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Girl Scouts get direct in cookie sales

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Photo by Mark Kauzlarich

Paige Uchida, left, Gabrielle Mills, right, and their Troop Leader Kristina Dobson, center, move boxes of Girl Scout cookies on to a cart to transport them out to a car.

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Photo by Mark Kauzlarich

Paige Uchida is surrounded by towers of Girl Scout Cookies, including many dozens of boxes of Thin Mints. Uchida and her friends at their girl scout troop worked hard to prepare for upcoming sales.

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Photo by Mark Kauzlarich

Makayla Bennett helps move boxes of Girl Scout Cookies for her troop-mates on the troop's pick-up day.

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Photo by Mark Kauzlarich

Makayla Bennett, a Girl Scout with local Troop 3399, counts boxes as her mother, Rachell Bennett, a membership specialist with the council for Girl Scouts, reads off the list of orders.

JANESVILLE — If you've been craving a thin mint, your wait is almost over.

Starting Saturday, you'll be able to satisfy your sweet tooth immediately when the Girl Scouts begin their annual cookie sale.

Instead of taking your order at your door and returning a few weeks later with the cookies, the girls will have the cookies with them to sell.

Girl Scouts of Wisconsin-Badgerland Council is introducing a direct-cookie sale to simplify the process this fall, said Marci Henderson, council CEO.

"Girl Scouts will be able to complete the transaction in one visit, and that means happy customers will get their cookies immediately," she said in a news release.

Troop 3399 Leader Kristina Dobson and her daughter Angelika Dobson, Janesville, are happy about the change.

"I think it'll be easier because the people can see boxes when I sell them," said Angelika, 10.

The Lincoln Elementary School fifth-grader also realizes the direct sale method is not as time consuming.

"Because I don't have to go to the same person's house twice, it'll take less time—by half as much," she estimated.

Angelika is in her sixth year of Girl Scouting. She was one of the top cookie sellers within the Badgerland Council and the top seller in her Girl Scout Troop after selling 804 boxes of cookies last year.

Kristina said direct sales will be good for her and the more than two-dozen Girl Scouts in the troop she leads.

"We don't have to back track, and when the girls have the cookies in hand, it promotes impulse buying. It cuts down on time and gas, and we were going to places once then done,'' she said.

It also saves time separating boxes of cookies, labeling them with the names of buyers and tracking who has and has not paid, Kristina said.

"We also had problems with people who wouldn't be home, so then we'd have to go back, and a few people ordered then didn't want them, moved or didn't have the money," she said.

This year, Kristina will park her van, loaded with cookies, in the middle of a neighborhood, then she and Angelika will reload her wagon as often as needed.

"It simplifies everything from a leaders point of view," she said.

Also new this year is a cookie box facelift to mark the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting.

"They were redesigned to better illustrate the meaning of the cookie program," Henderson said.

For example, one side of the boxes notes the five skills—goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics—that the cookie program is intended to help Girl Scouts develop.

The lemonade cookie is in new earth-friendly packaging to keep 200 tons of cardboard from landfills, Kristina said.

And there's a new mango crème cookie with nutrifusion. It's vanilla and coconut cookies filled with a tangy mango flavored crème enhanced with nutrients derived from fruits.

Kristina wants those who don't have a Girl Scout in their neighborhoods to know they will have the opportunity to buy cookies during booth sales that will begin popping up in the community the weekend of Nov. 2 and continue throughout November.

Cookie sales end Monday, Nov. 26.

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES

These eight flavors of Girl Scout cookies, at $3.75 each, will be sold Saturday, Oct. 27, through Monday, Nov. 26:

Thin Mints—Crispy chocolate wafers dipped in a mint chocolaty coating.

Caramel deLites—Vanilla cookies coated in caramel, sprinkled with toasted coconut, and laced with chocolaty stripes.

Peanut butter patties—Crispy vanilla cookies layered with peanut butter and covered with a chocolaty coating.

Shortbreads—Traditional shortbread cookies.

Thanks-A-Lot—Shortbread cookies dipped in fudge and topped with an embossed "Thank You" message in one of five languages.

Peanut butter sandwiches—Crisp and crunchy oatmeal cookies with creamy peanut butter filling.

Lemonades—Savory slices of shortbread with a refreshingly tangy lemon-flavored icing.

Mango Crème—A crunchy vanilla and coconut cookie filled with mango-flavored crème that is infused with fruit-based nutrients.