The Girl Scouts Have 15 Million Boxes of Cookies That Haven't Sold
Girl Scout Cookies are the kind of things we rank up there with dozing off in the afternoon sun, getting an unexpected postcard in the mail from a dear friend, and crickets chirping as you fall asleep in a cozy mountain home. That is to say, they really hit the spot.
Well, it should be fairly simple to get your hands on some cookies, whether you're team Thin Mints or Tagalongs. In this past year amid the coronavirus pandemic sales of the beloved cookies from the nonprofit organization that dates back to 1912 in Savannah, Georgia, have plummeted, with the group citing the pandemic as the main cause for the decrease in purchases. "This is unfortunate, but given this is a girl-driven program and the majority of cookies are sold in-person, it was to be expected," said Kelly Parisi, a spokeswoman for Girl Scouts of the USA, per NPR.
Though the Girl Scouts offered online sales and a delivery partnership with Grubhub, as well as drive-thru sales and the like, that wasn't enough to move the needle as many Girl Scouts troops skipped doing in-person sales in light of the ongoing pandemic. Now, some 15 million boxes of unsold Girl Scouts Cookies are facing an unknown fate with a ticking shelf life of one year. As NPR shared, about 12 million of the excess boxes are being stored with two bakers, Little Brownie Bakers in Louisville, Kentucky and ABC Bakers in Brownsburg, Indiana.
Another factor that may be contributing to the sales drop is dwindling Girl Scouts membership, which was already facing a decline before the pandemic. Some Girls Scouts troops also decided not to sell cookies this past year because the palm oil used to make the cookies has been linked to child labor, news that an AP story broke at the end of last year.
If you'd like to help, visit this donation-only site to support the Girl Scout Movement in the wake of these trying times.
We're all hoping the months ahead brings safer and happier times and as we eagerly anticipate economic and pandemic recovery, we look forward to more boxes of Do-si-dos and Caramel deLites gracing our kitchen countertop.
