On Selling Girl Scout Cookies

It's that time of the year. No, not "that" time. Instead I refer to the time of the year when little girls sell their cookies, Girl Scout cookies. When my own daughter was small I remember walking the neighborhood and knocking on doors offering those Girl Scout cookies for a sale. It is supposed to be a life lesson for the little girls in how hard one must work to sell. Since I seemed to do most of the talking and selling while Jane merely piped in with a "Are we finished yet. I want to go home now" every 15 minutes," I was the one who learned that selling was not fun.

The competition among Girl Scouts to sell their cookies and earn those merit badges for doing so is intense.  The parents who owned or worked at high traffic retail businesses used to sell the cookies there for their daughters. Not fair, said I and most other parents who walked with their children  to help see. I remember one friend of Jane's who's parents owned a very popular business selling cases of those cookies.  The business and mom and dad sold the while the Girl Scout daughter took the credit.

Even today the Girl Scout organization seems not to care who or how the cookies are sold. Revenue for the Girl Scouts is dependent on selling those cookies. The kids (or parents) are unpaid labor who bring in huge profits for fat car employees of Girl Scout Inc. They pay themselves huge salaries that are largely the product of profits from the cookie sales. I understand that now a girl scout is allowed to sell on line now. Well! Girls Scouts  today are learning all the dirty aspects of capitalism.

Today I read the most amusing of all scout cookie vending stories.  According to my local newspaper one Girl Scout is selling her cookies by vending them in front of marijuana store here in Portland. The liberal government in Oregon legalized the sale and use of marijuana this year for adults. (I guess so that more people can get high and drive their autos like homicidal maniacs). The scout set up shop in front of 'Foster Buds Medical and Recreational Dispensary' the other day so she might sell to them while their so high they won't even know what they purchased.

Hmmmm The Girl Scout's aunt was quoted in the newspaper article as saying, "There aren't' any rules against it". Another life lesson for this little girl. If you can behave immorally but evading the rules, do it. The druggies who run Foster Buds say they are "proud" to have Girl Scouts selling their cookies outside the door of their shop. And the Girl Scout organization spokesperson says that the organization "recommends that if a minor cannot enter the premises unaccompanied, she should not sell Girl Scout Cookies in front of the business." That's it! The Girl Scouts "recommends", not forbids selling their. Profit does rule the Scout credo.

As for the little girl selling and her clue less parents the no ethics stance on selling cookies rules too. In just a couple of hours last year one child in San Francisco sold more than 200 boxes of Girl Scout cookies while selling in front of another marijuana shop.  Hmmmm Maybe next year the Girl Scouts should sell marijuana laced cookies in front of those shops.