It's Girl Scout cookie season in Southern California, and Brownie Troop 421 has been busy taking orders since late January. Cookies are the troop's annual cash cow, and these ten first and second graders have been working their Brownie beanie charms on family members, neighbors, and of course their parents' co-workers in an effort to make their troop goal of 910 boxes.
As the troop's Cookie Mom, it was my responsibilty to pick up the the entire order from the warehouse, all 1,176 boxes, which equals 98 cases or three towering pallets. The veteran moms informed me that 100 cases would fit in an open-bed pickup truck, but since our Silverado was at the body shop and the weatherman was forecasting the threat of rain, I opted for the Kia Sedona instead...
We folded the Sedona's rear bench flat and attempted to remove the second-row chairs before heading to the warehouse. One seat came out easily, but the other chair wouldn't release. After nearly ten minutes of trying, we were getting anxious about making our 11:40 a.m. pick up time, so we left the seat in the minivan. I had been warned that the load times were assigned in seven minute intervals, and if you were late you'd get pushed to the end of the day. So much for sisterly love.
I brought my own labor force--husband, Barry and eager-to-earn-a-free-box-of-Samoas co-worker, Brian Moody. I had asked Brian to stand by with our long-term Tahoe in case we maxed out the Sedona's capacity. To my amazement, all 98 cases were loaded into the Sedona in less than six minutes.
Now as soon as I collect $4,704 from my ten sales girls, I'll be able to enjoy my own box of Thin Mints.
Kelly Toepke, Manager of Vehicle Testing at 20,138 miles
lydocal says:
12:25 PM, 02/26/07
Wow! What a tough "cookie" you are to take on such a job! :) The troop is lucky to have such a great "cookie mom".
If I am ever "cookie mom" I will definately put the Kia Sedona on my list of cars to borrow. By chance do you know how many cases of Girlscout Nuts it holds?
SubyTrojan says:
12:41 PM, 02/26/07
Those Samoas are no joke! Brian knows what's up!
Now that all is said and done, do we know why that one seat wouldn't release? That would've been a bummer if you all fussed with it and missed your window to pick up the "merchandise."
genius163 says:
01:06 PM, 02/26/07
You should have passed that cookie sign-up sheet around upstairs. I would have been good for a few boxes.
-Michelle
briancam says:
01:17 PM, 02/26/07
Free Cookies - that's what I'm talkin' about.
roar02ram says:
01:30 PM, 02/26/07
I look forward to a story about how it took 4 months & 40 calls to an ultimately closed dealer to repair that seat.
joanne3482 says:
02:04 PM, 02/26/07
Having picked up my own cases of cookies yesterday in Seattle, I can tell you that a Honda Element with the seats still down (We were too clueless to figure out how to put them up) will hold 58 cases easily. :)
briancam says:
02:27 PM, 02/26/07
roar - I'm still laughing. You're so right - although I think we can rest easy now that we've found Car Pros Kia in Carson, California.
Still, I'd like to find a Kia dealer that's closer. At least they treat us well.
http://66.160.188.111/roadtests/554
sylvia says:
03:08 PM, 02/26/07
Thanks for the photos - shows the cargo ability of the Sedona (and smiling kids never hurt an ad campaign for Kia!!)
ktoepke says:
03:37 PM, 02/26/07
genius163 - You're not out of the woods yet. The Sedona can be tasked with picking up additional boxes from the Cookie Cupboard. In Girl Scout speak that's a semi-trailer parked behind the Girl Scout Council where girls can continue to pick up extra cookies as needed until the end of March.
Dosidos anyone?
SubyTrojan - After the Sedona delivers 15 cases to the Edmunds office tomorrow, we'll have room to get to the bottom of the sticking second-row seat.
desmolicious says:
04:28 PM, 02/26/07
I'll be the party pooper here... After researching foods involving transfats I've given up on any that do (as much as I can). Unfortunately this includes girl scout cookies, because even though the new formulations claim zero transfats, that technically is not actually true.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17299077/
taken from the article re. girl scout cookies:
"A look at the nutrition label reveals that most varieties still contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oil — the primary source of trans fats in the U.S. diet. But the amount is less than half a gram per serving, low enough to allow a “zero grams of trans fat” label under FDA rules.
Every variety of Girl Scout cookie now meets that standard, based on serving sizes that range from four Thin Mints to two Samoas or Caramel deLites."
"That’s something for cookie fans to keep in mind as they open a box, said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
If it says zero grams, but contains partially hydrogenated oil, people should know it does contain a little bit of trans fat,” Jacobson said. “If somebody ate several servings of those foods a day, someone could consume 2 or 3 grams of trans fat, which is significant.”
Places like Trader Joes and Whole Foods have lots of cookies with real zero transfats. Maybe people don't care but seeing that the number one killer of women is heart disease, I'm sure plenty do.
And now I promise to never stray off the automotive topic again!
;)
jchan2 says:
05:21 PM, 02/26/07
This is off topic, but I remember a few years ago Edmunds.com bought every long term tester they tested. Now, almost all of them are "loaned" by the manufacturer. I always particularly enjoyed reading about the buying and selling experience of the various cars... What happened?
ktoepke says:
05:34 PM, 02/26/07
We're actually running about 50/50 right now between owned and loaned long-term vehicles. It's the norm for most auto mags to borrow their long-term cars, and we were extremely unique for owning cars. Still are.
Budgetary limitations won't allow us to purchase everything our hearts desire, so in order to cover as many vehicles as possible for our readers, we began borrowing cars to increase our fleet size.
To duplicate "real-world ownership" the borrowed long-termers arrive with very little or no mileage, and we are responsible for their maintenance during the year through regular dealers who typically don't know that the vehicles are test cars.
But sometimes car-enthusiast service writers catch on just from reading Inside Line.
Kelly
autoboy16 says:
09:19 PM, 02/28/07
Feel like sending a box of DO-SI-DOs or Thin mints to miami??
ktoepke says:
05:52 PM, 03/ 5/07
Second-Row Seat Release: In my initial post I mentioned that we tried to remove the Sedona's second-row seats before picking up the cookies. We got one out easily, but couldn't get the second seat to release. Because we were on cookie deadline, we soon gave up.
After removing the offending cases of trans fat from the cargo hold, I tried the seat again. This time it popped out with no trouble at all.
We'll call this one user error.
Kelly
jerrywimer says:
08:42 AM, 03/ 6/07
Just for the record- a last gen Avalanche (ie. 02-06) evidently will haul over 128 cases! Someone on one of the other forums I frequent has pics of it to prove it (estimates maybe an additional 5 boxes could've fit). This is with the bed covers on, tailgate closed, but the midgate down and crammed pretty much to the ceiling (including front passenger seat, except that it was where the owner figured that they could've fit the few extras if they'd had them).
Wow. That's just nuts. Talk about selling some cookies!
SubyTrojan says:
02:30 PM, 03/ 8/07
Thanks for the follow-up post, Kelly! It's a shame the Sedona was on the receiving end of a heinous act in your other post. :(
By the way, do you have any extra Samoas for sale?