February 8, 2018

"While some have praised the plucky scout for figuring out where the demand would probably be, the Girl Scouts organization has been wrestling with..."

"... how to handle marijuana-adjacent sales as more states have legalized the drug. Girls who wheel carts full of cookies are generally free to travel where they please with their parents, even if that path takes them past marijuana shops, but there are often stricter rules around where to set up booths or stands. There are no nationwide policies related to marijuana dispensaries. Each local organization sets its own policies."

From "A Girl Scout Sold 300 Boxes of Cookies Near a Marijuana Shop" (NYT).

Here's the marijuana shop's Instagram, which forced the Girl Scouts to confront the problem of the cookie-eating/marijuana connection:



Should the marijuana business be allowed to appropriate the wholesomeness of Girl Scouts for its own self-promotion? But I'd like to talk about how the cookie business has appropriated the Girl Scout brand all these years. It's not as though cookies are good for you.

What's more damaging to your body? (Exclude health damage attributable to the quasi-illegality of marijuana, such as anxiety about breaking the law or spending time in prison.)
 
pollcode.com free polls

68 comments:

mockturtle said...

It would make a difference how the product is used. I should think marijuana eaten is safer than marijuana [or cookies!] smoked.

rhhardin said...

As kids we were sent home from public schools to sell magazine subscriptions to neighbors and relatives.

I don't remember why fuck you wasn't an option. Probably we were too young to think of it in the rhetorical situation.

Nonapod said...

Moderation in all things is good life advice.

readering said...

Girl Scout cookies as gateway drug? I just ate two boxes.

traditionalguy said...

There will soon be a law that forbids cookie sales just to allow that Mafia/Big Pharma to monoplise it too. There is no politician that doesn't like cash donations.

Paul said...

The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts have morphed so much into liberal decadence (they even ignore their own 'morally strait' motto, I won't give a dime to either one. And I am NOT sorry to say it (only sorry they went down the drain, see I was in the Boy Scouts 45 years ago.)

Meade said...

Sugar: The original gateway drug.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

readering said...

Girl Scout cookies as gateway drug? I just ate two boxes.

Conversation with my wife:

Me: I'm getting a dozen boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Do you want me to get you any?
Wife: A dozen boxes should be plenty.
Me, mansplaining: No, I'm getting a dozen boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Do you want me to get you any?

Ignorance is Bliss said...

As for the poll:

Cookies do more harm, because they are consumed much more, because they are legal.
If pot becomes legal, it will do more harm than cookies.

I'm not saying that is a good enough reason to keep it illegal.

Fernandinande said...

From "A Girl Scout Sold 300 Boxes of Cookies Near a Marijuana Shop" (NYT).

Wow! That's somewhat more than average!

"And while the average Scout sells 150 to 200 boxes of cookies each season, some Samoa slingers go well beyond that, selling thousands of boxes apiece."

Girl Scout Sells More Than 15K Cookie Boxes After Writing Brutally Honest Cookie Review

Tank said...

The Girl Scouts here take Visa.

That's good reason to say NO.

Sally327 said...

I don't think the cookies are wholesome but the kids pushing them out in front of my local grocery store on Saturday morning seem like they are. I feel as if me buying a couple of boxes, I've done my part to keep them out of a gang. Or possibly I'm encouraging them to look at their own eating habits, you know...do you want to look and move like me when you're old little girl? Don't be eating those cookies yourself. Maybe having them set up in front of a marijuana store, it will have the same effect, don't be smoking pot little ones, you'll turn out like these losers.

Chris N said...

Is that even a girl?

And who’s she scouting for, anyways?

What does it all mean?

#trutherism

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Munchies + readily available cookies = win.

Meade said...

I started out on Do-si-dos® but soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they'd stand behind me when the game got rough...
But the joke was on me, soon I hit 300 lbs. in the buff
I'm going back to Taubes and Rippetoe, I do believe I've had enough

BarrySanders20 said...

"But I'd like to talk about how the cookie business has appropriated the Girl Scout brand all these years."

It's the other way around. Each box costs $4 and of that, $1 goes to the baker and $3 to the local region. The seller's troop gets about 70 cents of the $3 profit. Overall, profit is about $500,000,000 annually. Lots of free parent labor/child labor helps increase the profit margin.

