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?” (More Girl Scout cookies stories.)