After that discussion about the economics of being an adult, I am sure that I am in the right place to start my business research and learn Economics because the Girl Scout cookie economics in this podcast has really resonated with me.
The size alone was intriguing: 200 million boxes, $800 million, sold in about two months. Run by ten-year-olds with folding tables, that revenue would put Girl Scout Cookies in the same range as a small publicly traded company's annual sales.
Next, what also really got me interested was how much money actually ends up in the organization versus what ends up in the actual business that produces the cookies. In fact, only $1.50 out of the total price of a box (which is approximately $5) ends up in the licensed bakers who produce the cookies and the other $3.50 is split between the troops and the girl scout's regional council.
The story is actually a business lesson in revenue streams and supply chain structures, a part of business management and supply chain I'm learning about, although from a slightly different perspective. Also, from a business perspective, I was very interested to hear about the risk and incentive structures that business management involves: "When the cookies sell, it means a scouts troop makes $5 and then they use that for trip costs, and camp scholarships. When the cookies dont sell, a girl scouts troop could end up stuck with a few thousand dollars in cookies on their books."
The DoorDash strategy was also fascinating because it showed the business consequences of location data. The better DoorDash understood delivery routes, the more likely it was that better-located restaurants would end up buried in orders while others got none, a case of technology having unequal effects even when that wasn't the intent. The podcast proved that a US childhood tradition is indeed business management.
I rated the podcast a 4/5 because I was mostly interested in the income structure and the unintended consequences of the DoorDash plan for the troops.