It’s that time of year again. Time for an army of girls dressed in brown and green uniforms to saturate the market with Thin Mints and Samoas, Tagalongs and Do Si Dos. And as Cookie Mom for Brownie Troop 421, it’s time for me to pick up the entire troop’s cookie order from the cookie warehouse.
After surveying the vehicles in the current long-term test fleet, I realize we are without a minivan, and therefore, I am without a clear-cut cookie-picking-up machine. Being a math-challenged English major, I enlist the help of Director of Vehicle Testing Dan Edmunds, the man, the myth, the ENGINEER, to run the numbers.
Dan opens up a new Excel spreadsheet, and calculating the number of boxes of Girl Scout cookies sold (1,764 boxes) into approximate cubic feet per case (1.5 cubic feet per case, approx. because different flavors come in different sized boxes) he starts discarding the options. Gone is the Toyota Tundra, Mazda CX-9 and Buick Enclave. In need of 200 cubic feet or so, none of the pickups or SUVs in our fleet are gonna do the job.
“What you need,†said Dan, “is a minivan.â€
Exactly. But with last year's Kia Sedona tester long gone, and this year's Dodge Grand Caravan still in the works, I needed to bring two vehicles.
In the end, I drove the Hyundai Veracruz to handle two-thirds of the load, and another Brownie mom brought her Toyota Camry sans car seats and kid crap. Combined the Veracruz and Camry were both loaded to the max, neither having room to carry even one passenger.
It took a total of ten minutes to load four pallets of cases into the Veracruz and Camry, and we had to move the Hyundai out before moving the Toyota into position. That put us four minutes over the six-minute load window we were assigned this year. Last year we got seven minutes to load, so General Girl Scout has cracked down even more on her cookie-selling army.
Maybe next year we’ll sell 2,000 boxes and be forced to load them in five minutes.
Or maybe we’ll back up to the loading dock in a Smart just to see the look on their faces.
Kelly Toepke, News Editor @ 5,130 miles
tlcruz says:
06:15 PM, 02/25/08
I'm very surprised there's not a vehicle in the fleet suited to do a job such as this! :) Was the Veracruz the best one for the job?
I'm hungry for some cookies now, wanna sell me some? :p
autoboy16 says:
07:01 PM, 02/25/08
I'd love to order some thin mints!! Those are sooooooo addicting and tasty!!!
Hey did all of these fit in the sedona? Did you have more this year?
I hope next year you'll still have the Caravan/T&C/Routan or maybe some new van/large suv/CUV!
-Cj
robs249 says:
07:22 PM, 02/25/08
ok your lucky i didnt find this car because i would of stole all of the samoas!!!
altimadude00 says:
08:23 PM, 02/25/08
Wow, SUV's not meeting a need! I'm shocked.
brn says:
08:40 PM, 02/25/08
I was going to ask what makes this print worthy, but then I remembered it's a blog. Blog is as blog does.
estreka says:
09:13 PM, 02/25/08
Mind giving me the address to that warehouse?
firstwagon says:
09:17 PM, 02/25/08
"load window"?????
Your kidding me... The cookie company makes money, the girl guides get money, the guides themselves get the programs and the parents do the work and some moron has the nerve to give you a "load window"?????
I'd tell them where to put their "load window".
The truck is loaded when I'm done and that's just the way it works. You want free labour then deal with it.
cruiserhead1 says:
09:18 PM, 02/25/08
Kelly,
you missed a golden opportunity. If you had a paypal button setup, you would have already sold all 1700 boxes.
daytona_500 says:
10:34 PM, 02/25/08
Lol, some local dentists are going to be really happy to see all those cookies.
texases says:
07:47 AM, 02/26/08
firstwagon-
You haven't had the 'pleasure' of dealing with all things scout related. If it's like our, it's the scout organizers that create the 'load window'. There are dozens (hundreds?) of groups having to pick up their cookies, and a tight schedule results.
jriz says:
09:34 AM, 02/26/08
Kelly is a personal roll model for me. All her devoted work to the girl scouts has showed me the great lengths I'll eventually need to take to eliminate any traces of desire to join the girl scouts that may exist within a potential female Rizlet.
Thank you Kelly.
ryster says:
10:57 AM, 02/26/08
"load window"
The poor Girls Scouts get exploited to sell cookies that only net them $0.35 per box and they are assigned a "load window"? That's ridiculous.
estreka says:
12:04 PM, 02/26/08
I remember selling popcorn for the BSA. I remember the logistical nightmare the whole operation turned out to be. I also remember that the cuteness factor only works your first year. Nobody buys popcorn from a 12 year old kid.
misterfusion says:
12:54 PM, 02/26/08
I would've thought that the Rondo, with both rows folded, would've fit all of these because the roof is so high. But then, I can't use a slide-rule like Dan.
genius163 says:
02:26 PM, 02/26/08
Ah, the annual Girl Scout Cookie post :)
SubyTrojan says:
03:14 PM, 02/26/08
^ +1, Michelle! It's always one of my favorite blog entries every year. :o)
Maybe Kelly should take online orders next year for limited edition Edmunds Editors' Most Wanted Girl Scout Cookies. Minimum S&H will be $4 per order. =Þ
desmolicious says:
05:30 PM, 02/26/08
Partially hydrogenated oils for everyone!
Nice to see they are still bad for you (yah it says zero trans fats PER SERVING, but not zero trans fats. there is a big difference). Sure they could make them w/o trans fats, but that would cut into the profit$...
Enjoy!
(buzz kill post I know..)
skierx420 says:
11:24 AM, 02/27/08
I ordered a bunch of cookies. WHERE ARE MY THIN MINTS! I freeze mine and enjoy them year round! BTW they go great in ice cream.
jarm says:
12:55 PM, 03/ 7/08
I don't believe you could not fit all those boxes in the Toyota Tundra...what about the bed...those boxes won't fly out.