It was like falling into the rabbit hole! Except, instead of reaching the bottom or coming out in wonderland, the hole just kept getting deeper and deeper.
I don't think anyone has every questioned the Girl Scouts, and why would we, they're just cute little girls who do some sort of activity together like camping or whatever, and wear funny uniforms. It's a good thing, right? But what do they do with all the money that they generate from selling cookies? My first guess was that it helps out the troops themselves, but it turns out that only a small percentage of the cookie sales stays in the local communities, with the lion share of the cookie sales going to the bakeries that make the cookies and a strange Illuminati type organization only referred to as the Girl Scout Council. We tried to research who is on this council and what they do with their money, but every interweb search led us back to the happy-happy joy-joy site of Girl Scouts themselves. It appears as if no one has every questioned what happens to the money that the Girl Scouts raise.
Girl Scout Cookies have yearly sales of 200 million plus boxes of cookies, with revenues of $700 million plus. Each box of cookies costs around a quarter to make, and the bakeries get 85 cents from the sales of the cookies, or about $170 million in sales from cookies. This seems great for the two tiny bakeries that are privileged enough to make the cookies, but a little research shows who owns those two 'little' bakeries. The two companies are ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakery. ABC Bakers is owned by Interbake Foods LLC, which is, in turn owned by George Weston, Ltd. George Weston, Ltd. also owns Loblaw Companies Ltd: "Canada’s largest food distributor and a leading provider of general merchandise products, drugstore and financial products and services." Little Brownie Bakery is owned by Keebler, which is owned by Kellogg's. So these two 'little' bakeries are actually owned by two of the largest food distributors and manufacturers in North America, and one of their biggest marketing schemes is to have little girls dress up in costumes and sell their crappiest cookies for inflated prices!
As far as the Girl Scout Council is concerned, they are so enshrouded in mystery that it seems as if they don't actually exist. Any searches for who is on the inner council or who is in charge leads nowhere. Up to 50% of the profits from the Girl Scout Cookies go to this mysterious council to be spent in ways that no one seems to be able to say, either because they are unwilling or unable. Think of it, nearly $400 million is being funneled into this organization on just cookie sales, but they have nothing to show for it, no links to charities that they support, nothing to show how it's being spent. The council doesn't supply uniforms or services to the Girl Scouts, instead, the Scouts pay yearly fees of $10 and supply all their own uniforms (which they can buy from the Girl Scout website, costing upwards of $60 just for a 'starter' kit of the bare essentials like a sash and vest) have to buy any badges they win, pay for all their events outings, and essentially support their own troops. The den mothers and troop leaders are often volunteers who also supply their own uniforms and pay for many of the events that the troops attend. Camps are not free, but also cost money, so where is the surplus money going to in this "non-profit" organization?
Who is making all the money? It's not just cookies, but there are other scams going on with this organization. One link on the Girl Scouts website led to trips that the Scouts can take, and so we searched to see where they could go. One was a 12 day trip to Europe, which seems great, and something that anyone would enjoy, but the price tag for all 12 days was $3900! A simple break down showed that $400 of that was for the air fare and the rest was recorded in such vague ways that it didn't seem to add up. With just some estimation, my lady and I were able to establish that, with the $400 air fare included, a trip to Europe, with 8 nights lodging (2 of the nights were on ferry boats, 2 nights were air travel) and 10 days of food would cost less than $1000 (the scouts aren't going to stay in luxury suites, with each scout getting a personal room, they most likely are going to be staying in pensions or hostels, with 4 to a room) and the cost of guided tours for 3 days would probably run around $150-300, but that's per the group, not the individual. The person running that particular scam is making a huge chunk of change off the scouts who go with them on their fantasy vacation, all for babysitting some teenage girls for 2 weeks. If 10 scouts go, that's around $38,000 that one person can make! How do I get into this business? I'll gladly take a bunch of whiny kids to Amsterdam for 2 weeks and let them take a tour of the red light district and the coffee shops!
All in all, I wasn't out to find some nefarious conspiracy, but just was curious about what the Girl Scouts do with the money that they make off their cookies, but it seems like I've stumbled across something bigger than a simple thin mint. I'm not saying that the organization is evil or bad, but when a simple question can't be answered simply, it leads one to think that something must be going on.
Very well said! It IS odd when a simple question can't be answered! I hope this causes others to question the truth behind the girl scouts' guise of teaching leadership and doing good in the community... maybe they will one day change the name to more accurately reflect what they really are.... to something like, "girl laborers"
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