Quote :

" Crumbling economy will make for thinner boxes of Thin Mints NEW YORK (CNN) -- Eating a box of Girl Scout Cookies in one sitting will be a little bit easier this year: The Girl Scouts of the USA confirmed Wednesday that it has reduced the number of cookies per box to save money because of rising transportation and baking costs. People buying Girl Scout cookies like these this year can expect fewer cookies in the packages. Michelle Tompkins, a national Girl Scout spokeswoman, said that "the cost of baking a cookie today is significantly higher than it was even a year ago, and our bakers cannot continue to absorb these rising costs." She also said transportation costs have increased 30 to 40 percent from a year ago. The combined cost increase prompted the organization to "lower the net weight of our cookie boxes slightly rather than ask our customers to pay a higher per-package price during these difficult times," Tompkins said in a written statement. There will be two to four fewer cookies in boxes of Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Shortbread Cookies, DoSiDos and Trefoils, she said. The Girl Scouts also reduced the size of some cookies, but Thin Mint lovers shouldn't worry that their sweet snacks will get any slimmer: Only the Lemon Chalet Cremes will change shape. Tompkins said it is too early to tell how Girl Scout Cookie sales will fare for the year. She said the cookie-selling season ranges from October to May, with the bulk occurring between January and March. Each individual council determines when its scouts will sell, and many have just begun in the past few weeks. Tompkins said she's heard a range of comments on how sales are going: One council in Texas is having its best year ever, which attributes to new marketing, and other groups are reporting low numbers. Sales average $700 million a year, she said. "We hope Girl Scout Cookie lovers will understand the situation and continue to support our girls," she said. "As the premier leadership organization for girls, we also intend to use these circumstances as a business learning experience for the girls.""

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/28/girl.scout.cookies/index.html

1/28/2009 11:07:31 PM

it only took me 30 minutes to eat a box of samoas tonight

so i feel your pain

1/28/2009 11:08:17 PM

I'm still buying a box. When are these kids going to be on campus?

1/28/2009 11:15:30 PM

thats bullshit...i done already bought 2

they shortin me son

1/29/2009 12:53:28 AM

and they say that ours isn't a vengeful god

TAKE ANYTHING BUT MY GIRL SCOUT COOKIES, YOU FUCKER!

1/29/2009 1:01:55 AM

I think this is a bad idea. Those boxes aren't cheap as it is (for the number of cookies you get). I'm going to have a hard time justifying the expense if they're shorting me.

1/29/2009 1:08:22 AM

son of a whore!!

1/29/2009 1:11:02 AM

NOBODY MESSES WITH MY THIN MINTS

1/29/2009 1:12:40 AM

just don't fuck with Tagalongs and we straight

1/29/2009 1:15:25 AM

all the samoas better be accounted for when I get a box

1/29/2009 1:20:45 AM

nooooooo they be takin' my thin mintsssssssss.

1/29/2009 1:21:23 AM

Quote :

"just don't fuck with Tagalongs and we straight"

tagalongs will be reduced as well from the other article i read

1/29/2009 8:55:36 AM

yeah, I think they stopped calling them "Tagalongs" sometime last year

I was all "WTF?" when I got a box that said "Peanut Butter Samdwiches" or something like that

1/29/2009 8:57:25 AM

is the name "tagalongs" vaguely offensive to the Phillipino community?

1/29/2009 8:58:41 AM

nobody likes Samdwiches anyways...

1/29/2009 8:59:28 AM

look, it was their typo not mine


they call Samoas "Caramel deLites" now too

1/29/2009 9:00:38 AM

this makes me sad

1/29/2009 9:06:32 AM

It's just not right

1/29/2009 10:16:54 AM

I couldn't justify a box of them before, definitely can't now.

They've been doing this for years it seems to me.

1/29/2009 11:32:06 AM

They've called Samoas "Caramel deLites" for a long motherfucking time. I think it's a regional thing.

1/29/2009 11:38:51 AM

this makes me mad. i think i'm going to add another box of thin mints to my order.

also, i am in atlanta, and the order form some dude brought into my work lists Samoas, so that regional thing is weird....

1/29/2009 12:10:15 PM

^yo my sister lives in ATL

I shall holler when I go for a visit

[Edited on January 29, 2009 at 12:18 PM. Reason : also I miss the Lemon Pastry Cremes The new lemon shortbread cookies just aren't the same]

1/29/2009 12:18:03 PM

yes!! let me know when you come to town!

