By Heather Levia: McDonald - Examiner – Originally Posted February 21, 2014
Girl Scouts and pot? An odd pairing. But marijuana and munchies? No doubt a natural twosome. Even for a thirteen year old, the potential marketing goldmine of Girl Scout cookie sales paired with pot sales is hard to ignore.
According to the Huffington Post on Thursday, teenager Danielle Lei put on her brown Girl Scout vest, opened the legs of her card table, and set up shop Monday, directly outside of The Green Cross – a medical marijuana dispensary located on Mission Street in San Francisco.
How did Lei do? As you might imagine, it was a retail rager. The young Scout blew through her boxes – selling a whopping 117 boxes in two hours. The entrepreneurial Lei set a new standard of sales, thinking "outside the cookie box" by capitalizing on the ideal location and selling an average of one box per minute.
Proceeds from the sales benefited local charitable organizations.
Lei’s mother Carol said both Danielle and her sister have been selling cookies outside medical marijuana clinics before, and indicated that they always ask permission.
The Green Cross was completely on board; even employees at the pot shop came out to buy up their fave cookies.
"It's no secret that cannabis is a powerful appetite stimulant, so we knew this would be a very beneficial endeavor for the girls," Green Cross employee Holli Bert said. "It's all about location, and what better place to sell Girl Scout cookies than outside a medical cannabis collective?"
Critics however question the fact that the teen girls are partnering, as it were, with a commercial business that many condemn as somewhere between questionable and outright amoral.
Carol feels otherwise, and says this is a way for her children to learn about the difference between using the drug as a medicine compared to recreational use, which they do not agree with.
“You put it in terms that they may understand,” Carol Lei said. “I'm not condoning it. I'm not saying go out in the streets and take marijuana.”
Not all Girl Scout localities are supportive of the Lei’s business model.
Girls Scouts of Colorado recently denounced a photo of three girls selling cookies outside a marijuana clinic as nothing more than a Photoshop hoax.
“If you are wondering, we don't allow our Girl Scouts to sell cookies in front of marijuana shops or liquor stores/bars,” Girls Scouts of Colorado tweeted.
But, it is happening… See Video Here
*And the big question here is… what are these parents teaching their children? Making the sale is all important? Not to mention the possible psychological impact on the kids…
