This must be region\troop specific. My great niece went to camp with her troop in the summer and do quite a few trail hikes, etc.
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Ive never seen anyone flogging cookies…all it takes is having an order form handy and coworkers make a point of finding the parent and the form.
Ive worked with a few folks who sent an email that just said its Cookie Time but have never felt pressured to buy.
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^ I looked forward to cookie time when I worked in an actual office. Happy customer here. Of course I would have felt differently if there had been any hint of pressure.
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That oftentimes is the worst kind of pressure.
I used to put a “sign up sheet” with names of cookies and prices, and people put there name on it with what they wanted. I didn’t think it felt like pressure, but 
I totally agree about the manager piece.
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Keebler Caramel Dreams cookies come very, very close to Samoas in flavors and textures.
You’re welcome.
Having a public list of who is buying–and by extension, who is not–is in fact social pressure. (It’s nowhere near the pressure of your boss telling you you’re the only person in your department not giving to the United Find, etc., but still …)
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I guess businesses don’t want to prohibit sales as it would be seen as anti-charity.
I once worked with a woman whose kids’ club sold various types of easter eggs from a local mom&pop chocolate maker. Damn I miss those things. At any rate, she was nobody’s boss and you had to go to her to buy them–so you never knew who else was buying and in what quantity. But I think it was pretty lucrative.
Wow! I never thought of it that way!
I also gave away tomato seedlings at that job, but I don’t suppose anyone would feel pressure to take one.
I suppose it’s possible that folks have gotten more sensitive to such things over the last 20 plus years, but that could be wishful thinking.
I do know I wouldn’t put my phone number or email in a public place now.
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I once had a co-worker whose kids were selling items rather than food. Most of it was kind of junk, but I did buy a microwave plate cover that I still use 25 years later.
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Why? You don’t have to respond at all, or can contact that person to place an order.
Far easier than a face to face announcement (which can be awkward) or the order form being posted in the breakroom where everyone sees who has ordered and how much.
I guess Ive been lucky. I’ve never felt pressured to buy cookies (but let’s talk about wrapping paper and worthless tchotckes).
In offices where there’s more than one parent with a cookie seller, there’s always been a huge wffort to makensure the sales are pretty even.
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Not IMO
I believe it is, driven by funding. I am the person I am partly to my experience with being in Girl Scouts for many years. Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout.
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From a regional standpoint, it may be linked to available resources as well. I grew up in Philadelphia and our troop had access to two different scouting camps (with requisite cabins, pools, etc). As a kid they seemed to be very far removed from the city. Now those camps no longer exist and the areas (about 20 miles from the city) are fully developed.
The great niece I mentioned lives in NJ. There are plenty of parks and nature preserves for hiking, but when it came time for the full camping experience they had to go to NY.
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My college age kid says that each year a few girl scouts bring cookies to campus and they sell out remarkably fast. Always hungry age plus bad cafeteria food (plus legal pot?) = cookie sales.
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I’m a regular at a local ski area, and for several years, an enterprising Girl Scout would set up a table on the access road leading out of the resort in the afternoon on sunny weekends. Traffic heading out was usually at a walking pace on the access road, and she did a brisk business selling cookies to an otherwise captive clientele. I haven’t seen her in the past couple of years. Could be COVID stopped her, or maybe she aged out of Girl Scouts. I miss her!
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Our troop leaders in Rantoul (IL) would drive us to nearby very small towns (e.g., Paxton and Ludlow) which had no Girl Scout troops of their own, and we would hit every house in town, with great success.
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A few years ago, some troops set up tables right outside SF dispensaries. They must have done amazing business.
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