Our granddaughter, Birdie, is selling Girl Scout cookies. And as this photo shows, we are in full support. This isn’t even the total haul, because we have already finished 3 boxes.
Our granddaughter doesn’t stand a chance of becoming The Cookie Queen, however, because that title belongs to Elizabeth Brinton, who sold 100,000 boxes in her career as a cookie seller. Elizabeth, before the internet even happened, figured out that she had to get to the masses, so she quit the door to door business and set up shop in a Virginia metro station at rush hour, and thus sold 11,200 boxes in that year alone. Note: Elizabeth’s mom must have had a big garage to store all those thousands of cookies. However, in 2021, Lilly Bumpus sold the incredible amount of 32,484 boxes. The exhaustive research that I did was not forthcoming as to how Lilly achieved this feat, or what shape Lilly’s mother was in afterwards.
But there’s more. Katie Francis broke the 100,000 record in 1985, actually managing, even, to sell a box of every flavor to President Reagan. Go Katie.
Katie consulted Elizabeth Brinton for advice on how to break Elizabeth’s record, and Elizabeth told Katie to “think outside the box.” It seems from my research that Elizabeth coined this phrase. Go Elizabeth.
When I was a Girl Scout in the Dark Ages, I think my record was 10 boxes, 5 of which my mother bought and then threw away, because she was always dieting. My mother was absolutely no fun. All she did all day was drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, and make dinner.
My granddaughter’s goal is to sell 1,200 boxes. This is a reasonable goal, as she reached it last year and won a trip to an amusement park. She was so proud.
The person responsible for Birdie reaching her goal last year is my husband.
Go Charlie.
