[Recording of cookie sales interaction]
Standing at a stand set up on the side of the street, with cars rushing by and people walking from one place to the next, the Girl Scouts sell their cookies. It’s the weekend, and for most working people that means rest. For Girl Scouts however, these are some of the busiest cookie-selling days of the week.
Ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade, Girl Scouts sell these cookies every winter. The Girl Scout cookie-selling season starts in early January and ends at the end of March.
Emilia Anitescu, a U-High sophomore, has been a Girl Scout for around seven years.
Through the Girl Scout program, she has learned business, organization and marketing skills.
Emilia: “Well I think the best one’s how to make sure business follows through, I guess because I have been selling a lot of cookies and I do know a lot of business strategies for that, but also like life skills, like we learned how to change a tire and check oil and stuff.”
Selling Girl Scout cookies is a major part of the Girl Scout program that the whole world looks forward to. Specifically through this event, Emilia has also expanded her business skills.
Emilia: “Through cookie selling, marketing and how to use a network.”
While Girl Scout cookie selling was traditionally a door-to-door service, the sales are almost all online now. Emilia thinks that this change might have had something to do with COVID-19.
[Recording of Girl Scouts selling cookies]
Emilia: “I think digital cookies was more with COVID and stuff because it was easier to do it but, like, in olden times, I guess it still happens but you like get a form then you put their money in, like, an envelope and then you go home, but we’ve modernized.”
Emilia said this digitalization has made access and purchase more easy, therefore producing an increase in sales.
Emilia: “I basically like have a website where you buy cookies. I send the link to a lot of people and I tell them why they should get them. I told them how it’s a good investment to my troop, and it’s a good investment to young women everywhere.”
While Emilia has been selling cookies for a long time, younger generations also sell cookies.
Emilia: “So when you’re five, you can start selling cookies. And it’s probably easier because people say, ‘Oh, I look like a cute little kid and then they automatically buy from them.’”
Eloisa, a Girl Scout from Troop 226152, is only 9 years old. She stands outside of a grocery store every weekend, selling cookies and engaging in the business world.
[Recording of cookie sale.]
She knows that she has learned many skills from selling these Girl Scout cookies.
Eloisa: “To be polite and to always smile and be nice.”
She enjoys selling cookies and learning more about business. Her favorite parts are:
Eloisa: “That we are helping the Love Fridge and donating and we get to have fun.”
Throughout generations, young women have been set up for success through this girl scout season, specifically by selling these classic cookies.
[Recording of cookie sale.]
This is Naomi Benton for the U-High Midway.
