Main Character of the Week is a weekly column that tells you the most prominent “main character” online (good or bad). It runs on Fridays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. If you want to get this column a day before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
The internet is a stage, and someone unwillingly stumbles onto it weekly. This makes them the “main character” online. Sometimes their story is heartwarming, like the disastrous Willy Wonka activation; usually it’s a gaffe. In any case, that main character energy flows through the news cycle and turbo-charges debate for several business days.
Here’s the Trending team’s main character of the week.
It’s Girl Scouts, who are winding down Cookie Season 2024 as you read this.
For the past 100 years, uniformed children have ambushed adults outside Petco with customer value propositions. (Per Wikipedia, the first sales of Girl Scout cookies date to 1917.) And we’ve enjoyed distinct, beloved cookies that have been immortalized in pop culture in drama-free fashion.
Our old Weekend Editor Josh Katzowitz used to hit us up every January for orders on behalf of his daughter Bella. My man was holding; we’re talking boxes on boxes of fresh product he’d stash in our office. We loved it.
But as “shrinkflation” becomes a rallying cry on social media, at least one TikTok creator went viral this week for saying that the scouts shorted her on Thin Mints. This woman, Jennifer Rose, said that there should be 32 cookies per box according to the package. But the two rolls of cookies that came in her box of Thin Mints only contained 14 apiece, meaning she was sold a false bill of goods. (Thirty-two cookies instead of 28.)
As the Dot reported this week:
“Although a 2022 flier 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.”
And that’s real: I recently paid $6 in Austin, Texas for a box. The (very sweet) child who asked me if I wanted any was prepared for my canned “Sorry I don’t have any cash” response with “It’s OK, we accept Venmo.”
She had a giant Venmo QR code, laminated, around her neck.
Elsewhere, social media was shocked to again realize that two different bakeries supply the Girl Scouts. This means there are two types of lemon cookies.
“I ordered two of these, thinking that they were going to be the good lemon cookies. Why did you get rid of the Lemonade and replace them with these Lemon-Ups? This is absurd,” TikTok user @gushergoo said.
As we reported this week: “The two Girl Scout bakeries are ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers; it’s up to each of the 112 regional troop councils to decide which bakery they use as their supplier. While both bakeries sell lemon cookies, only ABC Bakers specifically sells Lemonade cookies. But luckily, the Los Angeles Times provided a map to show you which bakery supplies which Girl Scout troops.”
@gushergoo was likely being facetious about her outrage and using the video to raise awareness for Troop 6000, a New York-based troop run by and for unhoused women and girls who live in a shelter.
According to the Girl Scouts of Central Texas website, the ‘24 season ran Jan. 17 through Feb. 25. Unsold inventory usually goes to area food banks.
Already psyched to run it back next year.
