Believe it or not, Girl Scout cookies can actually be found in the dictionary.
This is what the dictionary calls it: A Girl Scout cookie is one of several varieties of cookie. They were sold on neighborhood tours by Girl Scouts of the USA as a fundraiser for their organization. Cookies have become a worldwide frenzy.
The history of how they came to be is very interesting. In 1922 the American Girl magazine suggested cookie sales as a fundraiser and provided recipes. It was 1933 in Philadelphia when the first official sale took place. In 1936 they licensed the recipes out so that companies could mass-produce them.
The girls scouts would usually sell to their relatives and friends. Then they would walk around town to visit people’s houses and take their orders by paper, just like they do today. As an incentive to sell more cookies, the councils would offer different prizes. The prizes would differ from council to council, but popular prizes were stuffed animals, coupons and uniforms.
About Scout Cookie Fundraising Profits
Today the prizes have grown to scholarships, family trips, and other large prizes. For every box sold, the Girl Scout council receives around 40-60 cents. This adds up to millions for the council, and this allows for the council to put the money back into the girl scouts.
There are many critics of the cookies. They believe that they are too fatty, and help spread the obese epidemic that has taken over this country. A way that the council helped to dismiss these remarks was to create sugar-free and fat-free cookies. Not only are these cookies better for us, but they also taste just as good.
There are thirteen different types of cookies today:
1. Thin Mints 2. Do-si-dos 3. Trefoils 4. Samoas 5. Lemon-Ups 6. Lemonades 7. Girl Scout S’mores 8. Caramel Chocolate Chip 9. Adventurefuls 10. Raspberry Rally 11. Toast-Yay 12. Toffee-tastic 13. Tagalongs
Out of these thirteen cookies, two of them are gluten free Toffee-tastic and Caramel Chocolate Chip cookies. Looking for Vegan options? Try Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Patties, Lemonades, and Toast-Yay! cookies. Whether you are a lover or critic, there is no denying the popularity of these cookies. With each bite you take, you are sent back into a different time where life was easy and slow.
Chocolate Bars Fundraising as Common As Girl Scout Cookies
Other than Girl Scout cookies, chocolate bars are the most common fundraising item sold in the United States. In fact, chocolate bars fundraising has provided more baseball equipment and entry fees to sports camps and playground equipment than any of us can imagine.
But lately, the sale of chocolate bars in fundraising has slowed down. The slow down has been blamed on the rising prices for chocolate and the need to keep the chocolate bar prices at one dollar. The industry understands the importance of that price. People just do not want to spend more than a dollar for a candy bar. But that creates a dilemma. How do fundraising groups sell chocolate bars for a dollar, make the profit that they have come to expect and still offer a chocolate bar at a price competitive with the corner discount store or vending machine?
Are Chocolate Bar Sales Rebounding?
The answer for a time was that they could not compete. Chocolate bars shrunk in size and there was a small rebellion in the market place. However, expectations have settled down and the realization that chocolate bars are necessary for fundraising to have returned. People have come to understand that fundraising candy has fundraising specific wrappers and different packaging and that people will spend a dollar to support them even if the customer could have bought a candy bar a little cheaper at the discount store.
Companies like Hershey’s have overcome the rebellion by continuing to offer to add on value items to their candy. They continue for now to place coupons on the wrapper to their candy bar equal to the price of the candy. Though the coupon might change from time to time, at the time this article was written, the coupon was good for a dollar off a Subway sandwich. They also included incentives in the carriers so that each seller would be rewarded.
As chocolate bars for fundraising weakened as a market force, companies like Van Wyk Confections who make the Original One Dollar Bar began to thrive. They offer what they claim to be the largest one dollar fundraising chocolate bar available. Their graphics are creative with wrappers that look like one-dollar bills. The company and its products hoped to satisfy the people that were dissatisfied with the reduction in size by the national brands.
These days, though, chocolate bars fundraising has begun to strengthen and sales have begun to meet expectations.
