Girl Scouts cookie season extended; Outdoor boothing begins
TROOP 3245 went camping in Ojai before the pandemic and members hope to use cookie profits to go camping again at Lake Tahoe, when it is safe.
The only thing sweeter than an extra week of Girl Scouts cookie season is being able to purchase cookies from Girl Scouts themselves. After nearly two seasons of digital cookie sales, the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles (GSGLA) extended cookie season until April 18 to accommodate newly approved outdoor-distanced boothing.
“The resiliency of our girls never ceases to amaze me,” GSGLA CEO Theresa Edy-Kiene wrote in the email announcement to troops. “Through every challenge, they innovate, create, and overcome. This past year has been somewhat of a rollercoaster, and throughout the ups and downs, loops and drops, we cannot thank you enough for sticking with us as we ride this rollercoaster together.”
Although circumstances are subject to change, Girl Scout booths are being planned in April at the Melrose Trading Post and Vons, 1430 Fairfax Ave. The most current information can be found on the GSGLA website or Girl Scout Cookie Finder app.
Other permitted in-person cookie selling methods, in addition to selling at booths, include cookie “lemonade” stands at residences, outdoor drive-through boothing and door-to-door contactless marketing, such as door hangers or fliers.
Girl Scouts also partnered with GrubHub this year, and local troops have been working to fill delivery orders. Alternatively, customers can enter their zip code on the GSGLA website and be routed to a local troop’s Digital Cookie webpage, which is a personalized landing site for buying cookies.
Like all other troops, St. Brendan’s-based Troop 3245 has been perfecting the art of virtual cookie-selling strategies throughout the season.
Dance video
The seventh-grade Girl Scouts put together a commercial to direct potential customers to their troop’s Digital Cookie website. Within two weeks, the budding entrepreneurs worked remotely to create the video, which showcases their dance skills and business savvy.
“It was based off a Tik Tok song that was kind of trending in early quarantine,” Girl Scout Lauren Ide said. “The goal of the video was to make a commercial — you could say a music video — about cookies, but also make it in a way that kids would want to listen.”
The Zoom landscape has allowed the troop to try new activities, like screenwriting, a virtual art show and a dance-off. Cookie season this year, too, has called for different and creative skills.
Booths are missed
Even so, the pandemic has made it so virtual programming cannot by itself recapture the core experiences of being Girl Scouts and selling cookies.
“It’s taken away some of the social skills, like going up to strangers and asking how their day was and if they want to buy the cookies, and then moving on to the next person,” Girl Scout Fiore Chung said. “Also, online, they just pay with credit card, so you can’t learn how to give them back change.”
Girl Scout Lauren Lee said that boothing in previous years was her highlight because she was selling cookies with her troop.
“We got to booth with our friends, so we were definitely more cheerful, and we had more energy to attract people to buy our cookies,” Lee said. “I feel that is the part of selling cookies that I really enjoy, and I think we missed a big part of that during the pandemic.”
Girl Scout Jessica Jang, along with a few other Troop 3245 Scouts, decided not to sell cookies this season while sales were being conducted online. The troop, which usually requires each Scout to sell some number of boxes, made selling optional this year because of the general unknowns of the pandemic.
“I felt like it would be hard to send people emails and have them actually buy cookies right now,” Jang said.
Troop leader Karen Ide said that, if sales stay consistent, the troop will sell about a third of its usual total. However, the troop hopes to finish the season with boothing, if conditions allow for it, and boothing generally increases sales.
With their cookie profits, Troop 3245 wants to head to Lake Tahoe over the summer in order to reconnect and stay for a group camping trip. The troop has been together since kindergarten, and they said they cannot wait to get back together again. With so much uncertainty, though, this cookie season has also taught the troop an exercise in patience and gratitude.
“I feel like, when it gets back to normal, all of us will be a lot more grateful that we’re all together and that we’re selling cookies to people, and I think that we’ll like that,” Lee said.
Category: People