Attention cookie fans: Girl Scouts rally as pandemic eases

Like many annual traditions, buying boxes of those familiar cookies from a bright-eyed Girl Scout draped in a badge-dotted sash was interrupted by the pandemic.

The Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho were affected with their cookie sale set to start just days after the first COVID-19 lockdowns went into place in 2020.

After a year of extremely low sales and a drop in membership, Brian Newberry, chief executive officer for the regional council, was worried about 2021 sales.

But to his amazement, 2021 brought a cookie boom.

“Last year was a very, very unique year,” Newberry said.

People were breaking out of their quarantine cocoon and they wanted to celebrate with cookies, he said.

“They didn’t just buy one box,” Newberry said. “They bought cases.”

The council was ranked No. 2 in the country for cookie sales adjusted for council size, he said.

This year with membership up, local troops are looking to beat last year’s sales, one box of cookies at a time.

‘The largest girl-led business in the world’

The Girl Scout program was founded in 1912 when Juliette Gordon Low brought a group of girls in Savannah, Georgia together to explore the world around them at a time when many girls weren’t expected to have lives outside the home.

The girls played basketball, hiked, swam and camped, fostering a sense of adventure and a belief that they could do anything, according tot the Girl Scouts’ website.

The program has boomed in the last century, with more than 100 regional councils across the country. Each regional council oversees hundreds of troops and thousands of scouts.

The Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho council that covers over 65,000 square miles, has 260 troops with about 80 of those troops located in Spokane County.

The cookie fundraiser started in 1936 and quickly became a program staple.

Through selling cookies, girls learn entrepreneurial skills starting as young as 5.

Caitlin May, chief of product for the regional council, said training scouts at their annual “cookie rallies” is the best part of her job.

“They have the opportunity to learn things like failing and trying again, setting their goals higher year after year,” May said.

Little girls start by simply saying, “Hello” and “Thank you” to customers at supermarket booths.

“When they’re young, we take it one step at a time and encourage them to do what they’re comfortable with,” May said.

As they gain confidence they begin selling cookies themselves and eventually move on to things like pitching an entire office, May said.

Betty Perrey, 18, started selling cookies in the third grade.

She was very shy, said Renee Smock, chief operating officer of the local council. But that first year she “gained the confidence” to greet and thank customers.

As that confidence started to build year after year, so did Perrey’s cookie sales.

“She became a really high achiever and came to really love to going to cookie booths and talking to customers,” Smock, her troop leader, said.

Now a senior at Lewis and Clark High School, Perrey says the program has set her up for her future.

She has learned business skills, how to talk to people, pitch her ideas, and work well with others, Perrey said.

Beyond those skills, it’s just fun, she added.

“I really like hanging out with my friends and selling girl scout cookies, building on teamwork,” Perrey said. “And we do robotics each year and that’s a lot of fun.”

For each box of cookies Perrey sells, 50 cents goes to a scholarship she can use next year when she heads to college.

Perrey plans to attend Eastern Washington University to study business and photography, she said.

It’s “the largest girl-led business in the world,” Smock said.

The program focuses on five leadership and business skills: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics.

Individual girls and their troops set cookie-selling goals, then based on their sales, they’re able to decide what to do with some of the money they raise. For each box sold, 76% of the money stays with the local council.

“They learn to find their voice,” Smock said. “Girls determine how and what they do in the girl scout program.”

They plan trips, what they do at summer camp, or what kind of STEM projects they want to complete, she said.

Break it down by the cookies

The Inland Northwest council is on the rebound, Newberry said.

In 2020, they had about 2,500 scouts set to sell cookies, he said.

Then the pandemic caused them to delay the sale and girls ended up selling into the summer, with melty cookies still available on July 4.

With 70% of the council’s revenue coming from cookie sales, it was a brutal year, Newberry said.

Then in 2021 demand skyrocketed. However membership fell with about 1,600 cookie sellers. Nationwide each scout sells about 250 boxes on average but last year girls locally sold an average of 471 boxes each, Newberry said.

Despite less sellers than normal, the council sold more than 843,00 boxes last year and had just a few dozen boxes left over at the end of the fundraiser.

The massive jump in sales was an anomaly compared to other parts of the country, nationwide 15 million boxes of cookies went unsold in 2021.

This year membership locally is up about 25% from 2021, Newberry said. The council is seventh in the nation for membership growth and fourth for retention.

The final cookie order was placed Friday and scouts have already started taking pre-orders, Newberry said.

Booth sales start March 25 and will continue through April 17. Cookies can also be purchased online and booth locations are available by ZIP code on the website as well.

As usual, Newberry expects the classic thin mints, samoas and tagalongs to be the top sellers but a new cookie, adventurefuls, is arriving on the scene.

It’s a brownie-inspired cookie with a caramel-flavored creme and hint of sea salt, that Newberry says should be a hit with the chocolate loving Inland Northwest crowd.

After two years of trials and tribulations, Newberry hopes this year is a success not only for his troops but a chance for the community to come together.

“The stage is set for an epic sale,” Newberry said. “It has been a journey. The pandemic has been hard.”