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. 
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.