Q&A: The Secret to Selling Girl Scout Cookies, As Told By Two Girl Scouts
They patiently wait near the supermarket as customers try and squeeze by, hang out near MBTA stations as people scurry home from work, and push their product through friends and family: The Girl Scouts are everywhere, and they want you to eat their cookies.
And to be honest, who can resist? Almost no one is safe from a box of ThinMints, Peanut Butter Patties, and Samoas. And those who do try to steer clear are often thwarted by the Girl Scouts themselves, who use their years worth of sales experience—and overall cuteness factor—to get people to crack. But caving in to the craving isn’t a total loss in terms of your New Year’s Resolution to stay fit and eat fewer sugary snacks—the sales are for a good cause, and help to fund different trips and activities for the girls to enjoy. So as you consume your guilty pleasure, you’ll also put a smile on a kid’s face, while helping them earn some scout badges. It’s a win-win-win!
To find out how the Girl Scouts are so good at both selling cookies, and refraining from gorging on their own supply, we turned to two veterans that have been slinging snacks for years. Sisters Meghan and Caitlyn Wenners, of Troop 85087, were kind enough to take time away from their busy cookie-selling schedules to explain how it all works for us:
So what are the hardest cookies to sell?
Meghan, 14: Probably the newer ones because not a lot of people know what they taste like. But we tell them that they’re good. I feel like I have enough experience I can persuade them better now because I know what they look for.
Caitlyn, 11: I tell them they’re all good, and they say ‘I’ll buy four boxes.’ I don’t mind going out there. I try to reach my goal which is more than I got the year before. It’s around 530 boxes.
Do people ever try to avoid you?
Meghan: Usually they say they have debit cards, or they don’t have money or something like that. Sometimes we don’t convince them to buy any, but we say ‘come on, they’re really good,’ and then they usually buy them. You have to be a good salesperson.
Caitlyn: I say that [the cookies] make you happy and it makes you hyper.
Who’s better at selling stuff, Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts?
Meghan: Girl Scouts are definitely better than the boys. Our cookies are better, they just sell popcorn.
Caitlyn: Girl Scouts! They are cuter. And cookies are better than popcorn. They are wayyyyyy better than popcorn. Popcorn makes you sleepy. But cookies make you hyper.
They do? Why?
Caitlyn: Because of all the sugar!
What cookies are the best?
Meghan: Thin Mints and Caramel Delights. I like the Thanks-a-Lots the best. They’re shortbreads with chocolate on the back. They have been around for a few years.
Caitlyn: Peanut Butter Patties and the Lemonades. The peanut butter ones because I like peanut butter, and chocolate, and the vanilla cookie part. The Lemonades are the little cookies with the lemon frosting on the bottom; it makes me feel happy when I eat them. I’m very tempted to eat those ones.
How do you keep from eating all of your cookies, instead of selling them?
Caitlyn: I think of being a cookie and trying not to eat myself. I don’t want to eat myself if I’m a cookie!
That’s so true.