So it's not Big Cookie taking advantage of innocence. It's those ruthless profiteers, the women running Girl Scouts!

Michael K said...

Long ago, when Peter Drucker wrote his book about non-profits, he ranked the Girl Scouts as the best managed as they had been able to adapt to the world of women working. He wrote that the emphasis had shifted from giving housewives something to do with their time, to "quality time" with their daughters for working mothers. He thought it was a masterful job of shifting marketing.

Girl Scouts seem to have lost their way recently. I don't know what he would think of this.

Unknown said...

What's more damaging (cookies or pot) to your body?

They forgot the obvious choice - pot as a gateway drug for cookies. God knows how many more cookies I ate when stoned! :)

Wilbur said...

Don't want to buy GS cookies when accosted outside a store? Try saying "No". It's painless and works remarkably well.

Daniel Jackson said...

What an incredibly brilliant young business person--she located the ideal niche for her brand. She clearly knows her product appeals to a motivated sector of the consumer side of the cookie market and has exploited it fully.

This is presidential material and bespeaks well of the Girl Scouts in inculcating proper American Capitalist Spirit.

WisRich said...

I don't think it's appropriate at all for the Pot shop. If you disagree, think about how you'd feel if Phillip Morris had done the same thing.

Earnest Prole said...

But I'd like to talk about how the cookie business has appropriated the Girl Scout brand all these years. It's not as though cookies are good for you.

Once in a blue moon we get naggy nannyish Althouse.

Wilbur said...

How do these pot shops work? Do they let you smoke inside? If not, how do you catch a buzz with the resultant drop in blood sugar level (also known as the munchies)? And if not, why would she sell any more outside of this shop than any other?

Inquiring minds.

richlb said...

If the Girl Scouts can't teach young women how to approach a need with a solution and profit from it, what good are they?

Jim Gust said...

If we contrast the size of the obese population with the stoned population, it becomes obvious that cookies are a far greater public health menace, by a couple orders of magnitude.

Mary Beth said...

I don't think you're allowed to smoke inside the dispensaries, so cookie sales outside are no more of an impulse buy than they are at the grocery.

tcrosse said...

How do these pot shops work? Do they let you smoke inside? If not, how do you catch a buzz with the resultant drop in blood sugar level (also known as the munchies)?

They don't let you smoke in the shop, but:
1. Customers might already be stoned before they get to the shop.
2. Customers probably know that when they do get stoned they're going to want cookies.

TrespassersW said...

Girl Scout cookies are seriously overrated.

There. I said it.

It's true, but it appears that nobody will admit it. Every time I try one--doesn't matter which kind--my reaction is "Meh."

I'm not saying they're bad cookies, mind you. But they're just . . . average. Nothing to wax rhapsodic over.

Let the flames begin.

rcocean said...

Funny how we never hear about the bad health of effects of MJ use, even though its not healthy - at all.

Its like the MSM WANTS legalized MJ across the USA.

I've read something like 10% of all ER admissions in Colorado are due to MJ overdose/side effects.

Sam's Hideout said...

My guess was the Girl Scouts were very likely under 1% of US cookie sales, probably under 0.1%. Then I searched for numbers and found that Girl Scount cookies were over 10% of US sales, large enoungh that if they were a food company, they'd be #3 in cookies. (From a 4 year old news article)

rcocean said...

I wonder when MJ commercials will start showing up on TV. We now have hard liquor ads, but no cigarette ones.

Bizarre.

Sam's Hideout said...

Mary Beth: so pethaps marijuana users have poor impulse control?

Ok, searching found multiple journal articles observing higher impulsivity and hostility among marijuana users.

This suggests trying to sell all kinds of impulse buys to marijuana users, not just cookies.

cubanbob said...

Hmm whats worse health wise? Inhaling smoke as deep as you can into your lungs and holding the smoke in as long as you can or munching some cheap crappy cookies?

wwww said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"Its like the MSM WANTS legalized MJ across the USA"

While I'm for legalization (I don't like pot, but that's not a reason to ban something), I have wondered if the MSM enthusiasm for pot is because they figure a stoned populace would be a passive populace. Here's your soma, serfs.

