Cookie Crackdown

One of my favorite times of the year is Girl Scout cookie season. Thin mints, Samoas, Tagalongs… they are all good to me.

One great thing I love about my neighborhood is it’s filled with Girl Scouts. That means I not only get to buy a box when I head out to the grocery store and meet the kids, but I also get the door-to-door sales from the kids in the neighborhood.

If there is a Girl Scout stand within eyeshot, I will stop and buy cookies.

I don’t plan my living arrangements or daily schedule around buying the cookies, but if I know the troops are at one place verses another, I might change my route. I have always wished they would make it easy on me and set up shop at the entrance to my neighborhood.

Apparently, a few Girl Scouts had that brilliant idea in Hazelwood, Mo. They set up a stand in their front yard and let the customers come to them.

However, a neighbor called the city to complain about the traffic and the barking dogs that rallied around the cookie stand. Based on the complaint, the city took action and shut down the operation based on a code violation of selling products from home.

This cookie crackdown left the girls short of their selling goal – 2,000 boxes sold. However, thanks to a rally from the public after the shut down occurred, all the boxes were sold. The front yard cookie stand was a six-year tradition. This is the first year the girls were shut down, according to the local newspaper.

This type of bureaucracy crushes enterprises and upcoming entrepreneurs as well as highlights the stupidity of unnecessary code enforcement. It also shows poor neighborhood support.

I understand how people can be irritated about traffic, barking dogs and kids running around in the street. However, this cookie stand was obviously not a permanent business fixture. The traffic would move out quickly since the people were only buying cookies and the barking dogs were not the girls’ fault. The dog owners should have silenced them. Maybe the neighbor thought they were dealing out Tagalongs with a bag of pot or Thin Mints and a side of ecstasy. You never know with kids these days, right?

Why didn’t the neighbor simply say something to the girls or their parents? She could have asked them to relocate their stand, have a better system in order to cut down traffic, maybe stop antagonizing the dogs if they were doing so.

Isn’t the whole goal of the cookie sales to raise money for a good cause and teach the girls responsibility? What did they learn from this? A selfish neighbor got his/her way. People hide behind the law and anonymous phone calls to get what they want. On the other hand, maybe, the person just hates kids – or cookies.

Well, not me. Pass the cookies and come to my house, sell on my street and block traffic all you want. It’s worth every bit of those delicious Thin Mints.

Staci Dennis lives in Norfolk, VA, is married to Eric, who is awesome, and has a fat cat and two cute Puggles. She has been published in various newspapers and magazines across the nation, and worked as a reporter for 12 years. She is a contributor for Nexxt, realestatejobsiteblog.com, educationjobsiteblog.com and armedservicesjobsblog.com.