Girl Guide Cookies and Canadians

Toronto, ONTARIO - According to a new poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of the Girl Guides of Canada, two-thirds (67%) of Canadians report having eaten a chocolate or vanilla Girl Guide sandwich cookie at some time.

Of this group, half (48%) report that their favourite way to eat these cookies is "a bite or nibble at a time", one-fifth (22%) say they prefer to "twist the cookie apart and eat the inside cream filling" first, 17% like to "eat the whole cookie at once", while 12% say they prefer to "dip or melt the cookie in a beverage".

As for what drink they like to have with their chocolate or vanilla Girl Guide cookie, a majority (52%) say they prefer milk. This includes almost half (47%) who choose to have their cookies with cold white milk, 4% who prefer chocolate milk and 1% who prefer warm milk. Coffee (19%) and tea (19%) are the choice of one-fifth, while 4% opt for hot chocolate. Four percent say they do not like to eat their Girl Guide cookies with a beverage.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted on behalf of the Girl Guides of Canada between November 26th and November 28th, 2002. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,013 adult Canadian. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.

Two-thirds (67%) of Canadians report having eaten a chocolate or vanilla Girl Guide sandwich cookie at some point.

• Reported consumption of a chocolate or vanilla Girl Guide sandwich cookie is highest in Alberta (88%), British Columbia (87%), Ontario (83%) and Atlantic Canada (82%), followed by Saskatchewan/Manitoba (69%). Consumption of this type of Girl Guide cookie is lowest in Quebec (19%).
• Women (71%) are more likely to say they have eaten this type of cookie than are men (63%).
• Residents from upper income households (79%) are more likely than those in middle (61%) or lower (60%) income households to say they have eaten this type of Girl Guide cookie.

Of this 67% of Canadians who have eaten a chocolate or vanilla Girl Guide cookie, half (48%) report that their favourite way to eat these cookies is "a bite or nibble at a time", one-fifth (22%) say they prefer to "twist the cookie apart and eat the inside cream filling" first, 17% like to eat the "whole cookie at once", while 12% say they prefer to "dip or melt the cookie in a beverage".

• Women are more likely to say they prefer to eat their Girl Guide cookies a bite or a nibble at a time (52% versus 42% of men) or to twist the cookie apart and eat the inside cream (25% versus 18% of men). However, men (26%) are more likely to say they eat the whole cookie at once than are women (9%).
• Those aged 55 and older (59%) are more likely than either their middle aged (48%) or younger (35%) counterparts to say they eat their Girl Guide cookies a bite or nibble at a time. Meanwhile those aged 18 to 34 (29%) and 35 to 54 (24%) are more likely than those 55 or older (14%) to prefer to eat their Girl Guide cookies by twisting it apart and eating the inside cream filling.

As for what drink they like to have with their chocolate or vanilla Girl Guide cookie, a majority (52%) say they prefer milk. This includes almost half (47%) who like their cookies with cold white milk, 4% who prefer chocolate milk and 1% who prefer warm milk. Coffee (19%) and tea (19%) are the choice of one-fifth, while 4% opt for hot chocolate. Four percent say they do not like to eat their Girl Guide cookies with a beverage.

• Men (58%) are more likely than women (47%) to say their favourite beverage to have with their Girl Guide cookies is milk. Women (26%) are more likely than men (11%) to say they prefer to have tea with their cookies.
• Those aged between 18 and 34 (68%) and between 35 and 54 (54%) are more likely than those 55 or older (35%) to say they prefer milk with their Girl Guide cookies, while coffee is preferred by a higher proportion of those 55 years of age and older (30%) and those 35 to 54 (20%) and by those 18 to 34 (6%). This older (25%) group is also more likely to opt for tea with their cookies than are those 18 to 34 (16%).

To view the factum and detailed tables, please open the attached PDF files.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900