As to the question of whether cookies or pot are worse for you - well, depends how much you indulge in either of them. Daily pot smoking might indeed lead to too much cookie eating, although in my college days, nachos and pizza were the munchies of choice. Come to think of it, people normally got cravings for savory or salty food, not sweets.

Billy Oblivion said...

This came up last year (or the year before, I can't remember) here in Denver.

Last year there was a prohibition against Girl Scouts setting up in/in front of pot shops.

This year that disappeared.

My kid's troop is running a few booths in microbrew facilities.

nbks said...

The left has a funny relationship with controlled substances. If this were Girl Scouts selling, say, potato chips outside of a beer store, it would be labeled an unacceptable endorsement of alcoholism. Somehow, though, pot makes it "cute" and OK.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

The Girl Scouts spend more damn money on consultants and employees and real estate (their national office is at 420 5th Avenue, New York, NY--midtown Manhattan, for the love of Pete; why?!) then they ever dreamed of spending on the actual girls. I figured this out after spending several winters of my life freezing my ass at booth sales to make 50 cents a box for my troop, and having my living room taken over by acres of boxes and providing all the free labor so the fat lesbians at the local Scout office could keep drawing a salary. Their program is totally in the shitter; it's all boring workbooks about SJW propaganda.

I'm bummed about the normalization of pot culture to this extent, that someone encouraged her child to do this, but that ship has sailed. All I can do is talk to my kids about how pot makes you boring, lazy and dumber, and if that's what you want for yourself, be my guest, but go in with eyes open.

Francisco D said...

"All I can do is talk to my kids about how pot makes you boring, lazy and dumber, and if that's what you want for yourself, be my guest, but go in with eyes open."

Agreed.

I smoked a lot of pot from ages 16-19. That was 45 years ago. The THC content was probably a tenth of the strength today.

As I look back on my youthful behavior, I realize that I was bored and smoking MJ was a way of showing disobedience to authority and having an altered state of mind. It did nothing useful for me. I wasted time and money and probably a few brain cells.

Today, I would rather kill a few brain cells with a good single malt scotch, preferably an Islay malt.

Fernandinande said...

rcocean said...
I've read something like 10% of all ER admissions in Colorado are due to MJ overdose/side effects.


I read something like 90% of hospital admissions are people dying from marijuana overdoses, and that almost all of them die right after they crawl into the hospital leaving a trail of contaminated blood and shit behind them.

But, like you, I can't find that article.

Or this article -

"In extreme cases, Bedard says it’s common to give a patient some kind of sedative, like Xanax or Valium (though if the patient also has alcohol in their system, these drugs are avoided as they can create actual life-threatening issues). In a majority of cases, though, it’s a matter of telling the patient that they aren’t dying and keeping an eye on them until they feel better — a service that could be accomplished by a friend or neighbor (who likely won’t send you a hefty bill weeks later)."

MacMacConnell said...

I don't give a shit how the GS spend the money, I just like the cookies.

Henry said...

Girl Scouts might want to reconsider their brand. What are they except a consortium that uses little girls and their moms to sell cookies?

The cookie wags the dog. And the cub scouts are now happy to accept girls who'd rather learn to use a knife and get their shoes dirty.

Henry said...

Roy J wrote: "Girl Scout cookies are seriously overrated."

There's a reason that Keebler doesn't make knockoffs. Except thin mints. Keebler makes grasshoppers.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Francisco D said:

"I smoked a lot of pot from ages 16-19. That was 45 years ago. The THC content was probably a tenth of the strength today."

I wrote here that I took a hit off a millenial's pipe a few months ago, just out of curiosity. Just one hit. I went from sober to extremely high in 10 seconds flat and it took me hours to sober up enough to be able to drive. Now, I hadn't smoked the stuff since the early '80's and so do not have a tolerance for it, but still, I was shocked at how potent it was. Today's pot is nothing at all like what we smoked in the '70's. I guess the one good thing about it is that it acted so rapidly that I was under no delusions whatsoever that I could drive. Alcohol's effects are gradual and so many people who have that one drink too many are still convinced that they'll do just fine behind the wheel.

