Inflation and Other Woes Are Eating Your Girl Scout Cookies

The bakery that supplies cookies to 75 out of the 111 geographic areas, or councils, where Girl Scouts sell, is experiencing production delays, the Girl Scouts of the USA says. “We anticipate some councils will be largely unaffected, while other councils and girls may not reach their cookie goals,” the organization said of Little Brownie Bakers, which is based in Louisville, Ky. Little Brownie Bakers didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Cookie shortages are undermining fundraising efforts for regional councils that rely on sales of the treats for roughly 70% of their operating revenue, or about $800 million annually. Each Girl Scout troop decides how to spend its cookie earnings, with the money typically going to Scout activities, charitable projects and financial aid.

Girl Scouts of the USA is focused on ensuring the existing supply of cookies is evenly distributed among troops, says communications chief Kelly Parisi. She says the national arm of the organization can’t fill holes in troops’ budgets.

Like lots of in-person businesses that went digital in the pandemic, the Girl Scouts took to more cookie selling online when Covid kept them from going door-to-door. Sales remained relatively steady at just under 200 million boxes, the Girl Scouts organization says.

Ten-year-old Bailey Laycook set a goal of selling 1,000 boxes this year and has sold 420. She has had to hold off on soliciting sales in person while she waits on more inventory. Cookie season in Los Angeles, where Bailey lives, runs for only another month. (Cookie season is recognized nationally from January through April, but local timing varies.)

“I’m worried people who have a goal over 700 won’t make it to their goal because of this shortage,” the fifth-grader says. “If the cookies run out, the customers will be waiting.”

Some councils are extending the selling season while waiting on more inventory. For cookie-lovers who ask why they can’t order their favorites, Bailey is ready with an explanation: “Sorry, we’ve sold too many that we can’t supply any more. Being the popularest cookies means that they run out way too quickly,” she says.

Bailey’s mother, Ellie Laycook, oversees cookie sales for Bailey’s troop. She says many local distribution centers, also known as “cookie cupboards,” have been struggling to keep up with demand. She recently drove 40 minutes to the one cupboard in the area that had the seven flavors she needed in stock. She snagged some of the last boxes of peanut butter Tagalongs and Samoas.

“There’s been a chain of troop leaders saying, ‘I heard from this other troop leader that you have cookies. Do you have cookies you can spare?’ ” the 36-year-old religious-school director says. So far, her troop has helped five other groups who didn’t have enough to fulfill their orders. “It’s part of the Girl Scout Law,” she says.

Bailey had been trying to push the less-popular cookies she still has in stock such as shortbread Trefoils and Do-si-dos on wary customers. Her strategies: making drawings of the cookies on the sidewalk with an arrow pointing to her stand and having her 6-year-old brother hold a sign that reads “Cookie Crossing.”

“We encourage everyone to try different flavors if their first choice isn’t available, and we appreciate their support of girls’ entrepreneurship,” Girl Scouts of the USA says.

The newest Girl Scout cookie, a brownie-inspired dessert called an Adventureful, has been particularly hard to find. Many troops, including Bailey’s, sold out of all their Adventurefuls in a couple of days. The Girl Scouts organization says new cookies typically sell out quickly due to increased excitement and the difficulty of anticipating demand.

Girl Scouts often earn financial literacy badges during cookie season to sew onto their uniforms, just like they might for good sportsmanship or first-aid skills. One badge, called Cookie CEO, teaches Brownies how to run their own businesses. Another, Cookie Market Researcher, prompts Cadette-level scouts to “investigate what sets your product apart.” A Budgeting badge sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis asks kids to “Define and give examples of opportunity cost.”

East Rochester, N.Y., troop leader Samantha Cipolla has given her group of 10- and 11-year-olds lessons on inflation to explain why cookies have gotten more expensive.

“It’s insane to watch adults interrogate children about pricing,” the 30-year-old home health aide says of potential buyers hectoring little girls. “We just told them there’s a large demand for cookies and there’s only so many you can sell in a period of time. So when you need more of something, there actually has to be some.”

Her daughter, Lily Cipolla, hasn’t necessarily enjoyed the econ lesson. “It’s boring,” the fifth-grader says.

Cricket Winters, a first-grader in Tallahassee, Fla., says her dad has been teaching her why grocery store shelves are emptier than usual and why she could struggle to meet her goal of selling 600 boxes. “Workers are getting sick and they have to go home and there’s less supply,” she says.

Cricket has been running a stand outside a church on campus since Saturday, when cookie season started. “We have to sell them early so that we have enough,” she says. She accepts cash or Venmo.

Write to Rachel Wolfe at [email protected]