Girl Scout cookie gang

[ohland]

Bought some Girl Scout cookies yesterday. Two boxes, one is gone, the other a little more than half gone.

A few things leaped out at me. Doesn't seem to be too heavy of a box, and the individual cookies are in individual pockets in the plastic tray. $7.50 for TWO boxes.

NOTE: $7.50 for TWO boxes! My mistake...

[Garyshome]

Unfortunately the GS have been corrupted by the libtards, The girls are sweet but I cannot support them anymore. They have the best cookies though

[Artful]

The Girl Scouts have asserted that the national organization "maintains a neutral position on abortion and birth control," but local chapters may partner with outside groups in covering those issues:
The GSUSA officially maintains a neutral position on abortion and birth control. Because the organization has a two-tiered leadership structure, however, local or regional chapters have the autonomy to partner with organizations of their choice, which may include, say, Planned Parenthood affiliates (or, for that matter, conservative organizations).

"In some areas of the country, Girl Scout troops or groups may choose to hold discussions about human sexuality and may choose to collaborate with a local organization that specializes in these areas," said the GSUSA in a statement. "The topic is discussed from a factual, informative point of view and does not include advocacy or promotion of any social or religious perspective."

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/politics/sexuality/girlscouts.asp#hoq1LSG9SZGxtEUw.99

[RickinTN]

We bought six boxes last week and they were $3.50/box. Are they regionally priced or something? They sure are good.
Rick

[Alstep]

Sadly, the troop gets to keep very little of the money for the cookies they sell. Most of the $$$ they collect goes to the regional & national headquarters to support high salaries, and the bureaucracy.
Whenever they sell cookies, I just tell the adult in charge to keep the cookies and put my donation toward the girls troop to be spent on the girls, and NOT go to headquarters. It's a shame how they take advantage of the local girl's efforts to raise money.

[Plate plinker]

Amen. They have been liquidating camps for money. What a joke. Pimping out little girls to sell cookies for paying high salaries.

[fecmech]

I just tell the adult in charge to keep the cookies and put my donation toward the girls troop to be spent on the girls,
I do the same with them and the local Boy Scouts selling popcorn. That way they get to keep all the money.

[garym1a2]

I still like my cookies at $4 a box. Much better than the boy scouts popcorn

[HATCH]

its $3.50 a box here.
I should know because I had over 4K boxes sitting in my garage.
The wife is THE COOKIE MOM for my daughter's troop.
As of today, my daughter (with our help) as sold over 1500 boxes.
The most popular flavor is the Thin Mints with Caramel Delights being a close second.
Here in SC we have Cranberry Crisp cookies. I would say they are not very popular.
There are 8 different cookies - Thin Mints, Caramel Delights, Peanut Butter Patties, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Shortbread, Thanks-a-lot, Lemondaids, and Cranberry Crisps

My favorites are Peanut Butter Patties (my daughter loves these too) and shortbreads.

[ohland]

Thin Mints, Caramel Delights, Peanut Butter Patties, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Shortbread, Thanks-a-lot, Lemondaids, and Cranberry Crisps

Which are the oatmeal with chocolate bottoms? The shortbread were good as well...

Oh, those are the Caramel Delights. Tasted good.

Two bakers (may change over the years):
Little Brownie Bakers, a Kellogg-owned company
ABC Bakers, a subsidiary of Interbake Foods

[jeepyj]

GS cookies here are $4.00 per box. Co workers daughter brought her paper around one day and sold a bunch.
jeepyj

[Minerat]

Home stash 2 boxes, work stash 5 boxes. $4.00 each and I still have 1 horded box of thin mints from 2014. I'm set for another year.

[dtknowles]

I can understand you donating money for the local troop but the girls are competing with each other to see who sells the most cookies so they will be disappointed with cash as it does not count to their goal.

Tim

[waksupi]

Around here you see their mom's selling the cookies, seldom see the scouts.

[shooterg]

Bring back the chocolate chip cookies !! Thin mints OK.

[freebullet]

Around here you see their mom's selling the cookies, seldom see the scouts.

Next time tell her she is amazingly well developed for a "girl" scout. Then immediately ask how old she is. I don't buy them from adults. The girls don't learn or achieve anything if they don't interact with their customer and learn to sell. I had to explain that to coworkers when I had them. Mom's get angry when you won't buy from them then spend 30$ when they smartin up and bring the daughter in to sell them.

