Girl Scouts prepare a slimmer cookie
Keeping with the trend of pre-portioned "100-calorie" snack packs, the Girl Scouts have developed a new low-fat cookie called the Cinna-Spin. Andrea Gardner reports the girls should cash in on the trend.
A selection of Girl Scout cookies (Girl Scouts of the USA)
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Lisa Napoli: Girl Scouts shouldn't have to worry about their weight. After all -- they're girls! But since they are in the cookie business, they do have to worry about the rest of us. Andrea Gardner says that's why they're taking over the grocery store with a new kind of cookie.
Andrea Gardner: Their motto is "be prepared." And this year, the girls in green did their sales homework.
They realized that Americans like pre-portioned snacks, also known as 100-calorie packs. So, the Girl Scouts developed the low-fat Cinna-Spin. Inside a box, you'll find individual pouches of 15 spiral-shaped cookies.
Nabisco was first to come out with 100-calorie packs in 2004. Since then, Americans have spent more than $200 million on the pre-portioned snacks.
Sheila McCusker with the research firm Information Resources says the Girl Scouts should cash in on the new cookies.
Sheila McCusker: Fifty-five percent of consumers told us that they're trying to find ways to control portions today. It's a trend that has not yet plateaued.
One hundred-calorie packs are usually more expensive than the same snacks packaged in bulk. But Cinna-Spins are priced just like other Girl Scout cookies. One box costs between $3 and $4.
I'm Andrea Gardner, for Marketplace.
