Updated December 2021
We had our third Cadette meeting of the year this week and it was the final phase of earning the Cadette Marketing badge. The Leader and other Co-leader, who is also our Cookie Mom, had not yet attended Girl Scout cookie training, as the date had been moved. However, with cookie selling just around the corner, the troop need to finish the badge and bling out the booth.
Two of the girls in our troop also belong to another church run Girl Scout troop, so they do have a year of cookie selling experience under their belts. Some of the other girls sold when we were Daisies, and a few have had no experience at all. They were very excited during the meeting as we discussed how to act during a sale, especially if someone does not wish to buy. We discussed asking to donate a box to the troops, as we have a local organization who will ship them for us. The Leader had a special red, white and blue decorated can labeled for monetary donations if someone just wanted to put a dollar or two in it. This will buy additional cookies for us to send to our men and women overseas.
Image from Pixabay and altered by the author in Canva
We also talked about how they were to behave while they were standing there. My troop is fortunate enough to have a Cookie Mom who has done this before with her daughter’s old troop. She is well organized and knows exactly what she is doing-this is going to be a tightly run ship. She told them about booth sales-we will be having three- one each weekend for three weekends in a row. They are for 3.5 hours total, and each girl has a 45 minute selling time. Only two girls are permitted to sell at each shift, so that will limit talking among themselves.
Our Cookie Mom sent out a detailed email to all the parents about what will be happening about sales, picking up cookies and all of the other fine details.
She created a sign up sheet on Sign Up Genius for the first booth sale. My daughter is selling with one of her best friends, and we are inside the vestibule of our local library on the first weekend of sales! Indoors in winter…got to love it! To date, only that booth has been made available for signing up. The others will follow once those slots have been filled.
We have one outdoor booth sale and the last one is on Super Bowl Sunday inside the vestibule of our supermarket. My older daughter did this when she was a Brownie and sales were hot! Because this grocery store is in a centrally located are that borders a few towns, we will know many people who will be coming and going during our trip.
One thing that was decided is that booth sale totals go to everyone in the troop. There will be no dividing how many cookies were sold on what shift and how many hours one girl put in versus another. (If you want to read about ins and out of splitting cookie profits, you can read this post from last year.) Individual sales are for each girl, and whomever chooses to go out and sell to get an incentive can go and do that on her own.
We also decided that since this is the first real cookie selling experience for most of the girls, they can work for earning an incentive prize. Next year we will go for the higher profit margin.
If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know that I was not a cookie selling leader. I will support my daughter by helping her create her own website to sell, by taking her door to door and by being there with her at her booth. But I will not be selling at work, nor will my husband. I will share her website link with family and friends, but that is all. As a 12 year old, she has to earn her incentive and learn to be independent if she wants to get something on her own.
After the cookie talk, it was time to get down to the business of blinging our booth!
The leader took a coat rack of hers and decorated it with some packaged wired fabric that she got at Walmart’s after Christmas sales for a dollar!
Photo by Hannah Gold
Then girls each got their own piece of large poster board and some scrap paper to work out some ideas.
Photo by Hannah Gold
Some girls used pre-cut letters that were purchased to design their signs.
Photo by Hannah Gold
Overall, it was a very productive meeting that ended with a game run by one of the girls. The troop has now earned their first Cadette badge!
How is your cookie experience going?
PS-You may also want to read some Girl Scout cookie selling tips to help you out!
