Girl Scouts shrink cookies, customers shrink sales

I would love to hear of a business or organization that is not struggling under this tough economy. No such luck, and one of my favorite non-profits is in the news today for its money woes. The Girls Scouts of the USA rely on their annual cookie sales to bring in a nice chunk of money, and this year has been difficult.

Early regional numbers are suggesting a drop of about 19% in cookie sales, based on a comparison of the early ordering activity of this year to prior years. There is still time to catch up on sales with shopping center booths, but I wouldn't count on doing well there, either.

Girl Scout Cookies are somewhat of an American icon. They're not necessarily the best cookies anyone has ever made, and the portions certainly aren't of a generous size. In fact, the Girl Scouts are taking heat this year for reducing the number of cookies in each box by about 2, thanks to drastic increases in the price of ingredients. But there are plenty of consumers who have their favorites (such as Thin Mints) which they wait for each year (no matter how many cookies are in a box!).