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"It's a conflict of interest and it's in poor taste, but the girls didn't know who they were asking," the counselor said.

The clients told the branch manager, who called the weight-loss center's corporate office.

Dorothy DiNorcia of Raritan Borough was renting a movie in Blockbuster when she said she heard a clerk there tell his manager, "I have LA Weight Loss on the phone. They are threatening to call the police if we don't get them (the Girl Scouts) to move from in front of our store."

DiNorcia said, "It was ridiculous. Grown men or women can't say no to cookies?"

Christy Boyle, spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of Rolling Hills Council, said Troop 1065 of Bridgewater had permission to sell in front of Blockbuster for the fall cookie sale fundraiser but that after the complaint, the girls moved their table to the Blockbuster entrance farthest from LA Weight Loss.

The next day, Boyle said, the cookie manager of the Girl Scouts of Rolling Hills Council met with someone at LA Weight Loss to discuss the issue.

The two sides agreed to have the girls stagger their selling schedule to be more sensitive to clients attending meetings at LA Weight Loss, Boyle said.

Girl Scouts from another troop will return to Blockbuster on Friday evening to sell more cookies, Boyle said.

Boyle said the girls have been selling cookies in front of Blockbuster for years but never had a problem before Friday evening.

However, rejection can happen, said Marilyn Siegel, CEO for the Girl Scouts of Rolling Hills Council. Girl Scouts can get shooed off the sidewalks in front of other businesses, Siegel said, and Boy Scouts have been booted for selling popcorn.

Some shopping centers have no-solicitation rules, which need to be applied equally, Siegel said. Sometimes, a fellow merchant may not believe in the cause someone else is supporting. Other times, a store may be concerned that cookies, or other such products, may pull away sales, she said.

The booth sales -- sales in a public place such as the shopping center -- supplement the girls' door-to-door sales, Boyle said. There are 684 booth sales scheduled this cookie season around the region.

"It's a safe place for the girls to get out there and show they are Girl Scouts and they are proud of it," Boyle said. "People generally welcome Girl Scouts. You'd hope if people weren't interested in purchasing cookies, they would smile and say 'No thanks.'"

This batch of fall cookie sales raises money for the 10,500 Girl Scouts within the Rolling Hills Council, which includes Middlesex Borough, parts of Somerset and Warren counties and all of Hunterdon County, Boyle said.

Last year, the Rolling Hills Council sold almost 500,000 boxes, bringing in about $350,000 for the troops and $1 million for the council. This year's cookie count has not been calculated.