Every year between January and April the troops mobilize on American soil.

They march door to door wearing green and brown vests.

They set up booths at schools, small businesses,

supermarket parking lots, and they arm themselves

with sales pitches that even the coldest hearts among us cannot deny.

My name's Eilah and I'm seven years old.

Eilah spoke with our producer Sarah Lily.

There would be like Somosa. I left spoke with our producer Sarah Lily.

There would be like Somoza.

It looked like a tiny donut and they have chocolates covered over it and they have coconut on top. My second favorite is thin mints. How would you sell me a

cookie? I would say like, do you want this one or this one and then you would choose?

For the Freakonomics Radio Network,

this is the Economics of everyday things.

I'm Zachary Crockett.

Today, Girl Scout Cookies.

The salespeople may be small, but Girl Scout cookies are a big business.

Every year, the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, that's their official name,

collectively sell around 200 million boxes of cookies.

That works out to one box for every adult in the country.

And it all happens within a sales season that lasts just a couple months.

The Girl Scouts have ordained two corporate bakeries to make all those cookies.

A, B, C, Bakers, part of the conglomerate that owns Wonder Bread,

...