I don't really care for their cookies much, but will buy them to support girls of family and friends. I get a kick out of seeing their face when I buy a bunch. I give most of the cookies to my dad and fil.

[dtknowles]

I have had coworkers bring the sale list to work and hit up everyone in the office and the shop. You may like the cookies but you can by very similar items for less at the grocery store. Buying cookies is not a charitable contribution but if you give them cash it is.

Tim

[HeavyMetal]

AHHHH Girl Scout Cookies, YA!

Around here it's 5 bucks a box for the Thin Mints and the Mom's oversee the Girls but don't interface with customers unless it's a change issue.

Considering what one see's in the news not a bad idea.

I too advise the girls at work that they are not helping young ones move into adult hood by doing it for them, LOL!

So we have seen them split a month up so each girl can come in in the afternoon and pitch cookies.

Can't help stupid politics but can suggest that gun people aren't to be feared! Last two GS in the building actually spotted my Do All thrower and wanted to see it work, even without skeet this thing is fun.

Not sure they want to shoot but sure did get a couple offers to "Pull" for me at the next company outing and an opertunity will be offered be sure of that!

[fatelk]

http://bestdemotivationalposters.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Girl-Scouts.jpg

[MaryB]

Love the thin mints but not for $4 a box when I can but the same thing in a box 4 times the size for the same money

[lefty o]

havent seen an actual girl scout selling cookies in at least a decade, lots of parent hocking girl scout cookies though. as good as some of them are, too much money for too little cookie!

[lead-1]

Home stash 2 boxes, work stash 5 boxes. $4.00 each and I still have 1 horded box of thin mints from 2014. I'm set for another year.

Now that's what you call will power, around here four boxes will last maybe a week. But that's divided among three mouths that love the things like junkies to crack, lol.

[dtknowles]

Here beside getting hit up at work, they set up a booth outside Walmart. Yes, they have girl scouts and Moms at the booth.

Tim

[Recluse]

After the Girl Scouts named Wendy Davis, the Texas state senator who got famous by filibustering in support of unlimited abortion rights, "Woman of the Year," my support for the Girl Scouts of America went the same direction as my support for the Boy Scouts of America.

We will directly support the local troops at our church, but NOT the regional or national organizations. We give cash with the instructions that it is to be used for their troop activities ONLY and not a dime of it is to go to the national organization. We tell them (Girls Scouts and Boy Scouts alike and their parents) why.

:coffee:

[ohland]

131724

Look under the E.L. Fudge Shoppe for Keebler Coconut Dreams cookies
http://www.keebler.com/productdetail.aspx?category=cookies&pid=KIC-21913@EN_US

8.5oz for $1.98 at Menards in Beloit, WI.

Little Brownie Baker lists their "Samoans" as 6.5oz on Amazon.

Oddly enough, you could buy Girl Scout cookies on Amazon (I kid you not!). Suppose those little girls are pretty saavy with web marketing, if you ask me.

I found these are quite good, they seem to be more refined as in easier to chew than the GS cookie. The GS cookie seems like the fudge or caramel base is more resistant to chewing.

[DIRT Farmer]

When I was in collage in the late 60s, one afternoon two cute girl scouts came past the housing unit I was living in selling cookies. I told tem that if I wanted dry store bought cookies I would go buy them, but if you had any real homemade cookies I would buy them from you. The next evening the same two girls came by with a plate of home made cookies which I bought.
I bet those two gals are somewhere very sucessful in buisness.

[waksupi]

I think the scouts who set up outside a marijuana dispensary in Denver last year were marketing geniuses!

[ohland]

I think the scouts who set up outside a marijuana dispensary in Denver last year were marketing geniuses!

Or Doritos outside a Greatful Dead concert....

[TreeKiller]

I think the scouts who set up outside a marijuana dispensary in Denver last year were marketing geniuses!

Was a girl set up last year out side a CO-OP in SF CA and sold out in 30 minutes last year. 200 boxes comes to mind.

[HATCH]

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/23/ce18c9083ac3b6c102eb165b2395e4fb.jpg

The girls do the sale portion but the 'mom' handles the money.
This was at Walmart this past Saturday.
In three hours they sold over 400 boxes.
6 cases of thin mints (72boxes) alone.
As of this morning my daughter has a total amount of around 1800 boxes sold.
Her goal is 2015 boxes which is the grand prize amount.
$17k in sales means $2k for the troop.
Believe it or not GS cookies are a tax right off. They are giving W9 forms to businesses. One business bought $2k worth of thanks a lot cookies just to give them to their customers.

