It's Girl Scout Cookie Time again
Did you ever wonder how much Girl Scouts earn for their troops and the larger organization for selling Girl
Scout Cookies? I've heard that selling Girl Scout Cookies is a 700 million dollar business. The season of girls
selling cookies is only a few months long. How can they earn that much in such a short time?
It seems that to understand how the earnings from cookies sales are distributed you need to understand the
organization of Girl Scouts.
When I was young, I belonged to a troop. We had maybe 15 girls in our troop and I thought that was the
extent of the organizational hierarchy. But there is so much more.
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My troop was limited to girls from my elementary school (Pine Crest Elementary School) = 5 to 15
girls.
Other troops located nearby were part of what was called a Neighborhood in Girl Scout lingo.
A lot of Neighborhoods combined to form a Council. Our Council was for the Nation's Capital Council
which contained girls from the greater Washington D.C. area including parts of Virginia and Maryland =
10,000 girls.
All of the Councils in the United States are part of the GSUSA (Girl Scouts of the USA) = 2 million girls.
Girl Scouts of the USA are part of the WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) =
10 million girls.
1. From my bulleted list above can you picture the general organization of Girl Scouts?
2. How might you diagram this structure? Show your diagram below.
3. So, when I was a little girl and I thought that my troop was the whole world of Girl Scouts, what percent
of the nation-wide Girl Scouts program did my little troop really represent?
4. What percent of the worldwide organization did my little troop represent?
When you buy Girl Scout cookies in the USA some of the cost of the cookies goes towards the bakery that
produces, packages and delivers the cookies. Some of the money goes towards the Council that oversees
the cookie drive. Money also goes towards the rewards that top-selling girls receive (badges, hats, totes ... ).
Some of the money goes towards Council property upkeep ... like a camp. And lastly, some of the money
goes towards the individual's troop.
5. What would you guess that the percentages for each of these portions should or will be?
Before we analyze the actual proportions of the cookie sales money, lets start with finding out how much a
box of Girl Scout cookies costs this year.
Last year some of the Councils sold cookies for $4.00 a box. Those Councils have now raised their prices to
$5.00 per box.
6. What percentages rise in prices will that be?
Other Councils had cookies priced at $4.50 for a box last year and are charging the price to $5.00 per box this
year.
7. What percentage raise in price will these councils be charging?
8. Do a little research and find out how much a box of similar cookies would cost in the grocery store.
GS cookie Weight
Approx. # of Cost/cookie
Cost/ounce
Similar cookie
cookies/box $4/box $5/box $4/box $5/box
Samoas
7.5 oz.
15
Trefoils
9 oz.
36
Thin
Mints
9 oz.
28
Do-si-dos
8 oz.
20
Weight
Cost
Cost/ounce
9. Create an observation about the price of Girl Scout cookies as compared to the price of bakery or
grocery store cookies. Use the notion of percentage difference or change in you observation.
I found these two graphics produced by two different Councils in the United States. Evidently a box of cookies
in the right hand graphic costs $4.00.
10. How much do you guess a box of the cookies in the left hand graphic would cost? How can you tell?
Girl Scouts of Utah
Girl Scouts of the Sierra Nevada Council, California
*A Service Unit is like a Neighborhood
11. Try to compare the percentages and the costs of these two Council allocations.
12. What observations do you have? Be prepared to share them in class.
Source:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/56264/what-do-girl-scouts-do-all-cookie-money
http://www.wagggs.org/en/home
https://www.girlscouts.org
http://www.gshnj.org/?p=cookie-varieties
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