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How Low Can You Go?
You’d need to live in a cave to have missed all the controversy about the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts. In past years, there have been plenty of criticisms in particular about Girl Scout cookies, calling it a racket, a scam, and big business. I was crestfallen as a young girl when it was time to sell cookies (we used to sell them door-to-door) and all the other girls had saturated the neighborhood before I even went out.
With all these negatives, the Girl Scouts, with their pledge to society and dedication to girlhood are inextricably linked to the cookies. (Our favorites are thin mints.) We buy them in February when the girls sell them with their moms in front of Publix. They work hard. So I was furious to find out that they had been ripped off by people using large counterfeit bills here in Florida. In my research, I discovered that this has happened in other states in the past few years, but to rip off the Girl Scouts–that’s the lowest:
Six troops in the Girl Scout Gulfcoast Florida council have been victimized in the scam, according to WTSP-Channel 10. Girls who sold the cookies outside stores such as Publix and Walmart were scammed out of about $650. In some cases, buyers used fake bills of large denominations to get real cash back in change.
I guess nothing is sacred.
Published in Culture
I thought you were going to do a post about the limbo!
Ripping off girl scouts for cookies, like taking candy from a baby, I guess.
What is the picture? Counterfeit thin mints?
No, they’re the real thing. . .I think!
Criminals by definition have no moral compass. I feel bad these young girls first venture into business and learning the art of the sale are seeing the worst side. I was a little dismayed my nieces solicited me for cookies by sending a standardized email, not even a phone call! But if being ripped off is the alternative, I guess it’s ok. I’d still appreciate a handwritten thank you, though!
If counterfeit money was used, then the Treasury Department should be involved. The feds MAY forgive a lot of things, including ripping off the Girl Scouts ( I did say MAY forgive, fwiw I don’t), but they NEVER forgive messing with the currency: I see LOTS of jail time in someone’s future.
This also seems to be a problem with people who sell things on Craigslist or other person to person transactions. I had a woman tell me that her friend got ripped off by accepting a fake cashier’s check. Another one said she got a call for something she had for sale and told the guy she would meet him at her bank. He never showed. I would think the scouts, little league teams, and anyone else who sets up in a public place would be prime targets.
The one on the right looks off to me.
I guess people just don’t surprise me much anymore.
The way that some people implement the sale of GS cookies used to make me a bit annoyed. Those were the parents in my office who sold the cookies for their daughters. There was the rush by parents to get to co-workers before another parent could and then the guilt trips that the late parents laid on people who had already bought. And, of course, this really didn’t teach the daughters about doing things for themselves.
This also happened with schools selling wrapping paper, etc. I finally adopted a policy of not buying anything at the office – no exceptions. People didn’t like it much, but they knew I wasn’t giving my business to someone else at the office.
I know the local police dept. is involved, @aardovozz, so I’m sure the feds are involved. I just don’t know if they have any way to identify who actually gave them the bills.
You’re right, @juliana, the most naive and the most vulnerable. Sheesh.
It’s too bad when the the real purpose is lost. It kind of misses the purpose! At least in part.
When my daughter was a GSA(long time ago!) they still sold door to door. I think those days are gone, they were even starting to discourage it then. So now, unless I happen to go to the grocery store at the right time ( I never do) the office cookie sales are the only chance I get. My office is pretty good about it, they just leave an order form in the kitchen and you can take it or leave it.
But you are right, it has nothing to do with the girls any more, it is a parent cookie sale.
In my area at least, the Girl Scouts are at the shopping centers and restaurants and eager to sell cookies. I might need to declare bankruptcy over thin mints.😜
I struggle with the ties to Planned Parenthood. The girls are being victimize before the cookies even show up.
Counterfeiting through the mail is a double-whammy.
Only in some? These con artists must like cookies.
That method is, by the way, the way to make actual money with counterfeit bills. Buy something, get some legitimate change. And from a strictly cynical point of view, Girl Scout Cookie stands are the best place to do it. No color-changing pens, and cashiers who haven’t handled oodles of real cash to immediately feel the difference.
I stopped buying GS cookies.
A very small % of the sales goes to the chapter and the association is too pro-abortion for…
That is just creepy and predatory.
I don’t associate them with innocence, but feminism.
Everyone can make their own choices about the cookies. I’d suggest they do some reading up and decide for themselves. And yes, I read the condemnations of the GSA, and they take no stand on abortion and are not affiliated with Planned Parenthood.
I also have nothing to do with the girl scouts. My daughters were members and one of the daughters made fast friends with a Native American girl that lived near us. We made a big deal convincing her how great the GS were and took her in to sign up. The local chapter refused to accept her. I complained to the area Counsel and was told each chapter make their own decisions about who they let in. This was a beautiful, well mannered child and was refused. After telling them what I thought about the leadership, I pulled my girls and we joined the 4-H, which in retrospect, was a much better group. And, all races were admitted, including Native Americans. I have no idea what the policy is today.
“We’re looking for two white males, mid-30s, with minty-fresh chocolate stains on their faces.” – FBI profiler, probably
I had an attempt at that. I was selling some furniture on Craig’s list and had a fake cashier’s check sent asking for me to give the people picking up the furniture the difference. I took the check to a local branch of the bank and it was a very good forgery.
I like the entrepreneurial Girl Scouts who set up a cookie sales table outside a Chicago area cannabis dispensary.
I buy at least one box every time I see them for sale. Bad karma not to.
So my local grocer is the primary location. The first few times I always give them my instructions on sales and how to approach customers. The first question you ask has to have a “yes” answer. You have to assume that the buyer has seen your display and is already programmed to say “no”, you you break that initial tendency. “Have you heard of the Girl Scouts?” “Here are all of the good things we do within this community: …..” “Would you like this to continue?”, etc…. The Girls don’t get it, but the mom’s pay attention.
The Phoenix Girls Choir also does a weekend there. I tell the girls I will donate if they can sing my favorite song, and they have to guess. When I tell them it is “I Am A Gummie Bear”, they always nail it. Worth the $20.
Note: did one such sales thing with a youth group. One of the adults was a master salesperson for FedEX. He did a 2 hour training class before we let the kids try to sell. Created a couple of real monsters.
Maybe one should read some more, instead of taking a deceptive and morally offensive organization at its word. (Older article, but updated last year.)
I do not buy Girl Scout cookies.
{Edit: much more available via a relatively unbiased search engine.}
Having been the recipient of cookies from the Girl Scouts when I was overseas, I usually buy a couple extra boxes for the troops when I buy some for myself. I still do that, but what I learned from my daughter’s recent selling years is that some parents use those donations to pad their own wallets.