Millions of Girl Scouts cookies still unsold

The Girl Scouts have an unusual problem this year — 15 million boxes of unsold cookies.

The 109-year-old organization says the novel coronavirus — not thinner demand for Thin Mints — is the main culprit. As the pandemic wore into the spring selling season, many troops nixed their traditional cookie booths for safety reasons.

“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, Girl Scouts of the USA spokeswoman.

The impact will be felt by local councils and troops, who depend on the cookie sales to fund programming, travel, camps and other activities.

The Girl Scouts normally sell around 200 million boxes of cookies a year, or approximately $800 million worth.

Rebecca Latham, CEO of Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails, said her council, for example, had some 22,000 boxes left over at the end of the selling season in late spring, even though scouts tried innovative selling methods such as drive-through booths and contact-free delivery.

Latham said troops in her area sold 805,000 boxes of cookies in 2020. This year, they sold just fewer than 600,000. That shortfall means the council may not be able to invest in infrastructure improvements at its camps or fill some staff positions, she said.

The council now is encouraging people to buy boxes online through its Hometown Heroes program, which distributes cookies to health care workers, firefighters and others. It also organized one-day sales with organizations such as the New Mexico United soccer team, to whittle the total down further.

Parisi said Girl Scouts of the USA did forecast lower sales this year due to the pandemic.

But COVID-19 restrictions were constantly shifting, and the cookie orders placed by its 111 local councils with bakers last fall still were too optimistic.

By early spring, when troops usually set up booths to sell cookies in person, U.S. coronavirus cases were near their peak.

Most of the unsold boxes — around 12 million — remain with the two bakers, Louisville, Ky.-based Little Brownie Bakers and Brownsburg, Ind.-based ABC Bakers.

The cookies have a 12-month shelf life.

The organization hasn’t revealed sales figures.

This isn’t the biggest blow the cookie program has ever faced. That likely came during World War II, when the Girl Scouts were forced to shift from selling cookies to calendars because of wartime shortages of sugar, butter and flour.