Buying Girl Scout cookies is more than just handing over money for a box. It’s about the skills and learning a girl gains from interacting directly with you. It’s about the experience of running her own cookie business and working with others. It’s the reason we don’t sell cookies online. And it’s why we encourage you to buy your cookies from a Girl Scout – the cookie professional! – and not her parents.

Your purchase means you get tasty cookies and a girl learns a lifetime of skills. The skills a girl develops in the Girl Scout cookie program empower her to do amazing things. She learns that by putting her mind and energies into something, she can overcome any challenge.

There are no limits to what a girl can do. Girl Scouts across our council are achieving important skills and having a great time participating in the cookie experience.

There’s more to Girl Scout cookies than what’s in the box. Selling cookies teaches goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics – aspects essential to leadership, to success, and to life.

GSCI will be using a direct sale format to sell cookies in 2013. Girls will have packages of cookies IN HAND to sell door-to-door to family, friends, and neighbors. Girl Scouts exchange cookies and payment in one easy step! No more taking orders, waiting weeks, and then returning for the delivery and money collection. A direct sale program condenses all that work into one simple step.

Volunteers, parents, and customers have asked us to simplify the cookie program for years. The direct sale will:

• Be less time-consuming for customers, girls, parents, and volunteers
• Reduce order and delivery to one easy step
• Give girls opportunities to sell more cookies and earn more money for troop activities
• Give girls cookies in hand for customers’ immediate gratification and more sales

Meet the Cookies

Thin Mints
Purchasing a box of Thin Mints, our round, mint-flavored cookies covered in delicious        dark chocolate, helps a girl learn money management. She handles money, keeps records, and even tracks orders – activities that are essential to running a successful business.

Carmel deLites
A tasty treat isn’t all that’s involved with a box of our caramel and toasted coconut-covered cookies. Through interaction with each customer and other Girl Scouts, a girl learns the importance of keeping her word, doing the right thing, and being fair. A girl learns the business ethics that will serve her throughout life.

Peanut Butter Patties
A layer of peanut butter covered in rich chocolate? Mouth-watering treats. But did you know that every box a girl sells helps her learn decision making? She makes a plan, solves problems on her own, and thinks creatively – skills she needs to be successful, now and in the future.

Shortbread
When a girl hands you a box of these cookies – each one in the shape of our iconic trefoil – she’s building important people skills. She’s meeting new customers, making eye contact, talking about the cookies, and saying thanks. And that builds her confidence for now and for the future.

Lemonades
With each box of tangy lemon-icing-topped shortbread cookies you buy, you’re helping a girl learn about goal setting. She learns how to organize her cookie sale, build a goal, and work hard—skills that help her accomplish all she’ll set out to do in life.

Thanks-A-Lot
Whether the embossed “Thank You” is in English, French, Chinese, Swahili or Spanish, these tasty shortbread cookie with fudge on the bottom are a hit in any language. And they’re also how girls learn business ethics. Through interaction with each customer and other Girl Scouts, a girl learns the importance of keeping her word, doing the right thing, and being fair. She learns the importance of doing business right.

Mango Crèmes
Each box of crunchy vanilla and coconut cookies – with a mango-flavored crème filling – contain a lesson in people skills for the girl who sells them. She’ll meet new customers, make eye contact, talk about the cookies, and say thanks. And that builds her confidence.

If you have trouble tracking down a Girl Scout this cookie season, you can always use the free Cookie Finder app for your iPhone or Android.