The reaction has been swift and voluminous, and covers the whole spectrum from kudos to no-nos, after a San Diego, CA, Girl Scout sold 312 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies outside a local Marijuana Dispensary over Super Bowl Weekend. You gotta give the kid credit for her marketing smarts!
Disguised behind a pair of ‘munchies’ glasses, this anonymous San Diego Girl Scout sold
more than 300 boxes of cookies outside a Pot Shop over just two days…
Actually, the enterprising Scout had help… Her dad set her up on the sidewalk near the doors of the pot shop.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the kid made the most of Saturday and Sunday while the store harvested a major crop of free publicity.
It was technically illegal for the Scout – whose name was not revealed in the source story for this post – to sell like that, but her Dad found a way. Seems a permit signed by the store owner is needed in San Diego to sell on the doorstep, but ‘walking’ sales are allowed. So, rather than planting herself on the doorstep of the Urbn Leaf pot store, the girl walked up and down the block reeling in customers by the boatload.
The problem is… ‘Walking’ sales is supposed to encompass door-to-door solicitations in residential neighbourhoods. The Urban Leaf store is in a commercial zone. But that didn’t trigger any official action over the weekend. Girl Scout officials admit the kid was tip-toeing around in a ‘grey zone’.
Nevertheless, the Twitterverse lit up with comments and opinions, most of which that I saw commending the Scout on her enterprising approach to the annual cookie sales challenge. I commend her (or her dad; whichever) for following the old familiar Scout’s mantra: Be Prepared! How many kids would stock in 300 boxes of cookies to go door-to-door on one block?
One of the best Tweets I saw was posted by @A Very Stable Genius: “Great idea! I’m going to open a restaurant that sells pizza, Doritos and Mountain Dew next to every dispensary.” You can bet such shops will open their doors everywhere by this time next week. Well, maybe a couple of weeks…
As you might expect, this west cost escapade has triggered copy-cat sales blitzes at other marijuana outlets around the country, in states where pot sales are legal. This, even though the Girl Scouts organization is officially cautionary about the tactic.
Cookie selling season in San Diego runs from February 9 and March 11 this year.
~ Maggie J.