How common is it for a Girl Scout to knock on your door and try to sell you cookies?

45 comments

1. It happens, but I think they’ve moved more towards selling them outside grocery stores or having parents bother their coworkers to buy them.

   >do people actually like them?

   They’re fine.

2. Yes they are good cookies. They also taste better because they are tradition.

   Having kids do door-to-door fundraising has gone out of fashion due to safety concerns. They have adult supervised tables set up outside of grocery stores or similar or you can order from a friend and their girls scouts website.

3. I usually see them outside grocery stores and such.

4. Yes, people actually like them.

   I’ve never seen them sold door to door. They tend to sell them to friends and family, and/or they set up a table to sell them outside a store. Nowadays each kid even seems to gets their own link to sell them online.

5. They were still doing door to door in my area up to the mid 2000s but now it’s all online, outside stores, etc

6. I used to be a girl scout and I was selling door to door at the time in the apartment building I lived in. I also had my family members sell them at their jobs.

   I think nowadays ppl order online mostly or the girls sell outside of large retailers (BJ’s, Walmart etc) or churches.

   The cookies are popular where I’m from (NYC) and every season ppl go searching for them. The cookies are good.

7. When I was a Girl Scout in the 90s, that’s how we sold a majority of our cookies. I’d take a wagon full of boxes and walk around my neighborhood knocking on doors. Now it seems like it’s mostly online, plus the booths they set up outside businesses like grocery stores. It’s definitely across the whole country and the cookies (or at least most of them) are good.

8. My daughter is a girl scout. They don’t really do door to door sales anymore. I’m not sure if that’s an official policy or anything, but it wasn’t even brought up as an option. Mostly the kids sell to family members and at stands outside of stores.

   The cookies are popular. Our daughter sold a couple hundred dollars worth this year without really trying.

9. Mostly, I’ve seen it as either “table outside a supermarket” setups or the parents of the kids involved bringing the order forms to work for them.

   Though in NYC, I’ve seen “we have a clear-sided truck full of the actual cookies, wanna buy em right now?” corner setups too. (Not random either- good corner, right near a reliable ATM. Smart!)

   Generally, I saw door to door stuff (back home in New England) from smaller stuff, like kids selling Christmas wreaths to make money for a school trip or taking pledges for various kinds of -athons.

   GS Cookies have the advantage of *everyone* knowing what they’re doing and selling, no explanations necessary.

10. Yes, Girl Scout cookies are popular, but they do not go door-to-door, or at least I have never seen that happen. Instead, they network by reaching out contacts they know that can help them sell cookies and locate themselves near businesses and shopping centers where people are most common.

11. We live in a very pedestrian family neighborhood. All the kids know each
    Other and most adults know the kids. Down the block is a Girl Scout that strolls with her dog in the late afternoon. Lots of people on porches and she makes lots of sales. This is not everywhere…. But it is still very much a thing here

12. Girl Scouts can still sell door to door, but at least in this area, the push for online sales is strong. There are two bakers, both with parent companies. Little Brownie is currently owned by Ferrero (you know, Rocher…) but the baked goods are actually made by the same Little Brownie and ABC as before. Also, this is relatively well known, but the cookies they each sell are different. Thin mints are not the same recipe between the bakers, similar cookie have different names between the two. The baker is chosen by the local council.

    I’ve always loved a good Thin Mint, Tagalong, or a Samoa. The price is higher than I’d normally lay for a box of cookies, but a portion DOES go to the kids, as well as a portion to council for programs like camps and such so I pony it up. Aside from that one bad COVID year, there’s a LOT of cookies going out the door every year so something must be going right.

13. Haven’t seen any door to door sales for several years. But I always buy some when they have a table set up at the grocery store. Same thing with Boy Scouts and popcorn.

14. NOT COMMON ENOUGH!

15. I haven’t seen girl scouts knocking on doors for a looooong time. For a while I was getting my cookies through a coworker who had a daughter in the girl scouts. He’d print out a sheet with everyone’s name on it and you’d write down what you want next to the name, he’d tell you how much it is and you paid when he brought in your cookies.

    Otherwise they usually ambush me outside a store and I can’t say no to lemonades.

16. I had a girl scout come by my house last week taking cookie orders. Some years we have one or two of the kids in the neighborhood walk around selling them, and some years we don’t.