1/29/2009 12:21:29 PM

Times is tough. Do your part and order 2 boxes.

1/29/2009 12:22:32 PM

You hear about this every other year or so. Be glad the boxes are getting smaller, I hear next year it's going to be $3.50 for them to come by with an empty box that you fill.

/in Russia and all that

[Edited on January 29, 2009 at 1:26 PM. Reason : -]

1/29/2009 1:26:37 PM

unless they changed the recipe back to what it was count me out

you know they aren't gonna increase the # later

like with every "temporary" tax....

1/29/2009 2:23:03 PM

Wait... rising transportation and baking costs? Transportation costs have been steadily decreasing the past 5 months, and prices for labour etc will continue to fall...

GS Cookies have ALWAYS been way overpriced, only a marginal amount of the money actually goes to the girls who sell them. It's a hustle. Just like schools making kids annoy their neighbors and parents friends to sell crap.

1/29/2009 2:40:02 PM

Quote :

"it only took me 30 minutes to eat a box of samoas tonight so i feel your pain"

goddamn that's like 2000+ calories

1/29/2009 2:42:20 PM

I think its bullshit that we can't get these all year round. Sure they have Keepbler knockoff thin mints, but they're not nearly as tasty. And where are the knock off tag-alongs? This is bullshit.

1/29/2009 2:51:43 PM

1/29/2009 2:54:13 PM

Quote :

"only a marginal amount of the money actually goes to the girls who sell them. It's a hustle. Just like schools making kids annoy their neighbors and parents friends to sell crap."

Lets use the old internet here the old internet here. According to Girl Scouts official website:

Quote :

"With every purchase, approximately 70% of the proceeds stays in the local Girl Scout council to provide a portion of the resources needed to support Girl Scouting in that area, including a portion that goes directly to the group selling the cookies. The balance goes directly to the baker to pay for the cookies."

Sounds legit to me.


[Edited on January 29, 2009 at 2:57 PM. Reason : .]

1/29/2009 2:55:57 PM

^ Of course the question is how much money are these "council" members making. I mean, they made $700 million selling cookies last year.

1/29/2009 3:01:56 PM

Quote :

"including a portion that goes directly to the group selling the cookies. "

Notice it doesn't happen to mention the % going to the group selling the cookies.

As mentioned above, most of that 70% goes to funding council buildings, pay, etc.. it's pretty lucrative. Very little goes to the individual troops.

1/29/2009 3:07:36 PM

How are transportation costs rising when fuel prices are at the lowest they have been in years

1/29/2009 3:24:50 PM

God damn. I haven't bought GS cookies in years because of this. When I was a GS they were $2, then $2.50 a box. Then they cut back on the number of cookies, then they upped the price, now they're cutting back cookies again! Soon you'll be paying .50 cents per little cookie. I understand inflation, but I just don't believe in the cookies anymore. It doesn't really help little underprivileged girls achieve their dreams, it pays for them to go to space camp for a week so their parents won't have to shell out the cash.

Oh, and the names of the cookies changed because some years back the GSs changed their bakery. Turns out the previous bakery owned the rights to some of the cookie names, but GSs owned thin mints, which is why they didn't change. The new names are super lame too...way to use that child creativity.

[Edited on January 29, 2009 at 3:32 PM. Reason : merf]

1/29/2009 3:29:27 PM

I was a girl scout for... 10+ years, and honestly, cookies were by far the largest contributor to our annual budget. And the people in council don't get paid that much, at least here. (I wasn't old enough in TX to have ever paid attention to it.) My troop leader in NC was in the higher levels of management, and she was hardly living a high lifestyle. The whole organization really is primarily run by volunteers/low paid people.

Quote :

"It doesn't really help little underprivileged girls achieve their dreams, it pays for them to go to space camp for a week so their parents won't have to shell out the cash."

Bullshit. I've had privileges my family would never have been able to afford due to my involvement in girl scouts. It just takes a little bit of initiative on the part of the girl.

Quote :

"Notice it doesn't happen to mention the % going to the group selling the cookies. As mentioned above, most of that 70% goes to funding council buildings, pay, etc.. it's pretty lucrative. Very little goes to the individual troops."

http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_cookies/faqs.asp#revenue_portion

1/29/2009 4:12:21 PM

thinner thin mints? i ALREADY eat the whole box in one sitting. now what am i going to do

hmph.

1/29/2009 4:16:25 PM

I ate 2 sleeves just the other night

I had to use the john and brought the pack with me and didn't miss a beat

1/29/2009 4:22:25 PM