Conundrum?

@CaptAmehrican what legal requirements? All I can find are references that state that UPC codes are not legally required like the following:

Including UPC barcodes on products is not a legal requirement. However, most retailers around the world have adopted the GS1 system (UPC/EAN) for item identification.
(https://www.gtin.info/upc-barcode-resellers/)

UPC codes are a de facto requirement for items intended for retail sale. Walmart is not going to carry your product without it. But this tool for retail sale is positioned right next to a prominent statement that these cookies are not for resale.

There are incidental uses of the UPC code, like the nutrition tracking apps that scan food barcodes to track what people eat. But that wouldn’t seem to be enough reason to buy a GTIN and print barcodes.

So I’m left curious. Hoping maybe someone is a Little Brownie Baker and has the reason.

So they didn’t have to buy a GS1 Company id, as that one is for the parent company (Ferrara Candy Company).

Knowing how barcodes work can lead to all kinds of knowledge, like being able to get your hands on wonderful private label stuff that’s not sold in your region. I guess I collect weird specialized knowledge about generally inconsequential things sometimes.

@walarney at least the cookies we get from this kind of tracking are delicious!

@medz have I found my Little Brownie Baker hookup?

@djslack Nah. I was only foolin’. Surely they don’t resell old cookies. We use a different baker for GS cookies here.

@medz I knew, hence the smiley face. But I’ve just learned a whole lot about girl scout cookies in the past 20 minutes, including that leftover cookies are to be donated to food banks or other similar users at the end of cookie season. So you get the good S’mores and you have a delightful looking Caramel Chocolate Chip that we don’t get. But I’m firmly in camp Samoas over Caramel Delites.

I also learned that Little Brownie Bakers is owned by Ferrara when I wrote in to ask them this question. Because the more I think about it, the more I have to know.

It will be outstanding if they just write back and say “It’s for business reasons, as in nunya business.”

Also, I got curious: ABC is owned by Interbake, who also does a lot of retail private brands. This may explain why Dollar General has such a fantastic Samoas clone under their store brand.

Yes, I know I said Samoas are better than Caramel Delites then praised what may be Caramel Delites in a different box. I’m inconsistent that way.

@djslack If they have a clone of that kind of cookie I’ll have to check to see if they have a clone of thin mints and maybe buy a box if they are cheap enough some day. I know they use this for fundraising but at least around here the price of girl scout cookies is astronomical on a per cookie basis. I wonder if they’d make more money if they dropped the price a bit and make up for it in volume.

@djslack @Kidsandliz You think that’s bad, take a look at the popcorn boy scouts sell.
Seventy percent goes to the boyscouts. Incidentally, they sell what would be a $3 bag of Crunch-N-Munch for $10. It’s funny how the math works out.

@Kidsandliz dollar tree has a thin mints clone. The cookie inside is white instead of brown but it tastes pretty close. Also good to keep in the freezer. And it costs $1 for the same size box.

The person that told me about them told me they were made by the same company, but I have not verified that at all. I have verified the taste, though.

@Limewater ha, I have 4 boy scout nephews, so I’ve donatedbought a bit of that high dollar popcorn. I never did the math, though

@djslack probably better that you didn’t do the math.

@djslack Thanks for the info about those cookies. I’ll have to check them out at some point in the future.

@djslack @Kidsandliz keebler is one of the bakeries that makes girl scout cookies. They have clones of thin mints and the Samoas. If you’re close to a Publix, I actually prefer their mint cookie, it’s a square fudge mint cookie. It tastes like thin mints used to taste 20 years ago.

/image keebler girl scout knock offs

/image Publix fudge mint cookie

@RiotDemon some years back I had a head to head to head taste off with Samoas, Dollar General, and Keebler versions all together. Keebler came in third.

@RiotDemon Also, I would lay money those Hannaford cookies are made by Interbake and probably pretty faithful to the original.

@djslack @RiotDemon We had an Interbake factory here. It smelled nice. I was sad when they made it into condos.

@djslack @sammydog01 I’m not sure what the bakery is by me. I haven’t found it on a map. Almost every evening, I smell something like glazed donuts when I drive home. I constantly want donuts.

@djslack @RiotDemon @sammydog01 I went to school near a Sara Lee bakery and a fond childhood memory is the playground smelling like baked goods several times a week.

@stolicat

@stolicat this makes sense and is probably the case, but there’s no outside world need for it to be a UPC code. But I guess what are eight slots in Ferrara’s product line, and the need for it being a UPC code may be because of internal systems, like a database relying on UPC format or doing error checking by validating the UPC.

@stolicat My job is writing software that is used in (among other things) factory automation. One of the more interesting (to a techno-nerd) is an automated rice sorter made by a customer in Asia. Rice is dropped in a wide stream onto a conveyor belt and falls past a high speed camera. Software detects debris and bad grains and directs precise air jets to knock the bad bits onto another adjacent conveyor. Pretty amazing to see in action at full speed.
But, I imagine it must have displaced a lot of sweet old ladies who used to do the sorting by hand.

@macromeh @stolicat

@chienfou Best scene ever.

Close second:

@cranky1950 You’re cranky.

@djslack duhhhh

@Nate311 Around here you can’t walk in or out of Walmart without being approached to buy them. Different age groups on different days. They seem to be doing a brisk business.

@Kidsandliz Unfortunately for me, my local Walmart is within city limits. The same regulations meant to keep downtown sidewalks clear apply to the plaza. No fundraisers no preachers no buskers etc.

@Nate311 here are your targets:

Dollar Tree:

Dollar General:

@djslack @Nate311 shit. I was at Dollar tree yesterday and forgot to look.