‘I feel like the cookies are smaller, also’: Customer calls out Girl Scout cookies for ‘shrinkflation,’ says there are fewer cookies than labeled
Girl Scout cookie season used to be a time of delight for cookie lovers across the country, but one TikToker is rallying people to share her frustrations about how things have changed in recent years.
“Shrinkflation is bad enough, but it’s the dishonesty that really gets me.” Jennifer Rose (@younger_than_tomorrow) tells her viewers, writing, "If you can't trust Girl Scouts, who can you trust?"
Showing off the Nutrition Facts panel on her box of Thin Mints, Rose pointed out that the box claimed to contain eight servings of four cookies each, which should equal 32 cookies in a box.
But an unopened sleeve of the baked goods seemed suspiciously small to her, so she opened it on camera and counted it out for everyone—finding just 14 cookies.
“It would make sense that it would be this times two,” she says. “14 times two is 28. That’s seven servings, not eight servings. There’s 28 cookies. Not 32. Just saying.”
Although a 2022 flyer found on the Girl Scouts Los Angeles website vaguely insists that Girl Scout cookie sizes haven’t changed (without specifying compared to when), we do know that the overall size of some boxes changed back in 2009, when they made the decision to “lower the weight of the cookies rather than asking the customers to pay more,” according to then-spokeswoman Michelle Tompkins. The Los Angeles Times cited the nationwide average price as $3.50 per box at the time.
Now, prices in many locations are up to $6 per box but range from $5-7 depending on the specific troop.
Rose isn’t the only one who isn’t thrilled with the changes—or who has noticed even fewer cookies than advertised in her box.
“My Dosidoes were short 4 cookies as well,” wrote one commenter, while another claimed, “used to be 44!!! 22 in a sleeve! I used to be a Girl Scout! So disappointing!”
“I’m a Girl Scout leader and every year I get so frustrated with shrinkflation in our cookies,” another viewer agreed. “Buy the off brands in the store and give a small donation to the girls at booths.”
Others echoed her sentiments about buying cookies similar to the familiar flavors at the grocery store or even Dollar Tree, which sells knock-offs of several of the most popular flavors—including Thin Mints—under its Clover Valley brand.
“I’m tired of being shorted. I stopped buying them,” a further viewer admitted. “The price keeps increasing product decreasing.”
@younger_than_tomorrow If you can’t trust Girl Scouts, who can you trust? #girlscouts #thinmints #shrinkflation #lippservice #lipp_service #nedandfrodo ♬ original sound - Jennifer Rose
However, several viewers did count up the cookies in their own sleeves and came up with 32, and a couple of people suggested customers weigh the cookies to see if they come out to the 9oz advertised on the front of the box. And others still simply tried to take it all in stride.
“So what you’re saying is I don’t have to feel so bad about eating a whole box???” one user joked.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Rose via TikTok comment and the Girl Scouts via email.
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