I'm glad I conducted that little experiment. I have no desire to repeat it. I wonder how many people who think pot is just fine are under the impression that it's just like the Mexican Gold they smoked at that Neil Young concert in 1974.

I certainly know a few people whose lives seemed to be warped by it. Don't we all know a stereotypical "Oh, wow, man!" stoner whose life came to revolve around it and seemed to stall, mentally and emotionally, at age 17? Guys - every one I've known was male - who lived at home until they were 40, working crap jobs and getting high every night? Most who smoke don't end up that way, but some do.

Like I said, I don't think it should illegal anymore than I think booze should be illegal, but I'm not buying that it's totally benign either.

Gahrie said...

There has been a strain of cannabis named Girl Scout Cookies for some while now.

Matt Sablan said...

No one complains about food carts setting up between office buildings. Behold, the Invisible Hand of Market Forces.

Gahrie said...

How do these pot shops work?

Generally you go inside and show your id and medical recommendation (or just id in recreational states) and wait in a waiting room. When it is your turn you usually go through a couple of security doors to the salesroom. Inside are multiple forms of cannabis. Flower (or buds), wax, vape, concentrate, edibles and even topicals.

Do they let you smoke inside?

It depends on the shop, but usually yes. Many do product demos just like any other store.

I Callahan said...

we contrast the size of the obese population with the stoned population, it becomes obvious that cookies are a far greater public health menace, by a couple orders of magnitude.

Right, because the main way, or only way, to get obese is by eating Girl Scout cookies.

I really question the intellect of the 39% on the poll who think the cookies are worse: cookies have sugar, which is something the body naturally craves; or pot, which the body DOESN’T crave, which is burning leaves you inhale the smoke from for as long as you can.

Ugh...

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Won't pot legalization contribute to the obesity problem in this country? It would probably be wise to buy stock in Doritos and Domino's Pizza.

Rusty said...

"But I'd like to talk about how the cookie business has appropriated the Girl Scout brand all these years. It's not as though cookies are good for you."
Shuttup and have a "Thin Mint"
Want another one? Take the whole box. It's free!
Oh. You want more? Well. That's gonna cost you.

Earnest Prole said...

Oh. You want more? Well. That's gonna cost you.

Nailed it.

Jim Gust said...

I'm not trying to suggest that Girl Scout cookies are the main cause of obesity, or that cookies in general are. They are contributors, though. And obesity is the more serious public health concern.

Doesn't mean I want to ban the cookies. But I don't buy them.

gilbar said...

seller's troop gets about 70 cents of the $3 profit

that's why I don't buy these. the corporation gets $2.30. and for what?
there is little to no marketing, absolutely NO labor costs, and worst of all no Workers Comp insurance premiums. When your daughter trips and falls while selling cookies; who do you sue? the customer?

Does the corporation Do anything besides sell cookies and make Huge profits?
Sounds like some of you have daughters that work for the corporation; Are there any benefits besides the fun of sales? I'm kinda serious, do they still go on retreats and such?

wwww said...

And the cub scouts are now happy to accept girls who'd rather learn to use a knife and get their shoes dirty.


As kids we used knives on our camping trips, built fires, camped in snow and rain. Three day-canoe trips with pup-tents.

I don't think co-ed camping trips for kids are a great idea. Wouldn't want my daughter to be the only girl camping with a bunch of pre-teen boys or alone at a Boy Scout jamboree. Not a good idea unless the genders are equally represented.

wwww said...



There's not a lot of talk about the dangers of pot, but it can work as a catalyst to start the onset of schizophrenia in people who are pre-disposed.

I'm not against legalization, but I'm concerned about the proliferation of pot shops. These shops are a logical consequence of legalization, but pot use has risks that aren't being discussed.

Richard said...

Girl Scout cookie sales is a racket that exploits the girl scouts in order to make the Girl Scout CEO rich. The Girl Scout CEO had a salary of $420,000 as reported on their 2013 tax return. Since I have a granddaughter in the girl scouts I am all too familiar with their marketing practices. They go far beyond the door-to-door sales in your neighborhood or selling in front of the local supermarket. They now use the Internet to sell to relatives that are not local. They send you an email with the scout’s name demanding that you buy the cookies. If you don’t they send a follow up email to the girl scout letting her know that you are a mean grandpa because you haven’t bought the cookies yet.

