Business & Tech

Where Can You Buy Your Next Box of Thin Mints? Girl Scouts Say, 'There's an APP for That'

Girl Scout troops everywhere are bolstering fundraising profits by adopting new, modern sales models and getting rid of the ordering.

As we head into the final weekend of Girl Scout cookie sales, it's worthwhile noting the cutting-edge tools that helped troops in Los Altos and across the country increase their fundraising profits and pay for camping equipment, trips to Disneyland and more.

For the first time, the baking company that manufactures the cookies offered an iPhone and Android APP that lets cookie-seekers search for sales by zip code, share cooking-distribution points and add sale dates to their calendars.  Nationally, there have been 95,000 iTunes and 15,000 Android downloads of the app so far, according to Dana Allen, spokesperson for the Girl Scouts of Northern California.

“It’s made it a lot easier for customers to locate cookies,” said Allen.

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In addition to catering to the tech savvy, the Girl Scouts have moved to cookies "on-demand," a bit like the old days when girls got an allotment of cookies to sell. After years of selling cookies via order forms—which often meant parents brought them into the office to sell to co-workers—the Girl Scouts have just about eliminated pre-orders. Instead, they estimate the amount of cookies they expect to sell, ahead of time.

“In the past, the Girl Scouts had girls take orders in January and then wait several months,” said Allen.

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But now, it's about "instant gratification," she said.

And the results are coming in. Halfway into the cookie selling season, numbers are up. This year, troops are ordering and selling more cookies compared to last year, she said.

But most troop leaders agree that the biggest fundraiser of Girl Scouts is also educational, even down to the youngest Daisies.

“We want our girls to learn financial literacy, goal-setting and people skills,” said Allen.

Girls quickly learn that you cannot stand mute at a table of cookies in front of Andronico's and expect busy shoppers to stop without some encouragement. On a recent evening, 8-year-old Sonia Parikh, a Brownie, walked the Parkhills neighborhood in south Los Altos. She'd managed to sell out almost all of her Tagalongs (peanut butter and chocolate) and Thin Mints (a perennial favorite) in just 20 minutes of walking Austin Avenue, she said.

Only $.78 per $4 box trickles back to the troop, according to Allen. The rest goes into shared resources. There are campgrounds owned by Girl Scouts of Northern California, screening and training of volunteers, online resources and more.

But of the profits the troops make, the girls are given autonomy on how they would like to spend the money.

So pick up your boxes soon at these locations. Cookie sales end Sunday, March 27.

You can download the app at the link above, plug in your ZIP code into the online cookie locator, or check the list below: 

Friday, Mar. 25

Safeway Downtown, 160 1st St, 3 - 7 p.m.; Troop 60321

Saturday, Mar. 26

Safeway Downtown, 160 1st St., 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.; Troop 60321

Starbucks Downtown, 296 Main St
9 a.m. - 12 p.m., Troop 60393

12 - 3 p.m., Troop 60282

Starbucks Rancho, 645 Los Altos Ave

9 a.m. - 12 p.m., Troop 61261

Andronico's, 690 Los Altos Ave

3 - 6 p.m.; Troop 60230

Sunday Mar. 27

Starbucks Downtown, 296 Main St
9 a.m. - 12 p.m., Troop 61428

12 - 6 p.m., Troop 61264

Los Altos Main Library, 13 S San Antonio Rd

12 - 3 p.m., Troop 61031

Andronico's, 690 Los Altos Ave

3 - 6 p.m., Troop 60231

Lucky's, 2175 Grant Rd

3- 6 p.m.; Troop 61259


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