Olivia - the Cookie Entrepreneur

As part of her Brownie troop, Olivia participates in their annual drive to sell Girl Scout Cookies. 

Normally she sells a handful of boxes to her neighbors, but relies heavily on her mom and dad to peddle most of the sales at work.  She also participates in her troop's cookie booth where they stand outside a supermarket or store, usually in pairs and asks shoppers whether they'd like to buy some cookies.  Olivia doesn't set any records like a few of her friends try to and does it mainly for fun. She does enjoy being out in public selling cookies, something that doesn't always come naturally, and in fact is something I doubt I'd have enjoyed, at that or any age.

Olivia signed up to sell the cookies at a local convenience store on Valentine's Day and because of some last minute change, Olivia ended up the only one to man the booths.

We arrived at the store ten minutes before 10 a.m. and set up the table after checking with the manager where he wanted us to be.  The day was overcast and cold, with temperatures in the mid-30's.

The first half hour was a little slow as there wasn't a lot of traffic.  The manager had set us up on the less trafficked side of the store and since the parking lot wasn't filled, most people went through the other door.  But as it continued, the sales became steady and started to pick up in concert with the filling parking lot. I guess people are more generous on Valentine's Day and sharing some Girl Scout cookies with loved ones sounds like a good idea. 

After a few times doing this in previous years, Olivia had got her routine down.  We even had an open box of "Thanks-a-Lot" cookies on the table so she could offer free samples. She would greet the customers as they entered the store with a friendly and cheerful "Hi!" and ask them: "Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies? We have some free samples if you like to try." And regardless of their response she never failed to wish them a nice day.

One patron went into the store saying he wasn't interested in buying cookies, but by the time he came back out, he was so impressed by Olivia's cheerful demeanor that he asked whether he could contribute $5 to the Troop.  She happily accepted the donation. Another time, a family of four had already walked past the table mentioning how many cookies they already had in their pantry, but were called back by the sound of Olivia mentioning "free samples."  They ended up buying four boxes.

Once a box was sold, Olivia would tell them the price and make change.  I was responsible for marking the number and kind of cookies she sold and refreshing the display from the boxes behind the table. 

The only thing that didn't always go smoothly was getting the correct change.  I tried to have her start with the cost of the purchase and 'count up' to the amount of money the customer handed her as she handed the change back.  That way the customer could see exactly how much change was being returned and they wouldn't have to count it themselves. 
But Olivia wasn't entirely comfortable with this method. Instead she liked to do the subtraction in her head and then pull the money out of her cash drawer (which in reality was a small plastic tackle box), finally handing the customer a wad of money saying 'here you go'.  This worked sometimes but not others.

After about an hour, things really started picking up as the lunch crowd started coming in.  The manager came out and ordered a few boxes; he also took the orders for other employees in the store through his headset. He mentioned to Olivia that she was doing a good job out in the cold and that anytime she wanted, she could come in and get a hot chocolate on the house.

Olivia was cold, and as a big fan of hot chocolate, I knew she wouldn't resist such an offer, although she didn't seem to believe it would be free.  A little while later I told her to go and get some hot chocolate and I would man the table for her.  I gave her some money just in case but wasn't surprised when she came out to hear that the girl at the cash register told her that the manager said over his headset that she could have it on the house.

With the hot chocolate in hand, the temperature rising ever so slightly and the sun coming out, the selling seemed to go a little easier.  We had already run out of Thin Mints, then the Peanut Butter Patties went next and finally we were down to a handful of each of the others.

We were thinking about lingering a little while longer to sell the remainder of what we had since the noon crowd was making the store very busy. But soon enough the next Brownie troop arrived and we handed over the spot to them at 12 noon. 

By the end of the two-hour period, Olivia had sold a very impressive 63 boxes, which she got sole credit for. I am very proud of her spirit of participation and how she handled everything during the 2hour sale! J