Girl Scout Cookie Season started on January 2nd this year. Cookie season has always been difficult for our family. In the beginning, we had 2 girls in scouts selling at the same time, but as time progressed, the youngest two were old enough to join, so this is our 6th year of having 4 girls selling cookies. That means we depend on a lot of booth sales in order to get our girls to a small goal that is easily hit for most other girls.
Each year we set a goal of about 300 boxes per girl. In 2020, when the pandemic took hold, we only had 1.5 weekends to go when booths (and the entire country), started shutting down. We had done well in sales, and had reached our goals. Last year, a few of the larger booth locations did not let us set up due to the pandemic. The mask mandates were in place, so most customers were abiding by those rules, and despite not having the big ticket booths, we managed to hit our goals.
This year, I am unsure. We don’t know if the big booths will be allowing us to set up this year yet. COVID variants are everywhere, many people are popping positive after the holidays, and mandatory masking is not in effect, so I am unsure how willing I am to expose my troop for cookie sales. All of this, while generally standing outside in the freezing cold, because booths are always in the crappiest weather season Ohio has.
Going back to the cookies though, with a goal of 300 boxes per girl, that is a family total of 1200 boxes, or $6,000 worth of cookies! It’s not uncommon for me to handle over $10K in a cookie season, making weekly deposits to the bank and tracking sales and money with receipts, spreadsheets, and the cookie system. I am essentially a secretary, treasurer, and accountant, all rolled into one.
My dad normally takes an order form to work, and I leave one at work now that I work again, but I work at such a small store, that there aren’t many employees. Luke works from home, so he doesn’t have an office environment to leave an order form at. Thankfully, the pandemic pushed Girl Scouts into really figuring things out with online sales and taking credit cards. Each girl has their own online “store”, and our troop even has one so it can be advertised anywhere and we don’t have to worry about someone accidentally picking girl delivered when they live half way across the continent. Here is our troop link if you wish to order cookies. It should be active until sometime in March. Cookies ordered through here can be distributed amongst all the girls in my troop.
Order Girl Scout Cookies from our troop HERE!
Our girls are saving up for a variety of things. Our two Juniors will be completing a Bronze Award this year, though they haven’t finalized the project yet. Our other girls have the option of working on Silver and Gold Awards. Our main goal is saving to either go to the “home” of Girl Scouts, Savannah Georgia, or to go somewhere to see the Northern Lights. Other activities on the list are painting parties, horseback riding, archery, camping, wood carving, skating, laser tag, dog shelter donations, museum field trips, and a whole lot more. Your purchase helps them achieve all of these things, so thank you!