Guess how many cookies are sold each year? (It's a lot.)
It’s a glorious time of year when you spot those tables, draped in Kelly green tablecloths, parked in front of grocery stores. Stacked atop them, cardboard boxes in shades of red, orange, blue, green, purple, and yellow practically scream, “It’s Girl Scout Cookie season!”
But despite being one of America’s most beloved desserts (or breakfasts, no judgment here), there’s likely still plenty you don’t know about them. Like who, exactly, makes Girl Scout cookies? Why do some varieties go by different names? Where do all the leftover cookies go? Which ones are the most popular? We’ve got those answers and more.
Girl Scout cookies started as a humble home baked fundraiser.
In 1917, a Girl Scout troop in Oklahoma sold cookies in their high school cafeteria to raise money for troop activities. Soon, the idea caught on and other troops started raising money in much the same way. In 1922, the American Girl magazine published a recipe for sugar cookies specifically meant for troop sales. It was purposefully kept simple, so the girls could bake them themselves, and the cookies were sold door-to-door for about 30 cents a bag. Talk about a steal!
In the 1930s, Girl Scout troops ditched the home-baked shtick and started selling commercially-baked cookies. By the late 1940s, 29 different bakeries were contracted to meet demand, but by the 1990s, that number had been cut down to two. Today, Brownsburg, Indiana-based ABC Bakers and Louisville, Kentucky’s Little Brownie Bakers are responsible for cranking out a whopping 200 million cookies per year.
They’re the secret behind why certain cookies have different names depending on where you buy them. Samoas, the crisp cookies smothered in caramel, coconut shavings, and stripes of dark chocolate, are made by Little Brownie Bakers. ABC Bakers, on the other hand, produce the same cookie but call them Caramel deLites. It’s the same story for Little Brownie Bakers’ peanut-butter-and-chocolate Tagalongs (ABC Bakers call them Peanut Butter Patties) and the shortbread cookie Trefoils (or as ABC Bakers simply calls them, Shortbread).
Well, they’re mostly the same cookie. “Samoas have more toasted coconut than Caramel deLites, and Tagalongs have more peanut butter than Peanut Butter Patties,” Vox divulged back in 2015.
Each Girl Scout council, which oversees regional troops, decides which baker with which to contract.
1996 was the first year Girl Scout cookies could be ordered via telephone.
Before then, you had to have the hookup with a Girl Scout or hope to chance upon a sales booth set up outside a store. But in 1996, customers in New York City could call a phone number, leave their name, address, and number, and a Girl Scout would get back to them to arrange a delivery. That was back when each box was $3!
The organization collaborated with GrubHub in 2021 to set up contactless delivery and pickup. This year, they’re working with DoorDash to do the same, and local Girl Scouts will be the ones tracking, fulfilling, and managing the orders. You can also use the Cookie Finder to find out what troop is in your area and when and where they’ll have a booth set up.
According to the Girl Scouts of USA, Thin Mints are the organization’s best-selling cookie. Behind those are Caramel deLites/Samoas, Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalongs, Do-si-dos/Peanut Butter Sandwich, and Lemonades/Lemon-Ups.
If you live in New York City and buy cookies from a local Girl Scout troop, for instance, those prices are set by the Girl Scouts of Greater New York who oversee the troops. Prices are based on “needs and knowledge of the local market” and “reflect both the current cost of cookies and the realities of providing Girl Scout programming in an ever-changing economic environment,'' according to the Girl Scouts of the USA website.
Each year, around 200 million cookies are sold, raking in about $800 million. It’s a seriously big business! All net proceeds stay local, going to the council and troop that sold them to fund troop activities and projects.
Girl Scouts only sell cookies made for that particular season, which runs from January to April. Any leftover cookies that don’t get sold are donated to local food pantries or charities.
Leftover cookies were a big issue in 2021, when the coronavirus forced troops to nix their in-person cookie booths for safety reasons. They were left with a glut of 15 million boxes of unsold cookies. According to NPR, most of those boxes—12 million of them—were left with Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Bakers, which said they were “working with the Girl Scouts to sell or donate cookies to places like food banks and the military.”
That’s right. Every cookie sold by Girl Scouts is both certified halal and kosher. There was a dustup in 2009, however, when the kosher symbol, which signifies that the food inside the packaging is kosher, was accidently left off 14 million boxes of Thin Mints. They were in fact still kosher, but ABC Bakers had to send letters and the kosher certification to the Girl Scout councils explaining the mistake. Yikes!
Learn something new today? We highly encourage you to trot out your new Girl Scout cookie knowledge at your next dinner party or friendly get together. And don’t forget to bring the Thin Mints.
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