    There is a cookie-ordering time of year when all the girl scouts in our city take orders, and the cookies get delivered a month later or so. It’s like 3 or 4 weeks when they sell them both online and in person. After they start getting delivered, you also see the troops of girl scouts set up in front of stores selling the cookies in boxes for people to take home immediately.

    You’re not going to find a girl scout walking around door-to-door selling freshly made cookies. It’s always the ordering thing. And I think it’s up to $5 or $6 for a box of not very many cookies. Aldi actually has some good knock-offs of some of their varieties which they sell year round for about $2 a box.

    Some of them taste better than others. They have 5 or 6 varieties they sell every year plus one or two new ones. Some people buy then every year for nostal.

17. I’ve never had a Girl Scout knock on my door since we move in 24 years ago. They usually set up a table in front of one of big stores in our area like Lowe’s. Used to buy them from my coworkers kids as well before Covid.

18. Never, my driveway is a quarter mile of hilly, winding gravel through dense woods and 2 creeks.

19. They used to do it a lot more. These days is more hit or miss. I hadn’t ever gotten door to door sales til we bought our house last summer. This year we didn’t get a knock and pitch, just a door hanger with a blurb and QR code.

    The cookies are amazing

20. Not common enough.

21. I had a girl scout with her mom come to my door this Sunday. I bought two boxes from her. I live in a very safe neighborhood. I haven’t had one coke to my door in a long time though. Usually some parent sells their kid’s cookies at work.

22. Door to door , I imagine, is fairly obsolete to most people now. Im in agreement with the consensus of the thread that mostly Girl Scout cookies are sold outside grocery stores at a table with their troop or online. However, I personally still get at few door to door sales. I live in a midsized city, but the particular neighborhood I live in, is fairly small, with little turnover. Most people who live in this part of the city have lived here forever. So the few kids I do get every year, either live on my street, or know me.

23. Those cookies are the best!! Yes, they do sell door to door although it will typically be kids in your neighborhood. More likely that a troop with their parents will set up a table outside a store.

    Funny story- the 1st state in US to legalize marijuana was Colorado. An enterprising girl scout set up a table outside a dispensary. I think she one the sales competition that year.

24. Door to door is uncommon. My mom asked my husband and I our faves and ordered from one of her friend’s daughters through a link.

25. It’s all across the country, but they don’t usually go door-to-door because that can be dangerous and it’s hard to carry that many boxes of cookies around.

    Usually they just set up a small stand near a supermarket or some other store that will bring in foot traffic and sell their stuff on the sidewalk with a parent watching as people go in and out,

    The cookies are good, but a bit overpriced. There are generic versions of several of the popular ones available in supermarkets year round, but they aren’t nearly as popular or well known.

26. > How common is it for a Girl Scout to knock on your door and try to sell you cookies?

    Fairly common.

    Girl Scouts, specifically, sell their cookies about once a year. These days it’s not uncommon to see them setting up shop outside stores or in other high-traffic areas… But the traditional way was going door to door. And they still do that in my neighborhood.

    We’ve got several little girls in the neighborhood and they’ll each stop by. Usually with a parent hovering not too far away. And we’ll typically buy one box from each.

    > Is it across the USA, or more in regional pockets?

    Fundraising, in general, is pretty common across the US… But the exact mechanics will vary some from place to place. Maybe your municipality doesn’t like kids setting up a table outside stores. Maybe you don’t live in a quiet neighborhood. Maybe you just see order forms passed-around at work.

    Where I life, we get all the fundraising. Girl Scout cookies, popcorn, candy bars… Whatever the local organizations are selling.

    > And do people actually like the cookies?

    Yeah, they’re not bad. I mean, some people get really excited about them. Thin Mints are very popular, but I don’t like them much. Still – the cookies certainly don’t go to waste.

27. Here they usually post up outside markets or they’ll take orders from people and deliver those. For the deliveries, it’s usually a parent who takes charge and helps them deliver. I don’t have personal experience with that but I know a couple of people who have done that.

    Thin Mints are the best. I also look at it as donating $6 to the Girl Scouts and getting yummy sugary treats in return.

28. I haven’t seen kids going door to door in years.  I miss it and wish they’d still do it.  I ALWAYS bought from kids who came to my door.

