Amalea Thijssen has been selling Girl Scout Cookies since she was in kindergarten. She started because she wanted to meet her neighbors, but the 13-year-old says her sales didn’t really take off until she went from door-to-door to digital.
Gone are the days when pint-sized entrepreneurs could only trek from house to house or set up cookie booths in parking lots to hawk their Thin Mints and Samoas. Like everything else these days, Girl Scouts can now peddle their wares online with the organization’s Digital Cookie platform. There, they or their parents can set up a site and reach out to friends and family through email and social media.
“I love digital cookie sales. It’s awesome,” says the bubbly Amalea, who three years ago became the highest seller in Mountain View when she sold 1,300 boxes. She’s not close to that yet this year. “If you are a teenager and you are posting pictures on social media anyway, it’s pretty easy to work in some cookies.”
But while many scouts and their parents are thrilled to say sayonara to shoe-leather sales, others argue there’s nothing like the old-fashioned method to teach girls valuable lessons about marketing, sales and winning over customers.
“There’s value in selling Girl Scout Cookies face to face,” says Jane Rabba Nicola, a mother of two from Dublin. “It promotes a sense of community, not to mention getting them to practice the dying art of ‘talking to people.’”
Girl Scouts launched its digital cookie sales platform in 2014, and today, more than 7,300,000 boxes nationally are sold online every year, according to Heather Burlew-Hayden, chief marketing and membership officer for Girl Scouts of Northern California.
“Families are distributed across the U.S., and this allows girls to connect with relatives and friends nationwide,” says Burlew-Hayden, who adds that cookies can be ordered quickly and shipped easily during the sales season, which ends March 3.
The bottom line? Girls like Amalea, who sell both ways, sell 76 percent more cookies than girls who don’t sell online, scouting officials say.
Amalea posts shots of her cookies on Instagram and Snapchat. She produces YouTube videos, such as one in which she is a Rapunzel-style princess trapped in a tower of cookie boxes, to market Amalea’s Cookie World. And she likes the fact that she can still sell online when the weather is bad or she has a lot of homework.
“She’s very committed, and she works very hard,” says her mother, Mendy Thijssen, who estimates about 20 percent of their sales are online. “She also goes door to door. But this is the future. They learn so much about how to run a business by selling cookies, and digital is a big part of that.”
Many scout moms say online sales are more fun and more convenient. Brenda Diaz says the Digital Cookie platform and its app made her life easier when she was in charge of cookies for her daughter Kristen’s troop last year.
“I loved being able to see the orders on my screen,” says Diaz, who lives in Union City. “It’s an awesome way to stay on top of everything and take orders on the go.”
Veronica Vazquez Houck, of Oakley, has been selling Girl Scout Cookies since her 12-year-old Hailey was in kindergarten. Now her 7-year-old Audrina is selling too. She says digital sales have helped reach customers who would rather pay by click. “A lot of people just don’t have cash on them anymore,” she says.
Still, some prefer old-fashioned cookie sales, where scouts have to pitch in person, describing the cookies in detail and explaining why it’s important to support their troop. That’s been the tried and true method of selling since 1917, when the first Girl Scout Cookies were sold.
“If a kid shows up at my door, I don’t care what they’re selling, I will buy it 100 percent of the time,” says Caris Noble, of Pleasanton, who has three children, none of whom are Girl Scouts. “If a mom posts on Facebook or sends a text that their child is raising money for something, I will not buy it.”
“Kids miss out on valuable lessons, including responsibility, accountability, initiative, communication and respecting others,” says Noble. “These are lessons I feel our youth are especially prone to miss out on in this age of smartphones and social media.”
Burlew-Hayden says online sales also teach important lessons in a digital age. “Girls learn valuable and relevant technology, logistics, and sales and marketing skills,” she says, “such as how to brand themselves online, manage their inventory, internet safety skills, and the importance of having a web presence in their business.”
Amalea is quick to embrace all kinds of sales. She pulls a blue wagon full of cookies around the neighborhood after school and works cookie booths with her troop. She makes a point of visiting customers who prefer personal interaction. And she points out that online buyers can request in person delivery when they order.
“I love getting to meet people almost as much as I love getting to eat cookies,” she says. “I love selling cookies. That’s my thing.”