Record-breaking cookie sales spark controversy
A record was shattered this cookie season. Jennifer Sharpe, 15, of Dearborn, Mich. sold 17,323 boxes of Girl Scout cookies — believed to be the highest individual cookie seller in the organization’s history.
She’s being honored today and had some words of wisdom for future sellers.
Jennifer, a fan of the Thin Mints, used a retail-inspired strategy. She set up shop in the parking lot of Cherry Hill Presbyterian Church in Dearborn. She staffed that booth 3-7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. On Sundays, she sold cookies outside a local auto parts store from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.“When I was young, I knocked on doors,” said Jennifer, in her 10th year of scouting. “Now that I’m older, I get too many rejections face to face. People don’t want to buy from a 15-year-old. They want to buy from a cute little Brownie.”
She knows how to work the sales pitch.
“I know how to get people to buy more,” said Jennifer, a sophomore at Edsel Ford High School . “If they buy two boxes and they hand me a 10, I’d be like, ‘For 50 cents more, you can get three,’ because three boxes are $10.50.” The money Jennifer and her friends from Troop 813 raised will go toward a trip to Europe.But some say the aspiring marketing executive’s victory is far from sweet. Some have accused her of cheating because her mother, Pam, sold cookies when Jennifer was at school. But Coughlin said there are no rules against that.
“Jennifer was the one behind this. She’s the one who set the goal,” Coughlin said. “Parents take order cards to work. To us, it’s the same thing. It’s a different variant of the same thing - adults helping a girl meet her goal. We expect a girl to be involved in every way, pulling the order, sharing what they’re going to do with the proceeds.”
Well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Is it fair for parents to hawk their daughters’ cookies at work? What’s your favorite?
Aisha covered education and breaking news for nearly ten years before joining the Lifestyle staff where she writes a "Dirty Laundry" parenting column. She is the home and family editor and wastes too much time on Facebook and political blogs. 
I have gotten asked to buy girl scout cookies every year since I was old enough to earn my own paycheck (and probably, before that as well). Never once have I gotten asked by an actual girl scout. This girl and her mom probably went overboard, but if they are literally breaking the rules, then (nearly) everyone is breaking the rules.
I was in Girl Scouts until I was 18. It was the best thing that I did to prepare myself for real life. We were never a crafts and camp group, but I earned my Gold Award (the highest honor in girl scouts) and raised my own money to go to Europe with a group from my council. Jennifer is right, people don’t want a high schooler to come to their door selling cookies. But they will buy from a girl with available cookies.
I don’t love that her mom sold cookies for her during the day, but the fact that she set up the booth and arranged everything means something. These days, many parents are even more involved than that.
My favorite cookie is a Thin Mint. I’m a traditionalist
I was almost proud of Jennifer until I read the part about her mother. The one thing that we are failing with our children (whether it is girl scout cookies, or gift wrap and pizza sales at the school) is that we–the parents–do everything. If we really have to do such fundraising at public schools, shouldn’t we be teaching our kids some form of salesmanship, amarketing, and handling rejecting. I know that is the point behind the Girl Scout Cookies sales–and something Jennifer had excelled (yeah). But, overall GS Cookies Sales has lost that purpose.
If she is breaking the rules so is everyone else. I have bought 100’s of boxs of cookies over the years and never from the child.
I think that this is amazing. Only problem is I don’t agree with the math. Why is everyone in my area selling cookies for $3 a box if 3 boxes of cookies cost $10.50? Her costomers were being ripped off.
Plus, I rarely hear of a girl not having her parents help. Why is it okay for mothers and fathers to take the sheets to work, but not okay for a mom to sit at a both that the daughter would sit at anyway?
Thin mints rule. Tag-a-longs a close second. It’s a good thing to set high goals and to be in good enough terms with your family to enlist their help. The Girl Scouts is a worthy cause and Jennifer not only gets rewarded, but also gets to go with her friends they’ll all remember. Good for her!
Back in the day we took orders, starting at 9am on a Saturday - each of us would be waiting for that magic “start time” on our front porches. We probably averaged 50 boxes each, a few sold up to 200. And that was when they were 25-50 cents a box! Point is, WE sold the cookies, not our parents, friends, or relatives. It’s a GS thing - not a GS parent thing.
