It’s official: Your Girl Scout Cookies may arrive late or even not at all this year. Blame the same continuing food supply chain disruptions that have been causing soaring prices and shortages of many other food products over the past few months…
A whole list of firsts
And why not? There’s nothing magic about GSCs. Except maybe the way taking orders and delivering them continues to help girls of all ages get their first experience with organizing a real-world project. First experience with canvassing, ordering protocols, product distribution, handling money, resolving customer service issues – even a taste of accounting. Most important, for the older kids, a chance to accept some real responsibility and see what it’s like to supervise others.
But this year, the kids and leaders both face some unprecedented issues that will take real creativity, diplomacy and what the adults sometimes refer to as ‘tap dancing’ to smooth over. No fault of the front liners, mind you. But they’ll have to front it. So… What do you say to someone who has ordered Thin Mints every year since they were added to the list, and may have to wait – or face spring without them altogether – for the first time since the first Girl Scout Cookie was sold in 1917.
They were warned…
Last December, the Girl Scouts issued a detailed news release explaining the situation.
“Little Brownie Bakers (LBB) is experiencing national supply chain disruptions. The good news is that this will not impact our cookie orders for in-person sales,” the release said. However, supplies of some flavours, especially in far-flung communities and off-shore GS communities were going to be delayed. Some delivery arrangement were still uncertain and there was concern among front-liners that some cookie varieties might not be available at all for 2023.
In addition, a new digital/mobile ordering and fulfilment system would require significant modifications to accommodate radical shifts in some delivery schedules to offshore CS communities and direct to distant customers.
Extended sales in some places
In some communities, CS central had to allow for extended sales and push back deliveries to make it possible to offer the max number of cookie varieties at max volumes. And that was a last-resort attempt to satisfy customers who couldn’t be accommodated in any other way.
“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this causes to our communities. We know that cookie sales are critical when funding Girl Scout programs, and we at USAGSO and GSUSA are working hard with LBB [Little Brownie Bakers) to ensure a successful season for our girls. As always, we know that these proceeds are necessary to power amazing experiences year-round for Girl Scouts all over the world.”
My take
This is a little off-topic, but I can recall when the organization called the Girl Guides in Canada and the rest of the world made radical changes in its programs to bring them up-to-date for the millennium and beyond. De-emphasized camping and outdoor skills. Traded for computer and data skills, and women’s studies badges.
Bottom line? A lot of moms of my generation who had been Guides themselves when they were girls had real trouble getting their heads around the ‘new’ program.
“This sure ain’t the Girl Guides experience I loved so much when I as in it,” many lamented. A significant number of leaders quit. Next-generation moms elected not to enroll their daughters. But Cookies and the way they are sold actually changed very little (just to maximize safety and security for the kids when canvassing and delivering). And remained an activity that made memories moms and daughters could share across the generations.
Will the 2023 Cookie SNAFU effect America’s Girl Scouts program as deeply as the big program changes of the early 2000s?
Muse on that…
~ Maggie J.