The Impact of Girl Scout Cookies

By Emma & Eve
Published February 21, 2025

Girl Scouts was founded on March 12, 1912 and have been selling cookies ever since 1917. Girl Scouts was founded by Juliette Gordon Low. Girl Scouts started as one small group of 18 girls, and are now hundreds of Girl Scout troops world wide.  The first Girl Scout cookie was a simple Oreo-like cookie, and now  they come in nine different flavors. But cookie selling isn't just for the fun of it, it also teaches girl scouts a lot of valuable skills like money management, people skills, goal setting, and decision making.

One thing that Girls Scouts learn  when they are cookie selling is how to manage money. Most Girl Scouts sell about  330 boxes of cookies. If they use all of the different types of payment, (cash, card, etc)  and they can't keep track of it all, they can lose a lot of money for their troop. Younger girl scouts will learn how to make change with  cash, which will help teach them math with decimals. Older girls might be able to work the credit card reader. Girl Scouts learn lots of skills revolving around money management. 

Another thing that Girl Scouts learn from selling cookies is people skills. Some girls, even among our troop, are shy so they have to learn to speak up when cookie selling. When you sell Girl Scout cookies, you have to project, be friendly, and get the possible customers' attention. When you first start doing this, it can feel really embarrassing, especially when people ignore you or respond with, “I already bought some,” or “I’ll get some on the way out” and they leave without buying anything. This first part might be hard for some girls but once you get the hang of it, this will help you in the future. You will know how to talk to people in business situations, when friends are around, and just in general. 

Girl Scouts also learn  how to set their goals. There are prizes that Girl Scouts can win if they sell enough cookies. When you first start talking about cookie selling with your troop you have to pick your prizes that you want to get, then you will see how many boxes are required in order to get that prize. The more you sell, the better the prizes. You might want to pick a different prize depending on how many you are willing to sell. This means that you are setting reasonable goals for yourselves, depending on how much effort and time you put into the cookie season.

To have a successful Girl Scout cookie season, you need to be able to make decisions.  You will have to ask questions like, “Where should I do a cookie booth? Should I advertise at school? How much should I  re-order for this particular cookie?” You will need to take every decision into consideration. When we sell Girl Scout cookies, we have to do cookie booths, but you need to know the right location, and if you don’t know the right location that's a pretty big decision to make. Make the right choice, and sell 150 boxes of cookies, make the wrong choice and sell 25.

Altogether, Girl Scouts selling in the United States sell about 3,787,000 cookies. This helps almost 11,500 Girl Scouts learn several skills including decision making, setting goals, people skills, and money management. These skills will help the girls in the future by providing them with the skills they need for any type of situation. They will use these skills to help them in their work, their house, and just in their lives in general.