Is Wal-Mart Trying to Price Out the Girl Scouts?
That a mom blogger is taking issue with something Wal-Mart has been up to is usually no big surprise. But C.V. Harquail is getting special attention for her case against the Arkansas based box store.
She says the biggest chain on earth is striking out at the sweetest little girls on earth: the Scouts.
Specifically, Harquail says Wal-Mart’s newest addition to its Great Value brand includes cookies that fall precariously close to the goodies that make us all pull out our wallets and pack on the pounds each and every March just so we don’t have to say no to the perky little face on our doorstep.
The knock-offs of Thin Mints and Tagalongs are apparently slated to hit shelves nationwide soon, and Harquail says they’re going to represent real competition for the Scouts. “Because the cookies are ‘reasonable facsimiles’ of the authentic Girl Scout cookies (I sampled them myself at BlogHer ‘09 last week) and are being sold at an everyday low price, these cookies are poised to snatch cookie sales right out of the hands of the Girl Scouts themselves,” she noted in her blog.
Let’s back up here a moment. Wal-Mart is no friend of mine (have you seen the Wal-Mart movie?), but I’m going to direct you to the cookie aisle in any grocery store in the country. Pass the Nabisco and the Archway and head straight for the Keebler section. Found it? Now pick up the Fudge Shoppe Grasshoppers. Pay for them and head home. Stick them in the freezer for an hour. Take them out, and . . . taste the Thin Mint, er, minty chocolate wafer.
The same EXACT cookie? Nope, but scores of Girl Scout cookie devotees make do with the mass-produced variety in the months when the little door-knockers are scarce. And yet when the girls come a’ knockin’, we thumb our nose at the elves in favor of “those sweet girls raising money.”
No one is arguing that the world needs more fattening food, or that Girl Scouts shouldn’t get the edge when we’re choosing where to spend our dollars. I don’t even like the Tagalongs or the Samoas, but part of the mystique of the Girl Scout cookie sales is the kid-faced salespeople. I still pony up (and leave them on the community table at my office). I’ll choose kid over corporation any day.
They’ve already got a monopoly on cute to sell their cookies. Do they deserve a monopoly on flavor?
Image: Girl Scouts
Do they claim to be similar in advertising? Do they look like? (I seem to recall the Keebler grasshoppers being square…)
It will be interesting to see how this really affects the Girl Scouts. I’m not a big sweets eater, but always buy a few boxes to support the scouts, then give the cookies away.
Also, I don’t love WalMart either, but I think sometimes they get the brunt of the hatred compared to other big box stores. I know people who refuse to go to WalMart, but have no problem with Target. Their prices are very cheap also, so they must use a lot of the same tactics as WalMart.
Hi Jeanne-
Thanks for picking up this issue! I’m a management consultant who blogs, and who is also a mother… I’m not coming at this issue from the same perspective as a blogger who focuses on parenting and family.
My concern here is the idea that Wal-mart, the biggest retailer on earth, would choose to produce and sell two cookie flavors that are rip-offs of celebrity Girl Scout cookie types. Wal-mart could choose from hundreds of cookies, so why these two?
For a company that is trying so hard to appear to be or even become a good corporate citizen, they might rethink who they’re trying to take market share from. Do they really want to put Girl Scouts out business? If not, then maybe they could make snickerdoodles instead.
Do you think that it’s the right thing for WalMart to do?
Not for nothing, but I haven’t seen a Girl Scout in a decade. What I used to see, and my husband sees now is at the office. A parent taking orders at work. It’s neither here nor there. I will continue to buy from the Scouts if only because that keeps me from stuffing my face with Thin Mints year round.
MediaCurves.com just conducted a study on 307 viewers of a news clip discussed the recent controversy involving Walmart and the Girl Scouts. The majority (58%) of respondents who are parents of Girl Scout members said that they have a more negative perception of the discount store after watching the news clip. Over a third of these Girl Scout parents (35%) reported that they are now less likely to shop at Walmart stores after learning of the Girl Scout cookie controversy. For more in-depth results please visit http://www.mediacurves.com/NationalMediaFocus/J7486-GirlScouts/Index.cfm.
Thanks,
Ben
…ummm…I like Wallmart. I live in a very rural area and there weren’t a lot of stores even before Wallmart came, so you had to drive about 20 miles away to get a lot of stuff. Everyone here was really happy when they put in a wallmart, and they’ve recently put in a wallmart super center, which I think is awesome. It’s good to be able to find everything you need at a reasonable price. They’ve also provided a lot of work for people in the area at a higher wage than they would have been getting otherwise.
I work at wal-mart stocking shelves I don’t make much more than I could have made flipping burgers at mc. donalds or burger king. I can tell you from experience we’ve placed top store several times for our area and quite frankly I don’t see why since our candy, chips, and canned fruit aisle is always such a mess nothing ever in the right spot and often times just thrown on the shelf its also one of the darker lit aisles in the warehouse like grocery section. I preferred Ames who unfortunately went out because of wal-mart. If it wasn’t for the fact that the only places to buy clothes here are places like marshalls whose aisles are in no way organized for convenience or khols whose prices are well much more than I can afford I would be less likely to shop at wal-mart just because it stole Ames and holds a monopoly where we are now not because I have a personal vendetta against them.