Not a Drill: Girl Scouts of America Adds Online Cookie Sales

In a turn of events much awaited by freelancers, folks who work in offices full of young people, and everyone who’s terrified of talking to small girls, Girl Scout troops now have the option of organizing their semi-annual cookie sales through online shopping.

The Girl Scouts have had an official cookie sales app for some years now, but it only offered the ability to find cookie sales locations in your area, not to directly buy cookies. The GSoA have been thoroughly considering the option of online cookie sales for several years, weighing concerns about physical sales, organization, and, above all, the privacy and safety of its young entrepreneurs, as well as their clients. They’re well aware that the implementation of online sales is a place to educate young scouts on increasingly necessary digital business skills, such as “better articulating and tracking goals, learning to handle customers and money in a new way, and more efficiently processing credit card information.”

Online sales, including the ability for each scout to design and create their own sales site, is intended to supplement rather than replace the familiar paper charts of names and cookie quantities. Troops will opt in individually, choosing either physical or digital sales. The scouts will only be identified by their first name on the sites, and buyer access will require an email invitation from the seller, retaining the need for the girls to build client lists. Scouts will also be able to upload a video explaining what their troop intends to do with the proceeds from cookie sales. And yes, you can have cookies sent right to your home.

The Boston Globe talked to several scouts and scout leaders, and found only positive reaction to the new options:

Troop Leader Karen Porcher of the Bronx has an 11-year-old scout and is particularly psyched about the digital options. They live in a house rather than an apartment, and she and her husband work at home, eliminating at-office cookie and neighborly building sales…

…Added 7-year-old Anna: “My favorite part is that now I can sell more Girl Scout Cookies.”

Anna, my favorite part is that now I can eat more Girl Scout Cookies.

(via The Boston Globe)

Previously in Girl Scouts

• Girl Scout Cookie App Will Hook You Up With All The Cookies You Need This Season
• Coffee-Mate is Making Girl Scout Cookie Flavored Creamers
• Girl Scout Cookie Caper Case Closed, Culprit Cornered

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