WASHINGTON — Can the shrill tone of Washington be changed through a presidential act of contrition? Or, perhaps, an enticing platter of oatmeal raisin cookies?
This week, President Obama has already served up both at the White House.
If you seem to be tearing through those Girl Scout Thin Mints a little faster this year, it isn't you.
Really, it isn't.
Fewer cookies were packaged into Thin Mints, Do-si-dos and Tagalongs boxes this year and the Lemon Chalet Crème cookies were resized to compensate for the rising cost of baking staples. All other flavors remain the same, according to the Girl Scouts of the USA.
The alternative was to raise cookie prices or use cheaper ingredients — two options that were rejected, said Natalie Martin, marketing director for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas. A box of cookies currently costs $3.50.
"We aren't talking about a drastic change. We are just talking about a couple cookies," Martin said, adding that the boxes themselves shrunk by only a centimeter. "People understand that we are all taking hits."
The Girls Scouts certainly aren't the first organization to alter product size and portions because of higher food costs.
Products on grocery store shelves throughout the nation have been reshaped, resized and repackaged in response to new marketing ideas, increases in food and gas prices and the downturn in the economy, said Lynn Dornblaser, a new product analyst at Mintel International, a marketing research firm.
"In the very biggest picture, it usually is about saving money for the manufacturer," she said. "You can do that in a lot of different ways by changing the quantity or the size of the product."
Those changes can save companies millions of dollars by reducing packaging material or shipping costs, she said. For example, a few years ago, Coca-Cola switched the plastic bottle caps on some products to one that uses less plastic. "For the most part, people didn't even notice," she said.
Dornblaser said she isn't surprised at the change in Girl Scout cookies.
"It is a reflection of them needing to keep the price in line with other products, but they also need to keep in mind the rising baking cost," she said. "You've got to balance it the best way you can."
The Girl Scouts faced double-digit percentage jumps for some ingredients from 2007. Martin said that flour increased by more than 30 percent, various cooking oils rose 40 percent to 187 percent and cocoa climbed at least 20 percent.
The rising costs forced the organization to make changes to the quantity, quality or price.
"We didn't want to pass on the cost to the customer because everyone is suffering right now," Martin said.
Carol Orbin, a cookie mother from Flower Mound, said the changes haven't stopped people from ordering, but that might be because most aren't aware of the changes. It could be different for booth sales, where customers can see the changes.
Cookie sales began Jan. 9. The booth sales will start up on Feb. 27.
"To me, their decision makes sense with the economy the way it is," Orbin said. "You can't change the taste of the cookies. No one wants to see the price go up either, so I am fine with what they did. It was a smart move."
Martin said the prices could change next year if things don't improve, but there are no plans for that.
"We don't want to go there," she said.
