ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 17, 1997 TAG: 9701170032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
IT'S GIRL SCOUT cookie time again. But buyers, prepare yourselves: The names - and a few other things - have changed.
A Samoa ain't a Samoa no mo'a.
Nor is a Trefoil a Trefoil, a Tagalong a Tagalong or a Do-si-do a Do-si-do.
Girl Scout cookies - at least those sold in much of Southwest Virginia - have changed, but in name only.
The Salem-based Virginia Skyline Girl Scout Council, which covers 36 1/3 counties in Virginia and one county and one town in West Virginia, switched cookie companies this year. Those now-familiar cookie names departed along with the Louisville, Ky.-based company that lost its 10-year-old cookie contract with the council.
Little Brownie Bakers will not supply the council with cookies this year. The council instead decided to have its cookies baked, as it had years ago, by ABC Bakers and Marketing Consultants in Richmond.
And ABC is a company that thinks straight-shooting, simple cookie names work best.
"ABC uses descriptive names for our cookies because we believe they're easier for girls to remember," said Sherry Sybesma, vice president of sales and marketing for ABC Bakers. "What we see is a lot of people asking for 'that caramel cookie.'''
So what's what?
* Samoa, the Virginia Skyline Girl Scout Council's second-biggest seller last year, now is Caramel deLite - still slightly gooey, still coconut-covered, still striped with dark chocolate.
* Trefoil now goes by Shortbread.
* Do-si-do is simply Peanut Butter Sandwich.
* Tagalongs, vanilla cookies topped with peanut butter and covered with chocolate, are now Peanut Butter Patties.
ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers are the only licensed Girl Scout cookie baking companies in the country. ABC supplies cookies for about 160 of the 321 Girl Scout councils in the United States. Each council decides with which company it wants to contract.
Last year, a committee of Virginia Skyline Girl Scout Council volunteers, after interviewing both companies, reviewing their bids and sampling their wares, decided to switch from Little Brownie to ABC, said Julie Becker, the council's director of marketing and communications.
"It was time for a change," she said. "They felt it was in the council's best interest to use ABC. There were a number of considerations. Price was among them."
Cookies have sold for $2.50 a box since 1989. Any cost increase has been absorbed by the council and has not been passed on to the public, Becker said.
Last year, 929 council troops sold 1.04million boxes of cookies, earning $510,652 for the troops and $1.4million for the council. (For each box, the troop gets 45cents; the baker, 79cents; the council, $1.17; and 9cents is set aside for bonuses to troops selling the most cookies.)
Selling cookies is the Girl Scouts' biggest annual fund-raiser, so tinkering with name recognition by contracting with a new baker was not something the council took lightly, Becker said. There was concern that the name changes might affect sales, she said.
"We're concerned that people won't realize that there is the same quality, same care, same good ingredients, and that their favorite cookies are still there," Becker said. "But we could be overly anxious. The public's pretty smart."
The Girl Scouts' national office requires that Girl Scout cookie bakers provide at least a chocolate mint cookie, a cookie in the shape of a trefoil - the Girl Scout symbol - and some type of sandwich cookie. Any cookie beyond the standard three is baker's choice. Still, all cookie recipes must be approved by the national office.
Longtime fans of Girl Scout cookies in the Virginia Skyline region might detect a slight difference in taste and texture this year.
It's to be expected, said Sybesma of ABC.
"Each supplier has their own formulas," she said. "Your mother's chocolate chip cookies might be different from my mother's, but they're both chocolate chip cookies."
The Virginia Skyline Girl Scout Council has no chocolate chip cookies in its 1997 offering, but in addition to the Caramel deLites, Shortbreads, Peanut Butter Sandwiches and Peanut Butter Patties, the council is selling Five World Cinnamons with Sugar, Reduced Fat Iced Ginger Daisies and Reduced Fat Lemon Pastry Cremes.
Apparently ABC knows better than to mess with the Girl Scouts' No.1 seller.
A Thin Mint is still a Thin Mint.
About 11,600 Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes and Seniors in the Virginia Skyline Girl Scout Council will begin taking orders for cookies today. Booth sales will begin in late February. The sale will end the weekend of March 29. If you don't know a Girl Scout and want to order cookies, call the council at (800)542-5905.
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. 1. Cookie-selling fever grips Emeryby CNBWallace (from left), Allyn Hughes, Dare Snead, Chelsea Moody and
Maggee Dorsey, all members of Brownie Troop 213 in Roanoke. 2.
Brownie Troop 213 watches a Girl Scout Council video on door-to-door
cookie selling. color.