Father-Daughter Team Practices Salesmanship with Girl Scout Cookies

This past week the Girl Scout cookies hit Terra Linda like a large wave.  You could run from the shore; but you couldn’t hide and even if you found higher ground you were still surrounded by the irresistible, delectable seasonal treats that inundated our close knit society. 

The Girl Scouts set up shop in front of Scotty’s Market and Safeway.  Calls to friends and family were made.  Neighborhoods were canvassed door-to-door, sometimes more than once.  Girl Scouts had their parents, like me, bring the cookies to work where co-workers were happy to support the worthy cause. 

In the case of my daughter’s troop, the proceeds were going towards saving a rescue animal.  When we went door-to-door Sabrina wore a shirt announcing that fact, with her name on the back   We never did find out just which rescue animal we were saving, but it was interesting speculating. 

Skylee guessed it could be seal.  I was thinking more in the lines of a dog from the Marin Humane Society but every time I tried to tell a prospective buyer that story Skylee would hiss at me, “Dad, you don’t know that!”  Being my daughter is already enough embarrassing without me making stuff up in front of other people.

Selling cookies door-to-door was different for me.  I make my living selling houses.  It can take me months and hundreds of, “No thank you’s,” or worse before I sell a house.  When we worked our street and called the people we knew we didn’t get one ‘no’.  It wasn’t until we ventured out to other streets that things began to get a little more challenging but I still felt they were far from daunting.

Last Saturday, when we went out, we found about a dozen people who bought boxes, and only three said no.  Talk about an easy sell!  Girl Scout cookies practically sell themselves, especially when one of your neighbors-- like cute little eight year old Sabrina--is at your door, asking in her soft voice, “Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?”  How can anyone say no to that?

Sunday was more difficult.  For the past several days we had spotted other Girl Scouts selling cookies.  By Sunday the market was already saturated. It seemed most everywhere we went people had already bought boxes.  One gentleman who purchased two boxes from us had purchased four boxes from a co-worker earlier in the week, and had already finished them!

We ended up knocking on only a half dozen doors or so, on about four streets where other Girl Scouts had already hit.  Too many, “No thank you’s,” in too short a time quickly deflated the sales bubble my daughter had been cruising around on.  I was thinking to myself, “How can you give up so easily?  Come on!”  She’s eight, what the heck did I expect?

So with nine boxes left from the several cases we purchased we packed it in and went home.  Later that day Sabrina was in front of Safeway wearing a Thin Mint costume where she did considerably better. 

I’m proud of my daughter for being a Girl Scout.  I’m proud of her attempts to sell the cookies, both successfully and unsuccessfully.

I’m glad we stopped selling door-to-door when we did too.  She’s got the rest of her life to get used to hearing, and hopefully ignoring, the word ‘no’.  Actually both of my daughters are already doing a pretty good job of ignoring the word ‘no’, especially when it comes from me.