I will ship a case of cookies (12 boxes) conus for $45 total with cookies included.

[dtknowles]

The girls do the sale portion but the 'mom' handles the money.

$17k in sales means $2k for the troop.
Believe it or not GS cookies are a tax right off. They are giving W9 forms to businesses. One business bought $2k worth of thanks a lot cookies just to give them to their customers..

What percentage of the purchase price can you write off?

Tim

[HATCH]

100% is what I was told. I will have to look at the w9 to verify

[HATCH]

It's 100%. Basically what the check amount is

[1Shirt]

Good cookies, but an over priced rip off! I quit buying them when they jumped from $2.00 to $2.50 a box.
1Shirt!

[NavyVet1959]

If the cookies are around, I will eat them, but I don't go out of my way to buy them. Now, if they came out with a Girl Scout micro-brew Imperial Stout, maybe I would buy from them. :)

[dtknowles]

It's 100%. Basically what the check amount is

You can do that and probably get away with it since it is likely peanuts anyway. Check the rules where you get something of value in return for your donation, the appropriate deduction is the contribution less the fair market value of the items you received for making the contribution.

Someone suggested that the deduction should be the amount that the Girl Scouts get to keep but that is not the way the rules are written.

Tim

[Epd230]

Im not a tax accountant, but i would think the above mentioned business that used the cookies to give them to customers is justified in a 100% deduction. If you buy them to eat yourself or to give to family/friend, you will have a hard time in the auditors office at the IRS.

I had the same talk at Goodwill with their cashier. She was telling everyone to keep their receipt for the tax deduction. She couldn't understand the value received/donation concept.

[Hardcast416taylor]

My sister was a GS troop leader while her granddaughter was a GS. She told me of the stories of money being sent to a middle person in the GS for the mountain of boxes of cookies she had in her garage. All the cookies had to be paid for if they sold or just sat there unsold until some manner of returns could be agreed upon. After 5 years of dealing with this headache and using her own money at times for the cookies, she stepped down to let someone else have all the "FUN" of doing cookie sales. On the local news recently about a thief stealing the cash box from a GS sale table!Robert

[dtknowles]

Im not a tax accountant, but i would think the above mentioned business that used the cookies to give them to customers is justified in a 100% deduction. If you buy them to eat yourself or to give to family/friend, you will have a hard time in the auditors office at the IRS.

I had the same talk at Goodwill with their cashier. She was telling everyone to keep their receipt for the tax deduction. She couldn't understand the value received/donation concept.

Yes, if a company bought the cookies and gave them away as a business promotion then they are a legitimate business expense but not a charitable contribution tax deduction. Yes, they can effective write off the cost of the cookies but not really a tax deduction just a normal business expense like business cards or logo pens or baseball caps. The company could buy them and leave them in break rooms for employees to eat and just like free coffee the business can consider the expense part of normal operating expenses. To really be nit picky, employees who drink company provided coffee or cookies are receiving in-kind compensation and at some level should be declared as income just like if the company provides you with a car and you use it for personal use.

Tim

[HATCH]

Most of the checks are made out to the GS council. No mention of cookies. The irs would be hard pressed to claim its cookie money

[dtknowles]

Most of the checks are made out to the GS council. No mention of cookies. The irs would be hard pressed to claim its cookie money

I think I did mention that you could probably get away with it. That does not mean it is not cheating.

Tim

[popper]

I used to sell tickets to the Boy Scout roundup in KC when I was a kid, yes there was a prize for the most sold. Last week my church asked a mom to remove her cookies from the sanctuary. I figure it is good will for the neighbor girls across the street, about the only good neighbors i got. Most all the money goes to management and the cookie companies, they had a bad baker one year that just about ruined their sales. I will give direct funds for a charity of my choice but not to corporate welfare - not even Habitat or W.W. period. Churches need to get back into real charity an out of welfare.

[NavyVet1959]

So, out of the $3.50 that a box costs, how much actually comes back to the local group?

[HATCH]

Of $17k in sales , $2k goes directly back to the local troop. Not sure how much the local council gets. I know that's daughter now has over 2000 boxes sold and she earned $400 in brownie points which can be used in place of cash for camp and field trips