Yesterday I bought a box of Girl Scout Cookies™ for the first time in years. Thin Mints, what else? So now, midnight-snack time. I open the box, pull apart the (new) foil envelope and grab the first cookie. I can tell at first bite, it’s not the same item at all. First, it is not thin anymore! This version is at least a third thicker than the classic. And it is no longer a chocolate-coated white shortbread cookie — the new cookie is brown through and through. The classic cookie had a “GS” trefoil design baked into the top, but the modern cookie is nondescript save for several pin-prick holes. On the classic cookie, the chocolate coating was so thick you could scrape it off with your teeth — next to impossible now.
And I dare say, the new Thin Mint is just not that minty. What a travesty. Girl Scouts will be trudging down many a lonely, weed-strewn sidewalk before I buy another box of these.
With the latest price increase, I am now paying $100/month for service from DirecTV™. DirecTV is my only option here in the mountains if I want to watch more than one channel. Since DirecTV does not offer a la carte service, I have to pay $60/month for a package with more shopping and infomercial channels than actual content, $6/month for each TV, plus extra charges for HD and DVR. I intend to cut back on services, and the thought has entered my mind of cutting the cord completely, Daily Show or no.
This I find odd: In the past year, DirecTV reported revenue of $26 billion but profits of only $1.97 billion. According to their website, they have 28 million subscribers in the US and South America. This works out to $943 annual income per subscriber, from which they make $70 profit. That’s it. You pay through the nose and DirecTV makes $70. Someone, if not DirecTV, is making a pile of money on a product of overstated value.
Soon, the pile will be a little smaller.