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Girl Scouts: Just Say No To E-Commerce

Culture

from the but-can't-stay-away-from-eBay dept

Fri, Mar 21st 2003 9:54am — Mike Masnick
Okay. I'll admit that I fell for the nostalgia factor - remembering how much I used to like Girl Scout cookies when I was a kid. It's been years, though, so last month when some Girl Scouts stopped by trying to sell cookies I ended up with five boxes. Now I have them, and I'm really not a cookie eating person, so I'm trying to figure out what to do with them. I even thought of trying to put them up on eBay, but it sounds like plenty of other people are already doing so - despite the fact that this is (just as it was last year) a big no-no in the Girl Scout's official rules. You can sell the cookies by email, but you cannot, under any circumstance sell them on the web. I still can't figure out why this is. If the idea is to teach young girls about "personal responsibility and how to manage money", using the web doesn't seem to go against those goals. In the meantime, anyone want some Girl Scout cookies?
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  • identicon
    Chris, 21 Mar 2003 @ 11:47am

    No Subject Given

    My daughter is a Brownie. There are several reasons why the national GS organization bans online sales. It's suppossed to be a community thing, with the majority of sales being from your community. Being seen out selling cookies is good PR, etc. Also, having daddy build you an ecommerce site doesn't really build charactor. Knocking on your neighbors door and asking them to buy cookies does. My daughters troop has gone one step further and have been soliciting people to buy extra boxes to be sent to the troops in the Middle East. It's also a safety issue. Girl Scout cookie sites would be a magnet for pedeophiles.
    What I can't figure out is why we can't buy uniforms and supplies online. The nearest department store that stocks scout supplies is 30 miles away.
    And no, I don't want to buy your cookies. We have plenty!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Stewey, 21 Mar 2003 @ 12:34pm

    Unwanted competition is why

    One reason is that the GS doesn't want kids from one geographic area undercutting the sales of another area. That was one major flap when this issue first came up. Some troop had geared up to be the online WalMart of Girl Scout cookie sales, and the locals were finding out that some people had already bought their quota online.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    thecaptain, 24 Mar 2003 @ 6:45am

    the idea...

    "the idea is to teach young girls about "personal responsibility and how to manage money"

    You hit the nail right on the head (at least one of the nails)...it wouldn't be these young girls making an e-commerce site, it would be mommy and daddy doing all the work for their little princess.

    These are the same mommies and daddies who truck crates of these cookies to work and pimp their co-workers because they say "its demeaning" or "not safe" to have THEIR kids going door to door.

    Meanwhile the offspring of these people do squat...and learn to be helpless and lazy.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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