Cookie Selling Etiquette: Yes or No?

Here are the responses from other leaders:

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Jalynn’s Response:
As a troop leader & cookie manager myself, if a girl comes knocking on my door I will still purchase cookies from her! How are you to know where every single scout lives? You can’t! That’s crazy in my opinion.

From Ev
Idk. I live in a development with 4013 houses. There are certainly other Girl Scouts. We are halfway through our little section of our neighborhood and have ran into 2 other families who decline to buy cookies because they say they have Girl Scouts in their homes selling cookies.

When this happens my Girl Scout’s face lights up and says “MAYBE THEY’D LIKE TO SELL COOKIES WITH ME SOME TIME!” I let the parents know that we’re out most evenings and I don’t mind taking the kids out on a walk about even though they’re in different troops. One of our neighbors has taken us up on it and has joined us twice now. It’s kinda sweet.

There’s just literally no way we’re going to hit all 4000 houses on our own I think! I say the more the merrier!

Jaclyn says:
We live in the country, we don’t have a neighborhood to walk, so I take my daughter to my brother’s, dad’s and friend’s neighborhoods to sell. She wouldn’t be able to have that door to door experience otherwise.

From Sam
There needs to be a study done on the entitled bully mentality of the Girl Scout moms.

Megan’s Response:
I don’t think there’s any rule about it. I took my daughter last year door to door in my dad’s subdivision. When I got to a house and they said they were Girl Scouts, I stopped. I just felt that it was her neighborhood and I didn’t want to step on any toes. But I asked my dad and his neighbors this year if anyone has came around asking and they said no, so I feel like this year it’s fair game.

Barbara Says:
We had two scouts selling on our block ( directly across the street ) we just said you take one side we will take the other… no rule on where to sell , no boundaries. but. I do respect others areas and would just go to the next block over

Eugenia’s advice:
The rules I’m aware of are not crossing council regional lines but we have an unspoken rule in our troop/neighborhood. We stay away from the immediate street that our girls live in. We’re all mostly in a concentrated neighborhood as our girls attend the same elementary school. Aside from that, it’s fair game within the city limits. I’ve held back from going to other neighboring cities to avoid something like that happening.

From Samantha:
She sounds pretty entitled.. Ugh. I probably would have done the same because I don’t like confrontation BUT there are only so many neighborhoods and tons of scouts. Early bird gets the worm.

Andrea says:
This is a bit weird to me. When we run booths or go door to door and they say they’ve already purchased from another troop or have a gs at home we cheer and thank them for supporting Girls Scouts. All GS cookies are good cookies. It sounds like she has the purpose and mission of Gs and cookie sales all wrong.

Karen’s response:
Pretty much just a courtesy or kindness to allow that little Daisy to sell to her own neighbors. Cookie sales are in no way intended to be cut-throat competition.

Elizabeth replied:
If in your service unit, it is ok here in our council. We don’t have many selling door-to-door. Now, I wouldn’t go outside of my neighborhood the first few weeks, but after that, I feel is fair.

From Julie:
My daughter is a scout and busting her butt to sell all these cookies but if another scout came to my door, I would 100% support that girl and my daughter sees other troops in stores all the time and asks to support another troop.

Tri says:
I feel like the competition this year is extreme. I’ve been with GS for like 4 years and I’ve never seen it like this. I would never kick another GS out of my neighborhood, that’s WILD. Our troop is pretty creative in where/when we do booths and walkabouts but never ever at the cost of another troop. What in the wide wide world of sports is wrong with some people?

Danielle’s advice:
My troop just sold around the church we use for our meetings. None of us live in that area. Not sure if any girl scouts live in the area. When someone says they purchased from another scout, they say thank you for your support. When they said no, the girls say have a great day. Not a big deal. I would have moved a street over.

From Brandi:
There are no rules per se, but it is important to be a sister to every scout. To me, if my scout was going to sell in a neighborhood she doesnt live in or have a connection to, I wouldn’t do it on the first couple weekends. I would give scouts who lived there first opportunity. But if it’s been at least a week (probably two) since sales started, then I would say it is more than fair game 

Some neighborhoods have no scouts, some may have 10. My immediate neighbors all know my daughter is a scout and they buy from her. But, she also does some of our side streets. She never makes it our whole neighborhood, so I’m sure there are other scouts that either don’t do it near our house or just don’t do door to door.

Sherry says:
I wouldn’t go door to door outside of my neighborhood, especially if I know there are other Girl Scouts living in that neighborhood. I do think each girl should get a chance to sell to her actual neighbors if she chooses to go door to door. I just think that is the polite way to handle things. There are plenty of other ways to make sales.

Red Zebra replied:
I mean, yeah.

If some out of town scout came to my neighborhood, I’d kind of be annoyed because my daughter is trying to sell in her comfort zone.

I don’t think it’s a rule, but that’s just how I feel.

Member 826:
I have had something similar happen to me, but kind of the opposite, I let a sale go to another troop and was scolded for it. I understand wanting the sales, what I don’t understand is the greediness. How is this teaching the girls sisterhood.

Erin’s Input:
Same exact thing happened to me a couple of years ago. The woman approached us and was very rude. I said ok, I won’t go to your house, I hope you have a wonderful cookie season! Good luck! And we kept going. People like this are just rude and territorial and have no business being involved with scouts. Our primary goal is to help our girls and our community.

From Rozina:
I would have been like let’s combine forces. You take one sale we take the next. Let’s sell the crap outta this neighborhood lol