). I just had an amusing chat with a former national champion at Camp Perry, who’s been a scouter with both lodges all her life. She said she liked Girl Scouting a lot, until she got into the upper reaches as a mid-teen and they said to heck with camping out, let’s have a fashion show; then she couldn’t get away fast enough. Obviously there’s no percentage in trying to predict what will keep adolescent females involved in an organized activity.
That’s not a misogynist crack, it’s a national emergency. Somehow, we’re raising women in niches. We “teach” (tolerate) them to have their thinking done by gangs of BFF fashionistas. Setting aside the quandaries this creates for similarly-aged males, it’s caused Title IX to ride rough shod over college athletics, fiscallly outlawing traditionally co-ed teams like fencing and rifle. Something’s not working here.
All that from a Girl Scout cookie. Well, from what I’ve seen, 4H is still going strong, so there is that.
moose: I prefer not to be in a business where WalMart can compete – ie, mass-produced inventory-heavy consumer goods.
And if they do, well, that saves everyone money, making everyone better off.
There’s a reason nobody much makes a living making buggy whips anymore. Stupid automobiles, ruining livelihoods.
(That said, no Samoa clone? No sale.)