I have an idea: Don't sell cookies!! I hated selling them as a kid, and I resent that I'm obligated to buy a case from my niece every year. I'd rather buy a box of Thin Mints, and give her troop $40 cash. But that's not allowed, and my cupboards are full of cookies. I still have half from last year, and more are coming soon.

Yeah, why dont they sell bread mix or granola bars?  

The 100 calorie packs are only for one new low-fat variety and they are packaged in plain silver foil bags.  I put them in my kids' lunches a few times and they saved me from busting into the thin mints on more than one night.  They taste kind of like Teddy Grahams.  

I think it is nice that they offer this choice for those who want it for whatever reason. My kids don't sit around pondering how many jumps over the rope they need to counteract a cookie, but there are a lot of kids (and adults) struggling with their weight and I don't see anything wrong with providing information that reinforces healthy choices.  

FYI - if you don't want to buy cookies from your niece this year, you can buy cookies from her that the Girl Scouts will send to the soldiers overseas.

The Girl Scouts are a great organization.  No one is forced to sell or buy cookies and this fundraiser is one that will directly benefit girls in your local area.

Snark on that.

It's come to this? Bitching about the Girl Scouts? Some of you need to embrace happy hour.

Wow, I'm sorry if I came across as snarky. sarahsw, I actually like the idea of sending the cookies to the soldiers. I never knew about that, as I'm not the one who makes the cookie purchases in my house. It's my husband's niece--his brother's daughter--that sells them and calls her uncle directly.

Hey, I'm not knocking the Girl Scouts! I just don't happen to like the way the cookie sales are structured. I understand that the girls like the challenge of selling cookies. I don't like how a small fraction of the sales actually goes to the troops. I have nephews who are in Boy Scouts and a much bigger chunk of their popcorn proceeds go to the actual troop. And they're working just as hard as the girls.

And trust me, I wish I could do happy hour, but my fetus wouldn't like me.

No problem...  for the record, out of a $3.50 box of cookies, about 60 cents goes to the troop, which doesn't sound like much, but our troop of six-year-olds earned $700 without too much effort and that will pay for us to take them on four field trips where they will earn badges and have experiences the troop leaders couldn't provide on their own, so that's really plenty.  Another $2.00 goes to the local area council to subsidize their educational programs that serve eastern PA including providing summer camp to a lot of girls in Philadelphia and other urban areas.  The rest pays the bakery. Not bad.  I don't know the breakdowns go for the boy scouts, but I do know their popcorn has a much higher price point.  

Here's an interesting tidbit though.  The girl scouts instruct the girls selling cookies at booths in public places that they should stay behind the table and not approach people until they come to the table.  By contrast, the boy scouts are trained to move about the sales area, walking up to potential customers and selling them on the idea of supporting the boy scouts before they even mention popcorn.  Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are actually two different organizations, so I know this is not an orchestrated gender-typed sales plan, but it is interesting and somewhat dismaying nonetheless.