Cookie inflation hits the Girl Scouts
Will $5 Thin Mints sell?
The Girl Scouts' annual cookie-selling season has begun, and in some parts of the country prices are rising to $5 a box. Other regions will see cookie prices increase to $4 a box, while some areas aren't raising prices at all. Local scout councils have the power to set their own cookie prices, The Wall Street Journal reports.
It's a gamble, to be sure, and some scout groups are expecting to sell fewer cookies as a result. But scout leaders say the increase is necessary to deal with rising costs.
In California, the Girl Scouts of Orange County are raising prices to $5 a box after keeping them at $4 a box for about a decade. The council says on its website that the costs of cookies from its baker have risen 14 percent since 2004, and its operating costs have spiked 27 percent.
Inflation has increased nearly 28 percent since 2004, the council says. If cookies had followed the same path, they could cost $5.11 a box. Inflation in Orange County is up 46 percent since then, which would have put the cookies at $5.84 a box.
Will higher prices hurt cookie sales? "Our research shows that many customers don't know what they pay per box now," says the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles, which is also raising prices to $5 a box, on its website. "You'll find that the vast majority of customers are surprised that the price has not changed in 11 years, and people understand that costs go up over time."
The council said it's planning for a possible 10 percent to 15 percent decrease in sales this year, however. But even if that happens, troop proceeds will still increase. "The number of boxes sold would have to decrease by 23 percent in order to have a negative impact on proceeds from a 25 percent price increase," the council added.
A few people were grumbling about the price increases on Twitter Sunday. "Girl Scout cookies $5 a box now? No thank you," one user wrote on the site. "If the economy is so good why are Girl Scout cookies now $5?" asked another.
But the vast majority of Twitter users were enthusiastic about buying the cookies. "If you think I'm gonna pay $5 for a box of Girl Scout cookies you are absolutely right, I'll take all of them," wrote another user.
Cookies cost less in other parts of the country. They're $4 a box in Arizona and Maryland. In Kansas, they're now $4 instead of $3.50. They're still $3.50 in Nebraska and Kentucky.
The Girl Scouts are also experimenting with new ways of selling, starting with online orders through the group's Digital Cookie app. But only scouts can have that app, so customers can't go online and order cookies on their own.
Some groups are also trying more of a direct-sales approach in which the Girl Scouts sell the boxes immediately instead of taking orders and delivering the cookies weeks later, The Journal reports. The strategy is somewhat risky because scout groups must pre-order what they think they will sell, and can be left with piles of boxes if they guess wrong.