It’s been a tumultuous couple of years for the annual US Girl Scout Cookie fundraising drive. New sales channels have been piloted. ‘Resellers’ have cashed in. New flavours have come and gone. And now, some ‘classics’ are being retired.
Folks who look forward to Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) Cookie Season have expressed frustration over the past couple of years, as the organization has shuffled the deck. And dealt fans a few losing hands…
Raspberry Rally ‘back in the vault’
Remember the controversial Raspberry Rally chocolate-dipped fruity centred delight that sent GS cookie lovers around the bend? The craziness arose because they were only available doe order online. It was a cautious pilot program by the Scouts to see if they could streamline ordering.
But the pilot flopped – in its initial form, after Raspberry Rally sold out in record time – like Taylor Swift tickets – and showed up almost instantly online at Amazon and eBay at prices many times higher then the official one. Some boxes can still be had from resellers – at prices of (US)$200 or more, researchers say.
Girl Scouts headquarters scolded the resellers, branding them profiteering opportunists, and ac-cusing them of using the kids and the organization as a whole to gouge an obscene profit from consumers.
Other issues…
In addition, many Scout troop leaders said the Raspberry Rally experiment failed for them because their members were too young to effectively carry out the required doorstep process for enrolling customers in the online system.
So… Like a Disney classic film that’s had yet another great limited-time run in theatres and stream-ing services, the Raspberry Rally ‘went back into the vault’ for an undetermined hiatus. And that drove fans even crazier.
“While Raspberry Rally was extremely popular last year, we are taking a pause this season to prior-itize supplying our classic varieties,” the Girl Scouts said in a pre-2024 cookie season statement to CNN.
‘Retiring’ two classics
Now, the Girl Scout Cookie brain trust Has announced it’s ‘retiring’ two classic flavours for 2025: S’Mores and Toast-Yay!
Why they would pull a perennial best-seller such as S’Mores and a cult classic like French-Toast-inspired Toasty-Yay’s is beyond me. But a spokesper-son did offer an explanation of sorts:
“We routinely reevaluate our cookie lineup to make room for new innovations,” a GSUSA spokesper-son shared with Food & Wine. “Discontinuing Toast-Yay! and Girl Scout S’mores may lead to something new and delicious. ”
All that said…
The annual Cookie Sale remains the main pubic fundraising program run by the Girl Scouts, and is by far the organization’s main source of funding.
And from what Scouts spokespeople have been saying, no one at headquarters is worrying too much about this years’ controversial Cooke Drive changes.
“Girl Scout Cookie season is about so much more than selling the iconic cookies people know and love,” GSUSA’s chief revenue officer Wendy Lou said. “The funds girls earn throughout the season directly power [their] journeys in leadership, entrepreneurship, and community building. The sweet success of each sale is a testament to how much girls can change the world when they put their minds to it.”
My take
All that stuff about ‘sweet sentiments’ aside… I have a bone to pick with the Girl Scouts, in general. I remember when – many moons ago – Girl Scouts was about health and fitness, adventure, and the Great Outdoors. Summer camp was an event the girls looked forward to eagerly year-round.
But that entire dimension of the program has apparently withered and died as parents have become more protective. And the organization has become hyper-aware of its potential legal liability for the members’ and leaders’ safety.
I suppose that was inevitable, given the direction the world has been going since the millennium. But it troubles me that the organization’s new priorities appear to be preparing the kids more for adult-hood and careers in a cutthroat corporate and politicised world. Rather than helping them become well-rounded, socially-responsible human beings – like it used to.
One thing that hasn’t changed under the Girl Scouts’ ‘tent’ since 1917 – when Cookie sales began – is, you can’t have programs of any kind without the cookies. And I DO believe that any program tailored to contemporary ‘needs’ is better than none at all. Even if I don’t entirely agree with contemporary priorities…
So be generous, one and all, when the Girls Scouts in your neighbourhood come calling, from now through June!
~ Maggie J.