Oh, bring it ON!

photo by Stephen Cummings 

 

  Girl Scout cookie sales start tonight at midnight.

 

This is my first year involved with the Girl Scouts - I'm a cookie sales virgin!  Ok, that just sounded wrong on so many levels, I should delete that.  Here's the deal.  This is like no other fund raiser I've ever done.  We had our troop meeting this week and everything was explained to us about how this would all go down.

 

Do not sell cookies before 12:01 am, January 16th.  Do not sell cookies BEFORE 12:01 am on January 16th.  Do NOT sell cookies before midnight on Thursday night.  Yes, this really was emphasized several times.  I'm thinking to myself - how would they know?  And another mom asked the question before I did.  This started the ball rolling of stories from bygone days of selling cookies.

 

Apparently this is a major competition.  And I don't mean between the girls.  Some of the stories floating around were, first-off, always from someone else's troop.  So-and-so would see someone selling cookies before the start date and would ask, oh-so-innocently, "oh, what troop are you in?" and then go report that troop for selling cookies early.

 

At another troop, one person trumped another's "regular sales" of 500 boxes at a particular business, again before the official start date.  (During all this, I'm visualizing times from childhood of moms bumrushing stores to buy Cabbage Patch dolls, only they're waving Girl Scout order forms instead.)  The girls get penalized for early sales, by the way.

 

Really?  This really happens?  I'm all up for a bit of healthy competition, but this is ridiculous.

 

Then she passes out a form for us to sign and they want my SS# or DL#.  Huh?  This is for the purpose of their Collections department for money that is owed them.  HUH???  People are skipping out on what they order?  Taking the cookies and running and I'm held responsible for it??  Who are these people?!?

   

Then she goes over the delivery dates.  Again, it is emphasized DO NOT deliver the cookies before February 27th (even though we'll be getting our cookies on the 24th, or somewhere around then).  I think we moms were all too stunned to react by this point because I don't remember any horror delivery stories being passed around.  From other troops, of course.

 

Now, I like Girl Scout cookies.  The thin mints are the bomb, especially when they're cold, but I will NOT be held responsible for someone else's bad financial decisions.  So if I come to you (or better yet, my sweet little Monkey with those big puppy dog eyes comes to you) and ask oh-so-sweetly "would you like to order some Girl Scout cookies?" know that we won't ask before midnight tonight, they for sure won't be delivered to you until February 27th (even though they'll be taking up space in my house for a few days beforehand) and when they are delivered, you better pay for what you ordered with cash, a money order or a check made out to me (which I will promptly go cash).  

 

But you better buy a lot of cookies.  Monkey wants to win an ipod.