By Zoë B.
“Got any cookies?” Those are usually the first words I hear when someone finds out for the first time that I am a Girl Scout. Girl Scouts and cookies go together like PB and J or chocolate and bacon (okay maybe not that second one). We girls know that there is more to the cookie process than exchanging $3.50 for a box, but do you know the whole backstory? I am going to give you the low-down, starting from the very beginning.
Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) was founded in 1912, and it only took five years for the first group of enterprising girls to bake and sell cookies. The first Girl Scout cookie was a simple sugar cookie; we know it today as shortbread, or Trefoils. Instructions distributed in 1922 estimate the cost for making six-to seven-dozen to be 26 to 36 cents. The suggested price for a dozen cookies? 25 to 35 cents.
The words “Girl Scout cookies” were first put on a box by the Girl Scout Federation of Greater New York in 1935. The Girl Scout cookie business continued to grow at a fast rate, but was put on hold during World War II, due to rationing. Many girls sold calendars to raise money instead. By 1948 the cookie business had fully resumed and a total of 29 bakers were licensed to bake Girl Scout cookies. As time went on the number of bakers was streamlined to ensure lower prices, better quality, and easier distribution. Also, the varieties of cookies offered expanded. In 1982, four bakers produced up to seven types of cookies with three mandatory: the original Trefoils, Thin Mints, and Do-si-dos.
Cookies today have expanded to ice creams, candy bars, even lip balms. The most popular cookie is Thin Mints, which account for 25% of the cookies sold. In order of descending popularity is Samoas: 19%, Tagalongs: 13%, Do-si-dos: 11%, Trefoils: 9%, and the remaining cookies (Thank U Berry Munch, Savannah Smiles and Dulce de Leche): 23%.
Other than money, what do girls get from the cookie-selling experience? GSUSA names five skills that we earn through selling Girl Scout cookies. The first is goal setting. Selling cookies teaches us how to set a goal, work towards it, and achieve it. This work ethic can translate into life when we set important goals like wanting to make the cheerleading squad or wanting to graduate from high school, or college.
The second skill is decision making. We will have to make decisions later in life, and it will not always be easy. In cookies we have to decide what we want to do with the money we have earned. Do we use it to buy toys for the children at a local foster home or do we want to go on a trip to Savannah, the birthplace of Girl Scouts?
Another skill that we learn from selling cookies is money management. We learn that we have to keep track of all the money that we make when selling cookies, even donations, so that our sales will balance out. We are going to need to know how to manage our money so that we do not spend more than we have or spend money on the wrong things. The fourth skill is people skills. We have noticed that people seem to buy more cookies when we smile and demonstrate our good manners. We learn to talk to people we have never met before at booth sales and be confident, a trait that will serve us well in life.
The last skill we learn is business ethics. We know how important it is to keep our word. If we do not show up at a booth sale when we said we would, our troop members suffer. We learn that in order to be successful, we also have to be responsible.
When you are selling Girl Scout cookies, think about everything that is behind the scenes. Remember that not only are you having fun with your friends and making money, you are building important life skills as well.