ALP said...

I find the whole door to door practice of selling things so utterly offensive, GSA has a lot of nerve clutching pearls over a girl in front of a dispensary - as if THAT were more offensive than invading my privacy by showing up on my property, at MY door. It makes us finally EVEN after all these years of ignoring people at my door. At least the sales pitch isn't being forced on me! GSA probably sells cookies to the very obese without a twinge of guilt - don't get all moral on us NOW because some GS found one of the world's best places to sell cookies.

Sydney said...

But I'd like to talk about how the cookie business has appropriated the Girl Scout brand all these years

The organization is all about cookies. My daughter used to go to Girl Scout summer camp, but it didn't hold a candle to the experience my boys got at Boy Scout camps. The regular meetings weren't all that great, either. It seemed to me that the Girl Scouts didn't provide the support to the troops to make it a good experience the way the Boy Scouts did.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

When I was in Future Farmers of America, we sold boxes of fruit. Oranges, grapefruit, apples. These were big boxes too, that would take customers a month or two to get through. The local Hy-Vee grocery store didn’t like the competition. We let the manager bid, but he couldn’t match the prices we were getting from the National FFA distribution system. We made some serious money for our chapter, and spent a lot of it on a senior trip to the Lake of the Ozarks. No camping, we stayed at a lakeside motel and spent our evenings and most of our money at the go-cart track. You banked sales points for 4 years that translated into senior trip money. It was in the summer after graduation so there were essentially no rules.

gilbar said...

" It was in the summer after graduation so there were essentially no rules."

other than having to wear the cool blue jackets?

Howard said...

The dose makes the poison.

The scout is smart not only because munchies but because the magik haze of Mary Jane makes people pathologically nostalgic, which, IMO, is the main driver of pothead GS cookie sales.

Henry said...



The idea is that in cub scouts, dens can choose to be all-girl, all-boy, or mixed. Cub scouts is top-heavy with parents, so there shouldn't be any issue. For boy scouts, the idea is to have all-boy or all-girl troops.

I'm not sure how this will work at the council level, where boy-scout camps bring together dozens of troops at once.

David said...

Better than marijuana near a cookie store.

Bilwick said...

You don't hear the word "plucky" much anymore. The last time I think I heard it was in a Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon. "And so the plucky squirrel flew into the air . . ."

As for where the Girl Scouts sell their cookies, I'd much rather--if we had Mary Jane stores in this locality (which, it being the Bible Belt, we don't)--the Girl Scouts peddle their cookies outside one of those stores than the supermarkets, as they do here. They position their cookie stands right outside the supermarket entrances so you pretty much have to run the Girl Scout gauntlet to enter the store. A tad coercive, I think.

Sigivald said...

Should the marijuana business be allowed to appropriate the wholesomeness of Girl Scouts for its own self-promotion

"Allowed", Comrade?

If Girl Scouts are sellin' cookies out front, it's "allowed" to tell the world.

Weed's basically harmless, all things considered. Non-issue.

Dave said...

Sugar/carbs are easily more dangerous than thc.

wwww said...

It seemed to me that the Girl Scouts didn't provide the support to the troops to make it a good experience the way the Boy Scouts did.


It's an organization that depends on the quality of its volunteer troop leaders. My troop did all sorts of stuff like cave spelunking, canoe trips, winter camping, competitions like fire building...At the high school level the boy scouts were much more organized. The Eagle Scouts kept people in where a bunch of people dropped out between 6-8th for the girl scouts.

My troops were excellent 1st-8th grade.

Anonymous said...

If you had asked "What is worse for the mind", i'd have answered "marijuana"

But since you asked what's worse for the body, and sugar is just so nasty for the body, I had to go with the cookies

"Should the marijuana business be allowed to appropriate the wholesomeness of Girl Scouts for its own self-promotion?"

The Girl Scouts are now leftist, not wholesome. Which is why so many girls are jumping ship to the Boy Scouts