    When my kids were selling things for various fundraisers I’d take them door to door.  They need to earn it.  Lol. None of this set up a table outside a store bullshit.

29. Knocking on doors is uncommon and not typical. They. Usually have booths outside stores or at events.

30. We go around our neighborhood, but it’s a very small neighborhood, and we know most of our neighbors.

31. It’s across the country. I haven’t seen them selling door to door in ages. I get my fix when someone from work brings in the order form for their daughters. Different troops seem to sell different varieties of the lesser-known cookies so it’s worth perusing each order form. There seems to be a “cookie season” when they are all selling them so you have to get enough to last, and I can tell you there aren’t many in each box. I always buy a couple of boxes of anything lemon (there’s like three kinds at least) and the peanut butter and chocolate ones, oh and the shortbread, and maybe just one thin mint. Oh yes, we like the cookies.

32. Just yesterday after school hours, 2 delightful young ladies with their Mom watching from the car, rang my doorbell, stood 3 or 4 feet from the door when I opened and asked if I wanted to buy some Girl Scout cookies. I said YES! And Mom came up from the car to process the credit card transaction for them.

33. There’s a girl scout office just around the corner. They have never come to my door in the 11 years I’ve lived in this house.

34. It used to be fairly common for girls scouts selling cookies or boy scouts selling candy bars but these days I usually only see them outside of big box stores with a table full of cookies.

    The cookies are good, as are the candy bars (but they’re very overpriced). I used to sell the candy bars and my son did too, we would get little prizes if we sold enough.

    I think they stopped doing door to do mostly after the pandemic started, but once in a while a colleague’s child will be doing a sale and people will sign up to buy some.

35. Not really door to door anymore. A lot of people with family in the girl scouts will take orders from their friends and coworkers. The cookies are great but very expensive. You can get them way cheaper off brand at Aldi and they are just as good

36. It used to happen more often but I don’t see it as often. Probably because of safety for the kids. It’s not uncommon to see them set up outside of stores. I just saw a post on our neighborhood Facebook group about selling cookies. There are also the occasional coworker that will post an order list on the break room fridge.

37. Depends on where you’re at. It’s not like it used to be when I was a kid.. But yes I occasionally have various fundraising kids knock on my door. Generally now it’s kids I know (or rather kids of parents I know), or the parents will be close by ready to assist if something doesn’t go right. I live on a country road so either desperate or those that know I’m wanting to buy the product…

    When I was younger my fundraising goldmine was always my parents work. However my company does not allow this.

38. I was a Girl Scout for a year and never went door to door. We always posted outside of grocery stores. That’s where the real suckers are.

39. Girl Scout Cookie volunteer here. Yes, they absolutely still go door-to-door. Might be more common in some areas than others, but I know lots of girls here that go door-to-door. My own daughter did it for years as well.

40. Girl Scouts (to my knowledge at least as an adult man without kids) haven’t been knocking on doors in ages. I mostly see them standing outside stores or on busy street corners (with adult supervision, for obvious safety reasons) flagging down people to buy their products. It was more of a thing in the 80s and 90s. They’ve even modernized their business model to where individual scouts have their own website where people can place orders online to either get cookies mailed to them or delivered by the scouts.

    As for if the cookies are good, they’re pretty much laced with drugs. Whenever it’s Girl Scout Cookie Season, you know everyone is running to the ATMs to pull out cash for their stash of Thin Mints! I’m personally obsessed with the Tagalongs/Peanut Butter Patties.

41. At least once a year

42. It’s across the USA as far as I know. I haven’t had any knock on doors in years, but I always see them outside the grocery store. We just bought 3 boxes on Sunday – while we were in the store my wife was watching the clock because the troop mom said they were leaving at 3. I called her out every time she checked her watch.

43. In my whole life that never happened.

44. In the 70s and 80s it was more common, but these days, usually there’s a group set up on a table outside the local grocery store. The cookies are decent, but are also available for far cheaper from most dollar stores and grocers.

45. My daughter was a girl scout (she’s aged out).

    They were actively discouraged from going door to door. A local convenience store chain was really good about letting them set up tables and sell cookies. We also did sales over the phone to the grandparents, aunts and uncles, a few close friends, etc.