The Girl Scouts have announced that they have close to 15 million boxes of unsold cookies right now, according to The Associated Press.
The organization said the novel coronavirus may be to blame. Because of the virus, fewer booths were set up to sell the cookies. So there were less opportunities to buy them.
- “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,” Kelly Parisi, a spokeswoman for Girl Scouts of the USA, told The Associated Press.
What does this mean for the Girl Scouts?
- The low sales will impact local troops and councils the most. Per The Associated Press, these groups “depend on the cookie sales to fund programming, travel, camps and other activities.”
Girl Scout cookies stats
- The Girl Scouts normally sell close to 200 million boxes of cookies per year, which is worth about $800 million.
- It’s unclear how many boxes were sold for 2021 so far.
- 12 million of those unused boxes are currently tied up with the Little Brownie Bakers in Kentucky and ABC Baker in Brownsburg, Indiana.
- 3 million of the unused boxes are chilling with Girl Scout councils.
Can you still buy them?
First, let’s get this straight — Girl Scout cookies can live on shelves for 12 months, according to NPR. So there’s still some time to snag them.
- You can still buy boxes online through the Hometown Heroes program, which often sends out cookies to local heroes like health care workers and firefighters, NPR reports.
- There will also be one-day sales organized at different locations, too, according to NPR.
The Girl Scouts have also linked up with Grubhub to offer some contactless delivery options, depending on your area, according to the Girls Scouts’ website.