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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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 ANALYSIS 
18

Wal-Mart Guns for Girl Scouts With Knockoff Cookies

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(Newser) – Wal-Mart appears to be rolling out cheap knockoffs—well, “Great Value” replicas—of Girl Scout cookies, and that has one former “Cookie Mom” hopping mad. “The exclusivity of Girl Scout cookies is what makes the cookies really sell,” CV Harquail writes on Authentic Organizations. And now Wal-Mart is hawking “almost-as-good fake Thin Mints and Fake Tagalongs, whenever you want them. There goes the Girl Scouts’ exclusivity.”

The Girl Scouts fund their entire operation with the annual cookie sale, and Harquail fears that a cheap, readily available alternative could cripple the organization: “Wal-Mart can sell all the hunting equipment, cheap plastic gizmos and clothes made in sweatshops that it wants to sell. But why must they encroach upon the market of a non-profit? Why do they have to go after the Girl Scouts?”

A Girls Scouts cookie booth.
A Girls Scouts cookie booth.   (Wikimedia Commons)
A Wal-Mart store in Danvers, Mass.
A Wal-Mart store in Danvers, Mass.   (AP Photo)
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Funny, the product line of the cookies is called “Great Value.” It begs the question, are Wal-Mart’s purportedly improved values any less fake than their pseudoThinMints? What kind of “Great Value” do these cookies actually represent? - CV Harquail

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18 comments
VIEWING:
 
SPH
Aug 4, 09 2:24 PM CDT
This is corporate greed taken to despicable....For an extra dollar the Wal-Mart board would encroach on the Girl Scouts' sole source of funding....And still they screw their employees....I hate these people... Reply
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+15
IN RESPONSE:
mainlander
Aug 4, 09 2:38 PM CDT
I agree that corporate greed has taken over this country. When did we become a nation of Ferengi willing to sell our souls for a few strips of latinum? There are some things more important than money.
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+11
IN RESPONSE:
Toon
Aug 4, 09 9:15 PM CDT
It's not just the money, it's also the chance to undermine a feminist organization that is not as conservatively biased as the Boy Scouts.
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+5
IN RESPONSE:
DSizzle
Aug 5, 09 7:30 AM CDT
I agree, the greed of the GSA is abominable.
Vote up! Vote down!
-1
Seal
Aug 4, 09 2:38 PM CDT
It's business, alright? No one gets to monopolize in America, not even little girls in hats. Competition is beautiful. Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
-9

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