Something isn't quite right about this article. First the author compares the rise in cookies prices compared to inflation instead of commodity prices. This was a red flag to me that was repeated more than once.

Fuel and food prices have been rising sharply these past few years. I'm not a commodities expert so maybe someone with more insight can help, but this chart looks like wheat prices went up 50% in 2010 alone and are double what they were in 1995.

http://futures.tradingcharts.com/hist_CW.html

This has been in the news quite a bit.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/16/business/main20043...

So that $2.50 pack of white label cookies from WalMart was probably $1 way back in 1995. It's not surprising that the $2 pack of Girl Scout cookies from 1995 is $4 today.

There was an awful lot of text and analysis for completely missing this point.

To the author's other complaint that cookies are cost inefficient, all of these cookie sale type fundraisers (e.g. bake sales, car washes, popcorn sales, magazine sales, cheese and sausage sales) are obviously less efficient than direct donations. But I suppose they serve a few other purposes than fund raising. Scouts potentially learn life skills about working and business instead of how to beg for money with tangible benefits for the troop. The proliferation of cookie boxes are free advertising real estate in millions of offices and homes that lead to greater participation and perhaps more donations than if the Girl Scouts solicited for donations directly. Those are just a couple of reasonable explanations off the top of my head before jumping to accusations of corruption most high.