Clare (5th comment)-cookie prices are set by the council where you live. Here, they were $3. In Michigan it seems they are $3.50.
My daughter is a Brownie GS and she sold her cookies face to face. I didn’t sell for her, since college students don’t tend to have much in the way of spare cash. Her dad, however, sold 150 boxes this year, and 350 last year-at $4.00 a box ($1.00 to cover shipping to his location in Iraq). Soldiers love cookies, too, and they especially like supporting the scouts by buying the cookies.
What is the object of Girl Scout cookie sales? Sell cookies to raise money for the Girl Scouts. The more cookies sold, the more money raised.
Get over that someone else’s daughter sold more cookies than yours. This young lady worked over thirty hours a week selling cookies. She appears to have learned some valuable lessons that may help her in her professional career.
Did her mother assist by bringing the order sheet to her workplace? What is wrong with a successful team effort? Nothing I can see.
I hope her troop enjoys their well-deserved trip to Europe.
I think this is great. She showed some good initiative and I hope that she really enjoys her trip to Europe. These are some good skills to learn at a young age.
That said… I’ll buy from the Girl Scouts, etc set up in various parking lots, but, I do not buy anything that is sold door to door, as I don’t approve of the method.
And I CERTAINLY do not buy ANYTHING pushed on me at the office. I’ve been working in a professional environment since I was 20 years old and I really resent being asked constantly by everyone with children to just ‘take a look’ at their catalog. IMHO, that doesn’t belong in a workplace.
I know we have to raise money, but, I don’t like the whole selling stuff we probably don’t need anyway. With my church youth group we sold ‘chores’ to older folks, car washes, pizzas and acted as servers to a nice Italian dinner in our dining hall. Things that people would be buying or going out for anyway and would still give us quality people and organizational skills.
whoops… silly rant over!
You’re kidding me. Are we seriously taking time to condemn this young lady about Girl Scout cookie sales when the world has so many issues? She did not begin selling before “Go day”…. get a grip people. Go to work, volunteer, do something besides sit and look for something to complain about.
Cookies are priced different all over. In St. Louis this year they were 3.00, next year they are going to be 3.50 a box. If councils did not make ridiculous goals for each girl the selling at work would not happen. Our area wanted each girl to sell approx. 120 boxes of cookies. I have 3 daughters, that mean my girls would have to sell 360 boxes! Get real! Plus the incentives (cheap junk) were delayed in shipment. All they got was a patch!
Who cares? If you want the cookies, buy em…this is not headline news…
My daughter’s a Brownie and last year we received strict instructions that we were not allowed to sell cookies for the girls; not even send out an email to let family and friends now. I find the cookie-selling competition repugnant and the complete antithesis of what Girl Scouts claim their philosophy to be. This year my eight year-old only sold 28 boxes of cookies but I’m proud to say she sold every one on her own.
GS cookies are different prices in differant places. Just as the sales dates vary from council to council.
Scot-Teas, or whatever they call the plain shortbread cookies. Yum!
I buy cookies from the kid at the door, but never from the parent on the phone. Spent 9 years as a GS…always resented the cookie drive, as I’m not much of a salesperson. Always wondered if we needed to earn money, why we couldn’t do it other ways. In High School, we catered numerous civic banquets, washed cars, and did a lot of service work to raise money for a trip to DC…cookie sales didn’t enter into it, since only a small portion of cookie sales came back to the troop, whereas other efforts we got 100%.
This girl will probably become a successful real estate agent. Can’t imagine Girl Scouts without camping, hiking, etc., though. We did that too.
It is fair for parents to help sell anything, including, GS Cookies, Soccer Candy and school fundraisers. My favorite cookie is the thin mint. Kudos to Jennifer and her Troop for their hard work. Not many teens can say they raised the money to go to Europe. Also, Cookies due cost $3.00 in some areas of the state. She or you were not being ripped off. Go Girls!
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Let me begin by saying Congrats to her for taking the iniative to sell so many boxes. However, since this type of selling is considered ‘Booth Sales’, there are rules for booth sales and they state that a GIRL must be present at the booth at all times, so yes, her mother running the booth for her while she was at school was wrong.