2. Girl Scout Cookies

Every year, between January and April, an army of 7-year-olds mobilizes across America. They march door-to-door in green and brown vests, set up booths in supermarket parking lots, and deploy sales pitches that even the coldest hearts cannot resist. “My name’s Isla and I’m seven years old,” one scout told a producer. Her second-favorite cookie is Thin Mints. How would she sell you one? “I would say like, would you do you want this one or this one? And then you would choose.”

On The Economics of Everyday Things, host Zachary Crockett unpacks the surprisingly sophisticated business behind Girl Scout Cookies—a $800 million annual operation that mobilizes 200 million boxes in just a few months, taught by a sales force of children.

The Cookie Economy, by the Numbers

The Girl Scouts of the United States of America sell roughly 200 million boxes of cookies each year—one box for every adult in the country—all within a sales season that lasts just a couple months. Two corporate bakeries are ordained to make them: ABC Bakers (part of the conglomerate that owns Wonderbread) and Little Brownie Bakers (a Keebler subsidiary). During Girl Scout cookie season, other cookie manufacturers often dial back their advertising and lower their sales expectations. As one industry analyst put it, “there is no upside to marketing against the Girl Scouts.”