“Would you like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies? It’s the last weekend! Get them before their gone!” Those words, forever burned in my head, often set up the “Where are the Shortbread cookies?” question.

A woman, probably in her late 40's, stops to take a look at the dwindling row of cookies. “Do you have anymore Shortbread?” She asked, since when did everyone start to want Shortbread so much?

“Oh I’m sorry. We ran out of those this morning. But we do have the Thanks-A-Lots,” and so began the questions.

“What are those? Well are they good? Would you suggest them?” They were all questions I was tired of answering by that point.

For those of you who don’t know, or haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a Girl Scout, Cadette, in my 7th year. And Thanks-A-Lots have sort of become my specialty. Thanks-A-Lots are Shortbread Cookies with a coating of chocolate on the back. Thanks-A-Lots are stamped with the words “thank you” in several different languages. All about are the same but instead of being stamped with “thank you” they have the goals of the Girl Scouting Program stamped on them.

Depending on where you live is what they are called. Little Brownie Backers calls them All About’s, while ABC Bakers calls them Thanks-A-Lots.

My only problem with them is that they replaced my all time favorite Friendship Circles. But the Thanks-A-Lots have grown to be one of my favorites, next to Thin Mints of course, and I’m sure you’ll like them too. The crunchy shortbread, the smooth chocolate, and knowing you are helping your local Girl Scout troop is just icing on the cake.

Thanks-A-Lot’s came around about 3 years ago, they replaced the Friendship Circles and Animal Treasures, and basically mixed the two together. They took the actual cookie idea from the Animal Treasures and the words stamped on them from the Friendship Circles. There have been other cookies that have came and gone between the time Thanks-A-Lots came about, there were the Pinata’s and cartwheels which were also very good. But they have come and gone and the Thanks-A-Lots are here to stay.

“So, the Thank-A-Lots are made out of Shortbread?” The woman in her mid 40's asked.

“Yup, they are. And we only have 4 more boxes left until they’re gone,” I replied really tired of having this conversation.

“Well, since you only have four more left, I’ll help you out and buy two, one for me and one for my daughter,” she said as if I really cared, “Here you are, seven dollars, Thank you and your welcome.”

Finally, she’s gone.

“Hello, do you have any shortbread?” Here we go again!