Cookie Booth 2013

Cookie season is ALMOST over.  On March 26th, I will make our full deposit into the council's account and I can wash my hands of it.  Being a Girl Scout leader is a lot of work- I won't lie.  It adds something to my plate that I really don't have room for.  There's rarely an activity that goes by that doesn't leave me thinking "I just don't want to do this next year..."

And then this evening during our booth I watched the girls take complete charge over getting customers, interacting with them, selling them on their favorite cookies, giving them their total, handling money (as much as I would let them anyway- I was pretty nervous about that part!) and I saw them and once again it hit me that what we're doing for these girls is awesome.  I had so many wonderful experiences as a Girl Scout and I'm glad my daughters get to be a part of it too.  So the sacrifice is worth it and then some.

We started our booth outside the front of the store because the weather was pretty good.  We had two customers before we officially "opened" and I was thinking that it was going to be an easy sale the rest of the night!  But then, it all stopped.  Not a single sale for another half hour, and I started panicking as I looked at the cases of cookies stacked up that HAD to be sold that night.  But absolutely no one would stop to buy anything, despite the girls' best efforts to get them to buy!

Finally I went inside and talked to customer service and used the excuse that the girls were getting really cold outside and asked if we could move inside.  It wasn't a lie because Lauren kept whining that she was cold!  So they let us move inside and after getting everything moved, dragged, and rearranged, sales picked up and before long we were busier than I could manage!  We started selling boxes left and right.  Most people just bought one box, but there was the occasional two or three box sales.  when we closed up shop, we had sold all but eight boxes, which was great!  I tried hard to get a picture of all the girls together, but Lauren was way more interested in trying to get candy and gum out of the gumball machines, and the girls did shifts so I never had everyone at once.

I really love my troop.  I feel I've gotten to know them all as individuals over the last two years and they mean a lot to me!  Next year they will be brownies (except for Lauren who will be entering as a Daisy and will likely have to be in our troop unless someone starts a kindergarten troop next year in our neighborhood).  They are growing up very fast!